i have been getting interested in methanol injection and i was planning on running it with the stock IC.

i've datalogged my intake air temps during 1/4 mile runs and they get up to about 155*F on a hot/humid day (90+ degrees outside). that's not horrible, but not great, not to mention i've run a best of 12.0@115mph on the stock IC.

people on this forum talk about how bad the stock IC is, how bad the pressure drop is, and how bad the cooling is, but is there any proof to this? i'm basically wondering how bad the FLOW of the stock IC is compared to other ICs, as the meth injection will be dropping the intake air temps and taking care of that aspect.

 

http://fd3s.net/intercoolers.html


http://fd3s.net/intercoolers.html#WAT

 

These three SCC articles have a very interesting discussion of pressure drop, efficiency etc.

http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/pr...t_6/index.html

http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/pr...t_8/index.html

http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/pr...t_9/index.html

Bottom line: the stock intercooler is very inefficient and has a large pressure drop. Ignoring efficency, this pressure drop is going to make your turbos work much harder than they have to for a given manifold pressure (and may be pushed outside their efficiency range). For example, the M2 large intercooler has a 0.6 psi pressure drop at 12 psi/7000rpm versus 2.6 psi psi or so for the stock unit.

If you don't want to spend too much money a used SR Motorsports or Blitz can be had for $400 or so and both work with the stock duct and should have a pressure drop of 1.6 psi or so under the same parameters.

 

Plus the stock garbage intercooler is know to burst at elevated boost levels. Remember the over priced safety clamps that some vendors sold?