I can't find a TII hood for my swap thats economical (fits into MY budget!!!) so I'm goin with a fron't mount intercooler....anyone know if it really matters if I get one of those inexpensive intercoolers from ebay (approx. $200 with piping)...thats cheaper than the people who are selling stock hoods for $395 plus shipping.....you can get a carbon fiber hood for $550!!!

 

No it doesn't, as long as it doesn't leak.

Also, make sure you have T-Bolt and not worm style clips so that your cupllers dont pop-off under boost.

 

Get more money and buy the hood.

 

That must be a really bad joke. Are you seriously saying that the $100 ebay intercooler cores sans turbulators are going to be as good as say a Griffin or a Spearco or a pwr? No frickin way. Is it going to be a huge difference? who really knows but the fact of the matter in ebay generally = cheap chinease crap.

Do it right and spend the money

 

No joke. But I wouldn't go as low as a 100$ though, thats just insane. I paid mine 260$ for a 28x8.5x3 core with no piping and it works great. I dont see why I would have to pay double just because theres a logo on it.

An intercooler from ebay works fine if it doesn't leak. What is cheap are the worm style clips and cheap silicone rubber cupplers that crack for no reason.

An intercooler is an intercooler in my book. Unless you are planning on running 15PSI or a turbine creating massive temperatures, an ebay intercooler will work just fine. It all depends on your application. Most people will be fine with it.

 

That's where you're wrong on a bunch of different levels. Is aluminum aluminum is aluminum? No. I sent an ebay pulley off to a buddy to be anodized and the AL was so cheap and dirty that in places it completely rejected the anodizing

The fact is there have been a bunch of people that have bought e-bay intercoolers and looked into the end tanks and saw no turbulators. That really reduces the effeicency of the intercooler regardless of the temps you are running.

Just as a matter of note - the less boost you are running and the less heat you are generating would mean that you would want a BETTER MORE EFFEICENT intercooler because the difference in temp between ambient and charge air is less requiring a BETTER MORE EFFEICENT intercooler to drop the temps as close to ambient as possible.

You get what you pay for. Period. There was a HUGE thread in the 3rd gen section about this. Someone actually tested the ebizzle crap core to a real one.

 

i paid around 100 for my intercooler, construction is top notch. it isn't a big core though.

i would say its at least on par with the quality of a bottom line greddy unit.

 

We used an ebay bar and plate IC on a turbo 1st gen. At 16 lbs manifold pressure it was showing a 3 psi drop across the core which is HUGE. The ends tanks were cut off and it was re-cored with a Garrett core. We haven't put the car back together yet but one would expect a nice hp gain not to mention the turbo being much happier.

You get what you pay for and the Chinese **** on ebay is inexpensive for a reason.

 

Proof > internet opinions - Thanks Ludwig

 

Well, I am really satisfied with mine.

I did pay 260$ for it though...

 

Godspeed FD I/C core, bought on ebizzle. 0.6psi pressure drop through the core....

 

methanol... cheap to set up. just gotta keep filling the meth tank

Had one, constructed very well!!

 

How do you go about testing it? I would be interested in testing mine.

 

Honestly, I don't know. My friend Dave did it when they pressure tested it for me at his rad shop. I re-worked the inlets/outlets and had him test it before I installed it. I'm just going by what he said. I think all they do though is simply pressurize the core, and record the pressure on both ends.

 

It will still be better then the stock top mount.

 

If you cap both ends and pressurize the core, the pressure will be the same on both sides. Pressure drop is a function of flow through the core. The more restrictive the core, the higher the pressure differential as air flow increases.

 

Nice, good to know. So is there a specific flow rate that these drops are recorded at?

 

We measured pressure at the inlet and outlet on the dyno. 19 psi going in 16 coming out. Unacceptable. Generally as flow increases the pressure drop will also increase. So this particular IC might work OK with a minimal pressure drop at say 300 hp but becomes an anchor at 400.

 

sounds like a gamble to me. I would save up and get a turbo II hood. I think they look cooler anyway.

 

And TII hoods are light!

If you aren`t pushing crazy horsepower, but want something better than the top-mount, you should be able to find plenty of cheap intercooler cores without pipes.