Intercooler setup.

[Caithness]

I'm looking to upgrade my intercooler setup this summer.

I'm running a BCNR33 spec RB26DETT in my R32 GT-R.

Stock intercooler for that model as well in the car.

I'm looking for something that can hold upwards of about 500HP.

I'm nowhere near that goal yet, but someday...someday.

What would you recommend? I've checked out your site and I've seen a few of the XS Intercoolers available...no piping included though is that correct?

Do you have Intercooler and piping packages available?

Thanks for the info.

Sincerely,

Caithness

[donk_316]

hey dude, FYI the stock intercooler is good to 500hp. You need to be hittin 600 and up to warrant an intercooler upgrade.

[Caithness]

I've never heard this...I've heard it's upward worthy of taking some beating, but I've heard it is fairly restrictive as well.

[donk_316]

nope! its a good piece.

[Caithness]

Well thanks Donk...I'm still iffy about those numbers on a stock intercooler setup...but I'll look into it later.

Appreciated.

[XSDAILO]

hey dude, FYI the stock intercooler is good to 500hp. You need to be hittin 600 and up to warrant an intercooler upgrade.

Sure, the stock intercooler COULD be used to 500hp, but if you installed a better unit, that same car also could be making 550hp.

The stock intercooler has a large surface area, but:
1. It is not very thick
2. It does not have enough internal fin pitch density (fins per inch)
3. It is constructed of inferior aluminum (to keep manufacturing costs down)
4. It is designed cheap for mass production (crimped ends)

All of these factors make it a good intercooler FOR A FACTORY UNIT, but not a good intercooler from the high performance and racing standpoint. If it were so great, why would Nismo make and sell intercoolers? You got it, because the stock unit isn't very good for much over stock horsepower.

On GT-Rs we always install one of our GTR intercoolers as one of the first steps. It's relatively cheap horsepower. On the dyno, a good front mount will allow the tuner to run an additional 1-2 degrees of ignition timing and this equals 15-20whp even on stock turbos.

Piping kits also make horsepower on the GTR. I haven't measured turbine shaft speeds or exhaust backpressure on the RB26 with stock turbos, but for example on the EVOs, our hard pipe kits make horsepower because the exhaust back pressure actually drops. This is generally a function of a slower turbine shaft speed that is a result of hard pipes being in place of the factory flexible hoses that expand under boost. When these factory hoses expand, the turbo compressor has to fill that additional volume of air to maintain XXpsi of boost in the intake manifold. To maintain that boost, the turbine shaft speed skyrockets and the turbine wheel's efficiency goes to $hit. The same should apply to the GTR. Especially with the GT-R's much compromised factory intercooler pipe routing.

We have fabricated full out intercooler pipe systems on high powered GTRs and have gained as much as 90whp just from properly sized and properly designed tubing (less bends, dual inlet intercoolers, etc.on engines with 2530's, GT-RS, or larger). Unfortunately these are custom jobs and the fabricated tube systems cost an arm and a leg. Since the GTR is a low production vehicle in North America it doesn't make sense for us to manufacture a system either. Sorry about that.

Some gains can be had by using the HKS kit probably. Just make sure your engine mounts are healthy so you don't keep popping the hoses off.

Hope this helps. Sorry for the late reply, I've been super busy.