I am planning on turbocharging my NA and are looking for parts(no flames please), would a stock 3rd gen intercooler or 2nd gen intercooler be a better choice. I'll be probably running the series 5 turbo for the conversion.

Thanks

 

There is a JSPEC IC on ebay I think. It is supposed to be a slightly bigger core

 

Make or buy a custom front mount, the stock ones are junk.

 

I was thinking of using the stock intercooler and making them a front mount.

Good idea?

 

Well you wouldn't be able to do that with a 2nd gen intercooler but I guess you could do that with a 3rd gen one. It will work "ok" I guess.

 

Don't use the FD one, it has plastic end tanks.

 

actually, the FD intercoolers dont go bad. They are pretty good for what they are, but i wouldnt consider it an "upgrade." You do much much better. =]

 

haha...the FD inter-"heater"

 

you could get 2 fc or fd intercoolers and put them together, and front mount it but its gonna be the same hassle as a good front mount....

mike

 

Don't use the FD IC, it's too small. Here's a IC idea I posted a while ago:

For those considering a budget DIY FMIC, you’ve actually got half of one already. A popular mod over here is to use two stock intercooler cores welded together. You can do it one of two ways. You can cut the smaller (inlet) tank off each one, file it all smooth, butt the two cores together end-to end (tubes touching each other) and weld it up. This doubles the size of the core exposed to outside air, but the total internal tube area remains the same (just longer), so it won’t flow better but it’ll cool better. The other way is to cut both tanks off each one, lay them side-by-side and fabricate longer tanks to go over both cores. This doubles the exposed cooling area and the internal tube area. You can also replace the inlet and outlet spigots with bigger ones. Yeah it’s a bit rough, but it works quite well and it’s really cheap if you (or a friend) can weld aluminium, since most of the cost of an aftermarket IC is in the core.