Intercooler upgrade: Pettit Cool Charge II vs. HKS SMIC and others. Which to buy?
 

Hello all,

I'm looking to upgrade the intercooler on my new 7. The car is still running the stock twins, has a PFS ECU (10, 13, 14psi setttings), full HKS exhaust and HKS intake. Thus, fairly stock. I am curious which IC would be the most efficient/beneficial. I've been looking primarily at the Pettit Cool Charge II and the HKS SMIC, thus I would appreciate your opinions and viewpoints on the subject. If there is another that is better, please feel free to let me know. Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Gavin

If you have your heart set on an SMIC setup, you'll be disappointed... HKS does not have an SMIC. So out of those two choices you'd have to take the Pettit.

The Pettit is fine. Most of the larger SMICs will work the same, only difference is installation difficulty, and fitment. I havent heard about the CoolCharge II having problems in either area, so that's good.

If you have some extra cash, or havent upgraded your radiator yet, I strongly urge you to look at Rotaryextreme's V-mount setup - it doesnt get any better than that!

I had Pettits CCII IC for about a month now and it seems to work very good. The fitment is great, but as nameless said you might want to put some weather stripping around the duct to alow better air flow. I just bought some from my local auto parts store and its holding up nicely. I have my air thermosensor in the stock position (under the UIM), so after some heavy driving or after being in traffic it's hard to tell how well it's working b/c the UIM is usually heat soaked by that point. I don't notice a loss of power, though, so I believe it works quite well in these situations.

well for stock mount, you have the PFC IC (need to block off the exit hole for the PFS intake), the M2 med is a good choice with some fitment issues dealing with the inlet pipe and the air pump, the Greddy SMIC is better than stock but not that good IMO due to the crunched lower tank. There's a few other SMIC's some larger and requiring the battery to be moved or a smaller PC680 battery installed.

Tim

Thanks for the response guys. I'm sorry, I was mistaken...it is the Greddy I was talking about, not the HKS. Thanks for correcting me.

I'll do some more pricing research and we'll see where it goes. Thanks again.

-GS

Greddy will be cheaper in the end. It doesnt look as cool, but it's effective. I know someone using it with a HKS T-51 turbo. Granted it would probably benefit from a better IC, but he hasnt had a problem with it yet.

I'm partial to the M2 Large :)

http://www.gothamracing.com/pics/Rich/RichEngineBay.jpg

I have the M2 Medium and it went in just fine, and looks and performs great. If you are running a full exhaust with an intake and IC, I would upgrader you secondary injectors before you turn the boost above 10 psi setting. You are running close to 100% on the injectors and you can run really lean at that point.