Biggest intercooler that will fit?

[Luke18]

I wanted to know what is the biggest intercooler that will fit in front of my 97 civic without having to do any cutting. I have an Invader front bumper and I wanted to get a big enough IC that will cover the opening as well as perform good.

[WhiteLine Civic]

remember in this case and only this case...BIGGER is not always better. yes a front mount cools the air better but the air has to travel father. BAD news your going to have to cut there ain't no way around it... sorry... check out WWW.WHITELINEPERFORMANCE.COM we might have just what your looking for. we are currently working on the site so just click orders and send us an email,

[sameintheend01]

who cares if the air travels farther...it'll barely lose boost and if it does you can crack up up the psi on the turbo anyways...

[boosted331]

You arn't going to find many that you don't have to cut for. About the biggest you can fit is PTE's "600 HP" intercooler at 31.5x8x3.5, but if you don't cut into the bumper support it is going to be fairly low. With my PTE "750 HP" intercooler (31.5x10.3x3.5) I just totally cut out the center portion of the bumper support.

[WhiteLine Civic]

this dude is real smart lets crank us the boost like a dumb ass so the motor will go boom. just because the intercooler is bigger it dosn't mean your going to get more power.

[sameintheend01]

hey newbie, stfu. i work as a mechanical engineer, i know wtf i'm talking about. Imagine this: the pressure to the engine straight from a turbo is 8 psi. Let's say the IC drops the pressure 1 lb. Then the pressure from the turbo to the IC to the engine would be 7. sooooo, you could crank up the boost on the turbo to 9, lose 1 at the ic, and still have 8 in the engine. the bigger the ic, the cooler the air. cooler air=more power.

unfortunately, i have no idea how much the pressure might drop from the ic (it might be negligeble) in which case u would not increase the boost.

[civickiller]

for a street driven car you want the biggest intercooler you can fit.

not only is sameintheend correct but we can also add onto this, with a bigger intercooler the air is cooled more and when air is cooled it becomes more dense so therefore more cfms, if the motor gets more cfms then it will make more power.

and if you buy an intercooler the company that made it should tell you how much psi it will lose through the intercooler

[WhiteLine Civic]

I never said a big IC is a bad thing, yes the more dense the air the better, all I said was bigger is not always better.

[djdxm]

Originally Posted by WhiteLine Civic

I never said a big IC is a bad thing, yes the more dense the air the better, all I said was bigger is not always better.

One of the nicest fitting intercooler on a Civic, is the Precision Turbo, AS 1025 it is 31.5"L x 8"H x 3.5"D, you can install it without removing your bumper support, and it fills up the opening quite nice.

http://www.precisionte.com/products/...y=Intercoolers

They are very affordable too, $525 and a very nice core.

I run the 31.5 x 10.3 x 3.5 on my 95 civic, however I had to remove the bumper support.

Jay

[liam821]

I have the pte AS1025 on my car. Its a tight fit you have to cut away a bunch of the bumper but you dont have to modify the bumper support any to make it fit. Its prolly the biggest FMIC you can fit without doing cutting.

Here my car..
(ignore the duct tape, i was in the middle of making piping and hadnt welded it together yet)


Here what it looks like on my friends 00 coupe.





liam

[91civicDXdude]

larger intercooler has more internal area which means longer spool time and more pressure drop.

cooler air is obvious, but at low boost levels it is overkill, and at higher boost levels more pressure drop means more psi from the turbocharger which stands the chance of going above the efficiency threshold just to make normal boost.

bigger is not always better and this is true.

[scottsee]

exactly. match your intercooler to they flow charictorists of your turbo. if you over do your core size, its possable to acctually loose HP.

[WhiteLine Civic]

Originally Posted by 91civicDXdude

larger intercooler has more internal area which means longer spool time and more pressure drop.

cooler air is obvious, but at low boost levels it is overkill, and at higher boost levels more pressure drop means more psi from the turbocharger which stands the chance of going above the efficiency threshold just to make normal boost.

bigger is not always better and this is true.

Thank you its about time people start realizing that just becaus I'm a god damn newbie doesn't mean I don't no what I'm talkin' about, so sameintheend

[scottsee]

my dick goes out to you. really its just that sad. honistly. sucky sucky..

[civickiller]

i havent realized it yet.

the reason why you lose power is because the bigger you go the more psi you lose over the intercooler, just gotta up the boost to compensate for the boost lost.

also i should ahve made a note on the biggest intercooler possible, that is for a high hp high boost motors on the street. if its a low hp low boost motor then you can have a smaller intercooler