Thread: IC Piping/Intercooler Pics

I've considered your style of piping before

That style ic will have a huge pressure drop, if you have the space and want to run it like Chris did then do an vertical ic. It will look nasty and at the sametime have less pressure drop.

Im sure my pressure drop is no worse then those massive ebay ic everyone likes to run

What turbo are you going with? Downward facing compressor? Also do you have/are you keeping AC?

You have the worst intercooler setup I've ever seen (no offense). Could you please explain how a massive intercooler would be just as bad?

I'm a turbo newb BenFenner could you explain why that's "the worst intercooler setup I've ever seen" form or function?

I think that the problem is overall length. The pressure drop is going to be massive because there is something like 6 feet of intercooler travel. It's going to overwork the turbo because 18psi before the IC is going to be like 8 at the manifold. I can't remember the equation, but the reduction in flow is linked to the length of tubing as well as cross section. However, the cross section is small, so IDK exactly.

Masik, I meant from a performance perspective. Aesthetically it looks fine. As far as form/function goes, it still functions very well in one way because it makes his charge pipe runs easy (avoiding A/C lines, possibly making other things easier). Where it fails is in air flow. I'll explain the best intercooler design for flow, and then the worst and you can make up your own mind.


Intercooler #1)

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Intercooler #2)

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Both intercoolers #1 and #2 have the same frontal area. They can both be mounted in a similar space on the car. Intercooler #1 has 11 air tubes running through it. You can think of it as having 11 straws to breath through. Intercooler #2 has 3 tubes running through it. Now you have 3 straws to breath through, and not only that, they are much longer.

Both of these intercoolers however would be better than the aforementioned "worst intercooler setup".

Intercooler #3)

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In this situation you've got typically even less tubes (straws) to blow through (2 in my example), and the air has to make a 180° turn to get back out of the intercooler. For flow, it is the worst design.

Edit: Sorry Vadim for messing up your thread. I think it's a great idea to have an intercooler piping ("post pics of how you did yours!") type thread. The BMW e30 guys have one and it's very helpful and full of good ideas. Maybe this could continue to become a good resource. I know you want as many pics of B14 installs as you can get so you can get a good idea of what to do for your car. I don't mean to scare anyone away from posting their setups. Really, post them all, good or bad. I won't bite.

I quit.

And the quicker your intercooler will become heat soaked/saturated/useless.