Sport Compact Car in their series said the stock intercooler was barely sufficient at stock boost levels. Yet M2's old stage 2 chip was for intake, DP, and catback at 12 pnds. of boost. What's the real deal?

 

M2 claims that the car can boost to 12 without a problem with the stock intercooler. I'm not sure what "bad" thing happens if you go higher. I did some mods to my car and then put in a boost gauge a couple of weeks later. I found that I was boosting to 15 1/2 psi on the stock intercooler. I got a boost controller right away, and got it back down to 12. I'm getting a blitz SMIC soon. It's supposed to fit without changing the stock air box or battery.

 

Boost over about 12 PSI can cause the end tanks to blow off the intercooler core.

 

I was afraid to even go past stock levels with that POS stock IC...