1st Gen intercooler upgrades

I have a 92 stealth and i want to do an intercooler upgrade HKS side mounts are 1500 is there anything cheaper??

yea, Custom Coach has a cheaper deal: http://www.geocities.com/speedpartsrus/3000gt.html ...but they've been out of stock for sometime. you might call/e-mail and see what's up.

You want cheap?? DSM side mounts are an upgrade for ya. It looks to me like you are still on stock turbos so a front mount is a bad idea. They are not enought to pressurize the system and it could cause you to lose power. The DSM side mounts however have been proven to help with even a stock car.

NO I A WAY BETTER DEAL www.dejontool.com their FMIC kit is only $1300. a front mount 10x bretter than side mounts.

Not on stock turbos its not better. It is proven that a front mount and stock turbos can cause you to lose power. They are just too small to pressurize it.

NO I A WAY BETTER DEAL www.dejontool.com their FMIC kit is only $1300. a front mount 10x bretter than side mounts.


a front mount is not 10x better than the dsm sidemounts. They are better than them, but not that much better.

The best bang for your buck are 1st gen DSM sidemounts, they flow more than any other sidemount intercoolers there are. They aren't bolt on, but, you can get both for around $80, then take them to a welding shop along with your old intercoolers, have them either make custom piping or cut the piping off your old intercoolers and weld them on the new intercoolers, plus they'll have to cut and flip the top of one of the intercoolers i believe.

All i know, it cost me 80 shipped for both intercoolers and 250 for the labor to make them directly bolt on. You wont get anything nearly as good as those for even triple the price.

honestly a front mount would be more pressure because their is less tubing and no flex because there is no rubber hoses... if its all solid, then there is no flex...

Look it up. A front mount will harm your power on smaller turbos.

honestly a front mount would be more pressure because their is less tubing and no flex because there is no rubber hoses... if its all solid, then there is no flex...


no, its less pressure

the piping length isn't going to increase or decrease pressure, its the volume, and the rubber piping has nothing to do with the pressure.

Basically, a front mount intercooler has more volume to fill than stock intercoolers, therefore the turbos have to pump more air to fill it up before getting it into the engine. On stock turbos, they dont flow enough air to fill up the extra volume so it will do more harm than good. Now on turbos that will fill up the volume, it will do lots of good.

As long as you don't buy a ridiculously big front mount you would be ok just buy a small front mount intercooler.

Ahh, gotta love myths. Is this coming from anyone who actually has a FMIC??? You will not lose power.The worst case you will have is not getting boost till 2-300 rpm later than before. However the gains far outweight the 2-300 rpm loss. The intake air will be cooler and the presure drop across the intercooler will be signifigantly less, so you may even end up holding more presure to redline.

However, if you are on stock turbos I would deffinatly just go with DSM sidemounts. They are way cheeper and will do you just as much good.

Well I was going by different things I have read. I do however find what you say interesting and will look into it more.:)

Ahh, gotta love myths. Is this coming from anyone who actually has a FMIC??? You will not lose power.The worst case you will have is not getting boost till 2-300 rpm later than before. However the gains far outweight the 2-300 rpm loss. The intake air will be cooler and the presure drop across the intercooler will be signifigantly less, so you may even end up holding more presure to redline.

However, if you are on stock turbos I would deffinatly just go with DSM sidemounts. They are way cheeper and will do you just as much good.


well actually, it might be true, i know two WRX owners, both with the same mods and both on stock turbos. One has a upgraded front mount and one has an upgraded top mount, in which the top mount doesnt flow as much as the front mount, and the guy with the top mount is faster.

slightly different story, they are 2 diff cars, with 2 different drivers even if they have the same mods. top mount VS front mount is also a far leap from twin side mounts VS front mount. With a top mount on a WRX there is at most a foot of piping, that is not the case with side mounts.

I just registered on this list but there is a guy around me here in michigan that builds custom intercoolers for cheper than that. Go to www.toohighpsi.com and click on the Jim's coolers link. You should be able to find it there. And, just a side note. The people who are saying the turbo's are not big enough to fill the large front mount intercooler are completely incorrect due to the law of conservation of mass. It basically states that mass cannot be created nor destroyed. If the engine does not use anymore air, There is no reason that a loss in pressure or power shold occur. It will, however, take longer to pressurize the larger volume. The decrease in intake temperature should make up for the increase in lag time. Most importantly, what are your intake temps? What is the pressure drop across the intercooler you have now? Ask youself these questions before you blow a whole bunch of cash on something that may not help at all.