I'm planning on tuning my r26 soon, been reading up a lot of info and already know what I need. But looking at intercooler upgrades, I'm not sure what to go for. I'm stuck between airtech bolt on job at £450 or ebay job that matches up to the megane at £150. Link to ebay cooler http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=230598363545&alt=web Has anyone used ebay coolers and what are you experience with them? I'm planning to get 630cc injectors, straight through exhaust including decat, airbox mod and remap for upto 300 bhp. Thanks in advance.
From what I've read the eBay jobs aren't that much bigger than standard.. I'd buy the £450 I've got the ktec inter cooler and more than happy with it
heres the one you linked from ebay, i sent mine back IC thickness by matt eaton, on Flickr Same size by matt eaton, on Flickr might as well go for this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GPI-racin...+Sport&hash=item3a92257828:g:5oYAAOxyXp5SOu4J
OK here goes... Think of the different Intercoolers like sizes. Standard OEM is SMALL, Forge is MEDIUM and Airtec is LARGE. I have had all of them side-by-side on the bench and also used them all and when you see them like this the difference is obvious. Also the weight which reflects in the build materials. If you are going street (even with 300hp) a larger intercooler is not really necessary as the car has chance to cool between short "blasts". If you are novice track driver and have a "steady" pace but stay out for long laps then a Forge will do the job. If you are REALLY giving it the beans for long laps (ie; The Nurburgring three or more laps in one go) then the Airtec is the superior product. The Airtec has been tested and shows more air velocity passing between the intercooler and the radiator so that the motor is getting adequate cooling....often overlooked! Also make sure you have an OEM radiator at 300hp. Hope this helps and good luck with the build...if you want a proven fast car let me know as I will be selling a fully optimised good one soon! Cheers.
If your saying 300bhp stay with oem cooler then why won't reputable places like rs tuning remap your car further than stage 1 without one?
Doesn't heat soak, but doesn't flow as much as the other similar size ones, not much in it all really
After looking at results from RS tunings testing on Friday of the 3 coolers. Airtec Forge New pro alloy The airtec is most efficient cooling wise out doing the forge and pro alloy by 10 degrees there and there abouts. The only thing you got with the airtec is a slight drop in boost pressure (and were talking points of a psi) due to the larger core 95mm over 60mm that the forge and pro alloy have. That causing slight down in power results again your talking single figures so hardly noticeable and tbh I would rather have much lower charge temps! The testing was done on a forged megane running a 20t iirc at circa 370-380bhp. One thing Paul did say that if you were to run a bigger turbo like a gt30 etc that's where the airtec would come into play I run the airtec and I'm happy with the fit and quality of the product too
Some of us got lucky a while back and ordered off a seller on ebay called blackr13. I note that he doesn't have any for sale at the moment or not sure if he intends to again in the future but they were practically unstamped forge units or so we believe. I've had car remapped since and temps were fine. Never had issues since either.
Andybond used an ebay intercooler on his 313,5bhp R26 and had absolutely no problems with charge temps according to him
