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intercooler upgrade??

42K views 63 replies 16 participants last post by  numark1510 
#1 ·
i want to upgrade my intercoler but i dont have the money to upgrade my turbo also which would give me the best gains without lag tmic or fmic
 
#6 ·
on a stock turbo you dont need a fmic... it pushes such small cfms its going to take days to fill the fmic piping to get to boost and a big tmic would be more than suficient to cool the charge. check ss autochrome on ebay they have very nice units for cheap.
 
#8 ·
WRXKidid775 said:
on a stock turbo you dont need a fmic... it pushes such small cfms its going to take days to fill the fmic piping to get to boost and a big tmic would be more than suficient to cool the charge. check ss autochrome on ebay they have very nice units for cheap.
Yeah I think for that price and all the positive feedback I am going to go with the SSautochrome
 
#10 ·
dont get out of the efficiency rang of the turbo. the stocker tops out at about 17.5psi. some run more but there are no real gains. to put it in perspective higher boost isnt always faster

a good map with 16 lbs of boost will beat a shitty map with 18 lbs of boost any day.
 
#11 ·
BithellWgn06 said:
I have a stage 2 map from XPT (osecuroms.org) , DP, and K&N
I have to make some adjustments to increase my boost to fit the map, so maybe the bigger TMIC will help when I do that?
Yeah you could increase boost a bit and even timing a few degrees.
 
#12 ·
i just upgraded to the ss autochrome ebay tmic, bought it used for $90 and then bought the perrin hose kit, i love the feel it deff adds to the power in stage 2, i am running cobb stg 2, with about 16psi...... the only thing with mine is now i have this squeek that i cannot get rid of. dont know where it is coming from. but the power increase is deffinenatly noticable, i love it and recommend it
 
#58 ·
so i had to take off the tmic and looked under to see what i was rubbing on.....it was rubbing on a few places actually,

one place was the turbo tube that comes off the turbo towards the fire wall, the bottom corner of the ic was sitting on that tube and actually it rubbed an indent on the bottom of the ic, so i wrapped that tube with high heat plumbers pipe insulating

i was rubbing on a metal tube (not sure what it was) that is attached to fire wall but under the ic, silver tube bout 6 inches long and couple of curves in the tube.

i also wrapped the left mounting arm that bolts to the ic and also holds turbo heat shields it seem to be rubbing on the bottom of the ic.

after that i wrapped the a/c line just to be on the safe side.

when putting the ic back into place it seemed a like a tighter fit which was to be expected but we got the it in and all bolted down.

result was there is no more damn squeek :D i was supprised at how many spots it was rubbing on so if you have a squeek i recomend to take off the ic and check for rub spots on the under side of the ic.

hope this helps
 
#15 ·
problems?

was there any probs with the install or the quality of the ic. keep us posted i am looking to upgrade to stage 2 ap and intercooler and will the stock ic hoses work or did you have to buy the perrins to make it work
 
#19 ·
it is a lot bigger i will post of a pic of the two, i just forgot to take the pic before i installed the new one so the pic is only a top view, the biggest size diffenrence is in thickness i guess it would be, you go from 2 1/2 inches thick on the stock to bout 4 inches thick on the aftermarket, i think that is why i have this new squeek****i am so close to fixing that prob too****

it is really cool to when you have driven that car hard and then pop the hood and put ## hand on top of the ic and it is freezing cold, where as the stock would still be luke warm
 
#24 ·
deffenantly it would add a lot of power you will be happy. there is a huge difference in your car stock and then you being at stage 1, you dont need to have any other mods on the car, you can be completly stock and throw in the stage 1 map and feel the power. then you can just reflash to stage 2 when you get the dp

also it will up ## boost a little i believe and you will feel a big differnce in ## throttle response, it really tightens every thing up and makes ## car run a lot more smooth****a lot more smooth***!!!
 
#26 ·
you will need to get some kind a of engine management, aka Cobb access port (that is what i have) or the UTEC or u can also go open source

you will need one of these to go to stage 1 or 2

i recommend the cobb cause it is very general so you can do other mods and the maps will still be good for your car and not do any damage, also when u install the ap it flashes your stock ecu map and then if you need to take it in to the shop you can reflash back to stock and leave no trace of the ap. Side note : the cobb ap version 2 so far is the only version that will leave no trace of itself once un installed

and u can also go from stage 1 to stage 2 with the same ap
 
#27 ·
I dont think that i am rubbing on the a/c line due to it sounds more like a metal on metal rub and i checked under the ic and giggled the hoses to be sure they move freely.
I know that they had a problem with them rubbing on the A/C lines that run down behind the intercooler, might just be something else though.
 
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