Originally Posted by
jere What turbo are you going with? Downward facing compressor? Also do you have/are you keeping AC?
It is an Avenir, thus the turbo outlet is going downwards (luckly)
Originally Posted by
BenFenner 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.
Hey no worries Ben, I'm here to learn, and wow that makes perfect sense, I never thought about the downfalls of having the tubes on the same side, but now I will know to keep away