Are used intercoolers a good idea? Will a junkyard intercooler suffice for a supercharged application under 10 psi? If so, what are some good donor cars/trucks to look for?

 

some huge diesel intercoolers suffer close to 30 psi in stock applications (way more than 20 atleast)

 

3 dsm i/c put to geather should work good

 

Can putting an intercooler on hurt performance, and how do I know if an intercooler is big enough for my application

 

If you can weld aluminum or know someone who can, it's probably not worth it. DSMs make ~200 hp stock @ ~8-12 psi (don't know). So 2 of them should be decent for 400-500 hp. 3 for 600 hp ect. Maybe stock supra or GN intercoolers. Just think there's probably a reason why those guys swap to aftermarket ICs and make more power. Check E-bay for cheap aftermarket ICs.

 

Lots of guys using Ford Power Stroke Intercoolers on their GNs and going deep into the 10's with it and they are fairly cheep. I think you can get them for under $200.00. Getting into the 3rd gen I am not sure how hard it is. There are two types of Power Stroke IC's, you don't want the one with the plastic end tanks. If you are interested and see the Pics go to Turbobuick.com and do a search, it will lead you to member’s sites with all the descriptions.

Good luck
Prasad

 

Back from the land of old posts.

I've been looking at a LOT of intercoolers on ebay. I've seen ford thunderbird intercoolers go for $32, a volvo one go for $26..

Anyone compile a list of OEM intercoolers and how well they work, flow?

-- Joe

 

When I did my junkyard IC search for a different car I scored off a Volvo 740 turbo. The Volvo IC was a perfect match for the single Garrett T3 turbo I was running (flowing like 230 cfm or something?), and would work in a front mount design. If you're running more than 1 turbo (aka twin) or a turbo bigger than any OEM setup, then you might have to use multiple junkyard IC's. Any older OEM turbo car that came with a IC would be a good donor. Ford Turbocoupes, Mustang SVO, Volvo 740 turbo, older Audi's. Even stock IC's from newer turbo cars could be used (Neon SRT-4, Evo 8, WRX STi), but these would more likely be in the sunday paper listings than the junkyard ...

 

230 cfm won't cut it for a single supercharger though.. ahh well. Thanks!

-- Joe

 

put 2 or 3 togeather

 

Nah. I'm a bad plumber..

I was thinking maybe a BMW intercooler.. they have 3" in-out and they're kinda small. Put that right under the car.

But then I'm thinking, ok so I'll get a cooler charge, but I'll loose like 3psi of boost.. ug..

-- Joe

 

Actually, there was this guy who was real good with welding and I saw a pic of an intercooler he made using 3 of those Volvo 740 IC's (all welded together). I dunno exactly how he did it. It was really ghetto looking but it did work. This is always a possibility if you happen to be good at welding.

 

You can run as many little ICs in parallel that will fit in the car. Just takes a lot of tubing. It'd look cool though.