this might be kind of a dumb question so don't flame me for it...

i was thinking the other day that intercoolers are so expensive. and that people sell their old stock ones for like $25. which brings up my question... couldn't i just weld the two stock intercoolers together to get one SMIC thats 2x as thick as the stock one. I mean it would require a little fabrication like making a new top and bottom for the hoses to connect to (the black plastic tops).

would this work? if not could someone please explain to me why? if someoine can think of how it would work please explain to me everything that would be needed to be done.
thanx

 

it would work but it's a ton of work and then in the end you still don't have a very good intercooler. The stock ic has a big pressure drop as well.

Intercoolers are a pita to choose and install so as long as you are at ~10psi you'll be fine with the stock one. Your car can be very fast without upgrading it.

 

As Snook said, the pressure drop across the intercooler is a big thing. That's one of the main advantages to upgrading the intercooler. The stock intercooler has a HUGE pressure drop. Doing a double-stock setup would provide for more cooling surface, but it would still have the same restriction, thereby not giving you much of a performance benifit. Sooo.... not worth the time or energy.

The key is to get a more efficient core... not use multiple inefficient cores.

 

Junk plus junk equal double junk . The plastic tanks will come apart . Then you have broken junk .

 

Actually, if you run them in a "parallel" configuration, you will have approximately half of the pressure drop vs. stock....at the same boost of course.

if you are going to do it, i would also suggest stacking them side-by-side not front to back. This way you have much more surface area on the cold side.

all in all, it's probably a lot of work and money in fabrication to still have a relatively poor intercooler.

Now joining 3 IC cores together might be worth your time. Like dubosir hinted towards, get metal end tanks too.

 

That would actually be kind of cool to try though. If you use 4 cores. 2 parallel sets of 2 in series That would provide about the same pressure drop as stock. The only problem with that is that if your making your end tanks you might as well just buy a nice core to begin with.
You could always drop another 30 dollar ic and adjust your piping to got through both of them. See how that effects you intake temps. Good luck

 

LOL

 

"That's what I would do if I had a million dollars!"

 

i WAS gonna do that and make a write-up on it...but my battery and HKS intake gets in the way for now....maybe once i go single over the winter

-Zach

 

In Scuderia Sciriani's site there is a mention that two stock intercoolers work quite nicely.
Interesting