What thickness intercooler for vmount?
 

I'm looking at going to a vmount setup on my 1988 rx7. I was looking at purchasing the ETS 3rd gen intercooler that looks like it will fit great! The dilemma that I'm having is what thicknees intercooler to purchase, I can get it in 3, 3.5, or 4 inches. What do you guys think? I already have a vented hood and will be street driven and some track time. My main reason was to shorten intercooler piping and increase transient response on my setup.

The thickness isn't as important as the ducting and overall size of the intercooler. I wouldn't personally go thicker than 3.5"

I remember reading something years ago about how basically if your IC core is too thick it is actually a waste, as only the portion with direct air flow will benefit from the best heat exchange. I.e. a 3x10x15" intercooler with proper ducting will be more beneficial than a 5x10x10" IC, despite the fact that that 5" IC has more overall bulk.

Thanks fendamonkey! Now another question.....if I sandwiched the intercooler and rad together and made ducting to it, do you guys think it will as efficient? I could just move the radiator back slightly to fit it in. I'm looking for a cool charge and less piping. If I could get away with option 2, that would the easiest for a street car.

Jose

I'm not following how you would do this and maintain the "V" in a VMIC... Unless you mean having one end of the IC touching one end of the Radiator, in which case I would say you'll certainly want to do that!! Any gaps between the radiator and IC will allow air to bypass the coolers instead of going through them.

Ducting is pretty much always a good thing.

I mean as in fmic style but farther back.

I dunno... It would then be a FMIC and subject to the fmic attributes. I would definitely NOT run the IC behind the rad, I've never run a FMIC so I can't speak intelligently on mounting points.

How did you mount your vmount? Is it in an fc chassis? I'm starting to wonder if my turbo placement might hinder me from going vmount. I'll post pictures later of my engine bay and I'll take advice on options.

If you are talking about a street car then a fmic is fine. I ran a HKS front mount and had no overheating issues. It was ducted tho.

I completely missed that small detail about you running an '88 :blush: My car is an FD so the mounting would be different anyway.

Yeah, the pictures may help. How long are your manifold runners? aka, does it set your turbo well infront of the engine?

any opinions?