Aftermarket intercoolers ('93 GSR)

[schewie]

Does anyone have any advice they could give me regarding the proper fitting an aftermarket intercooler in a '93 GSR. I havent purchased anything yet, so any advice regarding intercoolers and piping would also be heaps appreciated.

So far I have looked at the Meek and Plazmaman intercoolers and piping setups for Evo 1-3's. Is there any big differences between the 2? I am after better daily performance, no track driving etc...

 

[schewie]

Would this complete intercooler setup for an Evo 1-3 be okay with a 1993 GSR (4G93T) ? - http://www.ministryofbass.com.au/moshop/product_info.php?cPath=70_75&products_id=347

 

[evopwr]

i think meek get their cooler piping from plazmaman.

Evo1-3 piping is the best way to go IMO unless you go custom.

 

[schewie]

Ah right, will it be a direct fit basically or will it need to be modified somewhat?...

 

[evo-gsr]

That kit that you put the link up for, from Minsitry Of Bass, looks pretty good...And includes postage. Not sure on the prices from the other 2 suppliers mentioned, but the one you found seems to be a pretty good deal to me.The piping looks pretty flash too!!
And the added bonus of it being for an Evo 1-3 will mean that it will suit your GSR perfectly,and once you upgrade to an Evo motor one day down the track(as we all do!!) you wont need to upgrade the cooler to suit......

 

[Dean]

LOL @ Ministry of bass.
The piping will be fine. How much power do you plan on running tho? The cooler's a shitty Chinese cooler, should be fine if you're not running massive KW, but def not going to flow as well as a well made cooler. You'll get what you pay for.

 

[schewie]

Not after anything too high end Dean, just start off with something basic for now haha Does anyone know how much of an increase in performance I could gain from this intercooler compared to that of the stock intercooler?

Also is it a pain in the ass to mount these? (possible with stock bumper??) It would be heaps helpful if there was a tutorial around showing how to mount it, but so far I havent found one....

 

[Dean]

Ahh fair enough. The cooler should be right then, but dont expect too much from it. Plazmaman actually make really good units, but once again they make entry level stuff and high end stuff. Having said that, they're entry level stuff is much better than that cooler you posted earlier.
Being a 600x300 you will have trouble mounting it behind the stock GSR bumper. Seriously though, theres nothing wrong with a stock Evo1-3 unit though, good for up to 260kw, perhaps just get yourself a piping kit to suit the OEM Evo cooler and you'll be sweet. Will be much easier to mount behind the GSR front bar too.

 

[boostboy76]

If you wanted to start out basic, why not use a 2nd hand Evo 3 Intercooler?

The problem with buying a cheap Chinese one is that they can (and will) rust really badly internally, then blow all of the fine metal pieces back through your turbo & engine and destroy them.

Works out cheaper in the long run to buy a good quality cooler and piping and save yourself an unnecessary turbo and engine rebuild IMO

I haven't gotten a quote from them in a long time, but what about an ASE cooler?

Also, Exhaust Technology do coolers and piping. Mark is awesome & will happily let you into the workshop to watch & show you how it all goes together. Top bloke:thumbsup:

 

[GSRSOL]

If you wanted to start out basic, why not use a 2nd hand Evo 3 Intercooler?

The problem with buying a cheap Chinese one is that they can (and will) rust really badly internally, then blow all of the fine metal pieces back through your engine and destroy it.

Works out cheaper in the long run to buy a good quality cooler and piping and save yourself and unnecessary engine rebuild IMO

+1 ... :thumbsup:

 

[schewie]

Thanks heaps for the advice everyone. boostboy76, I would start out with a evo 3 intercooler... only problem is finding a good condition one haha. Might just phone around some wreckers and see whats available!

Oh yeh, does it have to be an evo 3 or is evo 1-3 okay???

 

[Dean]

Evo1-3 are the same

 

[schewie]

Awesome, thanks for the heads up! now im on a mission to get a second hand one (if i can) haha

 

[dedant]

Go onto Egooz and get a second hand evo 7-9 cooler for a budget price coz most em replace something that is good for 500hp with a name brand one. Then get piping done to suit.

 

[schewie]

Will an evo 4 intercooler fit a 93 gsr? or is it too big or different etc?

 

[schewie]

Or would a VR4 stock intercooler fit straight on and would it be worth it over an evo intercooler?

 

[schewie]

Would a VR4 stock intercooler fit straight onto a GSR? and would it be worth it over an Evo intercooler?

 

[milkandoj]

Would a VR4 stock intercooler fit straight onto a GSR? and would it be worth it over an Evo intercooler?

Nope, unless its a vr4 evo cooler as they are the same as evo 1-3.

I posted the sizes on the bottom of this page, stolen from mmc.

basically it goes,
vr4 j-spec
vr4 evo, and evo1-3, same size.
then later evos 4 up are larger.

From what i could find they did improve them from evo 4 and 5 which had 22 air channels, where as the later ones like my evo 8 cooler has 25. off the top of my head it changed at evo 6. The info's hard to find i wish i had of written it down.

The problem you will most likely have with fitment is the height, while the evo 1-3 are 256 mm high, if you go a later evo cooler 4 onwards they are all close to 300mm high, depends who measures them, will this still easily bolt up in a gsr front, and not stick out the bottom?

In my vr4 this was what required me to play around a fair bit to get it to fit, it had to move up and therefore had to move backwards to fit, so it didn't stick out the bottom.

Look into this or it wont be as simple as an evo 1-3 cooler. have a measure up under the top of the bumper inside and see how much height you have to work with.

If by the sounds you not after massive power at this stage the evo 1-3 will be easily enough. And if you have to move things around to get the larger intercooler's to be able to sit back and up, you will save yourself a lot of stuffing around.


Intercooler Dimensions:

evo 1-3 intercooler:
256.2x470x65mm

evo 4-5 intercooler:
294x470x65mm

evo 6 intercooler:
289.5x470x70mm

evo 7 intercooler:
310?x470x70mm Im Pretty sure evo 7 isnt 310 high, so this probably wrong.

VR4 intercooler, core only.
205 x 420 x 65mm (HxLxD)
pipes? ~47mm or 1 7/8" I think

 

[schewie]

milkandoj, you are a champ! Thanks heaps for your quality info, I tried looking for the specs of each intercooler and couldn't find anything.... I know what to look for now!

 

[milkandoj]

Trust me it took hours to find any half decent info on the coolers.
The evo 4-5 as larger then evo 1-3, but the evo 6 onwards had more tubes so likely more efficient.


And all the evo 4 onwards are very close to 300mm, this will be what restricts you. I havent seen a gsr front bar so have a look either side aswell. for how long you can go.

But when you start really pushing the stock 4g93 the evo 1-3 cooler will be flowing enough air.

if you do get an after market one stick with a tube and fin, they are more efficient. Bar a plate flow more but less surface area to volume inside each air channel and the material used is thicker, so because of these two reasons they dont transfer the heat as quickly.
They weigh a lot more and tend to use their mass of material as a heat sink, and can work quite well to adsorb the heat and do well on dyno, but in every day driving i would also think they can get heat soaked more (even is they are in the front the piping leading into its gettin heat soaked) and take longer to cool down as well, or at least take longer to dump the heat they have adsorbed from the hot charge air anyway.
A tube an fin does work in the same way but is lighter and sheds the heat quicker rather than storing it and taking longer to cool in between squirts of the throttle.

For the first 2 weeks of having my car running i had no heat shield over my exhaust manifold and the aluminum piping running over it, i did a blast up the freeway then stopped to feel the intercooler, on the intake side the piping, end tank and core were quite hot, the outlet side was heaps colder. Amazing the difference, this is with an evo 8 cooler.
Even idling when the cars hot the heat soak has the same effect, but the cold side of the core is much cooler so its shedding the heat not storing it as much as id imagine a bar and plate core would.