R26 Intercooler size

If your not planning on doing track days then there's no need for a larger inter cooler mate , won't hurt fitting one though

 

60mm will do 350bhp so pointless going any bigger.

 

Dont go any bigger than 60mm

r26 suffer with massive heatsoak on the road alone due to the tiny intercooler shared with the 1.9dci. On the dyno i watched 2 std r26's lose bhp after bhp each run, mine with a 60mm maintained the same bhp every run - speaks for itself eh!

 

Which 60mm ones are folk going for
Cheers

 

I would stick to the proven ones ktec (tube and fin)or forge (bar and plate). There is a cheaper one people are using but I cant remember who sells it. Do a search there is a lot of info on here.

 

i have had a 60mm ebay one on for a year and half done 3 track days last year and its been fine

 

There are some on ebay gt performance at £260
From France
Got to be better than the rubbish stock unit
Will try 1

 

If you want it cheaper try a Chinese one GPI racing/ Winner Racing etc etc, the Gt performance ones are all Chinese intercoolers just rebranded and marked up a hell of a lot! will save you almost £100 for exactly the same thing you may just have to wait a few more days for delivery

 

I have not owned the car in the summer yet but reading on here the heat soak on stock units are terrible
Even in traffic they struggle

 

Are they even abit better than stock units at stage 1
Also will it need a map tweek when fitted
Cheers

 

Sure there's no need for a map tweak, maybe wrong though mate

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intercool...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item2a258e70c5

 

I have the french one

 

Is it decent enough as an upgrade over stock mate

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/60MM-FMIC...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item1c2cdacf59
It's 60mm core and £90 cheaper!
I've got a winner racing one and it is much better than stock i did some testing a while back and the one i got was pretty much exactly as described it gave just under 30% more cooling on a few in gear blasts compared to the stock cooler (think it was 29.7 something more cooling).
Only thing i would do if i were you and you do get a Chinese one is email them to ensure you get a 17 row cooler as some people didn't inquire and got sent smaller coolers that were only 14/15 row or something.

 

So best to email these guys on your link above mate,,
Did you have to have the map tweeked
cheers

 

Nah didn't get the map tweaked, I'm just running a Fastchip generic stage 1 map from Henk.

Yeah i'd email them and check that they are still doing the 17row cooler as i bought mine and it was 17 row, however a couple of people bought after me and were sent slightly smaller units that were only 14 row iirc, still better than standard but bigger is better for surface area!

From what i've gathered pretty much all the Chinese companies get them manufactured at one or two places and then theirs a few suppliers who shift it on so i'd just go with the cheapest you can find tbh, just make sure its a larger 17 row cooler i think GPI racing have the same cooler for 5p cheaper!

Haomaru a member from Mexico uses a GPI racing one, he's still got his on with no issues as far as i know (been on for a few years i think) and if a Chinese one can deal with Mexican heat it cant be too bad for UK use! It was after chatting to him for a bit that i decided to go for a cheapo Chinese one as its so much cheaper than a forge/ pace / airtec one and i'm glad i did, it may not have the outright cooling performance of a pricier branded one but its good enough for me at around a third of the price!

The GT performance ones are just the bigger Chinese coolers so I'd rather save myself £90 to spend elsewhere!

 

The high humidity in Mexico will act as like a water injection to help the intercooler.

 

That doesn't make sense to me.
The intercooler would have to be colder than ambient for condensation to form to then evaporate and help cool, which is never going to happen.
Also wouldn't the relative humidity of the air make the intercooler cool down slower?

 

But that's what i don't get, their won't be any condensation on the intercooler as that will be warmer than ambient.

Also because of the humidity it would make it very hard to evaporate any water (not that there would be any as the intercooler isn't that cold!), isn't that why it feels so much hotter in humid climates compared to dry ones? As your sweat can't evaporate properly?

Wouldn't the humidity actually make it take longer to cool? As water takes a lot of energy to heat / cool? As i thought that was why deserts are incredibly hot in the day then cold at night as the air has no humidity so can't hold on to the heat?

I'm genuinely interested if anyone knows any more if i'm wrong etc? but that's what i remember from science class!

 

The humidity goes into the engine with the charge air, which is why I said like water injection.

 

Ahh thought you were on about water spray kits for the inter cooler.
Still can't see how the humidity is going to help the intercooler/ AIT though?
I can't even see it possibly bringing cylinder temps down etc as its already vapour in the air not droplets to be vapourised? Isn't water injection normally used to up the boost and stop knocking?

 

I understand how water injection / intercooler sprays work, but IMO there's no way a bit of humidity in the air will replicate either of those effects and help cooling it will be the opposite.

The humidity wouldn't up the boost that has to be mapped in, in my head it would reduce power due to the hot air being less dense than cold air (high ambient's in Mexico), then you add in humidity which will replace the air molecules in any given volume thereby lowering the density again, so less oxygen = less power. (For any gas, at a given temperature and pressure, the number of molecules present in a particular volume is constant, i think this is the ideal gas law)

Also a lot of the benefits from water injection are due to the small molecules of water being vaporized (into steam) in the combustion chamber. Humid air doesn't have small water particles in it that's fog, humid air is already saturated with water vapour meaning that it can't take away heat by turning into steam.

With the spray kit the air doesn't get cooler as you go faster, as you go faster it helps the water (usually mixed with alcohol to aid evaporation in a spray kit) to evaporate, the evaporation takes away heat energy as the water molecules use the energy to change to vapour (same principle as sweating).

So i don't see how a high humidity level will help a car cool more efficiently it will in my mind be the opposite, and be detrimental to the cooling not beneficial.
Also the relative humidity of the air would go down massively after going through the incredibly hot turbo and beeing heated, which is why water injection is normally close to the throttle body, not before the turbo / inter cooler etc.
At least that's how my head works it out

I'm not saying that properly set up water injection / spray kits don't work / aren't helpful, i'm just saying that a high humidity level would not do what these kits do, its a completely different process

 

So here you have a car making less power.

Humidity is vaporised water in the air not boiled water. Water vaporises at very low temperatures and it expands and contracts with temperature changes.

It is also invisible.


What happens to the fog when the temperature starts to rise? Where does it go?

Have a search for pre turbo water injection. Might help might not.

 

No Worries fella, i thought i may have missed something and or was going mad!

It's always good to throw it out their to see if you have missed/ forgotten anything, I've learnt plenty from car forums over the years, theirs always an expert on things somewhere! and some stuff is counter intuitive tbh

 

But boiled water becomes Vaporised water in the air (quite quickly via steam). True, water is allways vaporizing but that's the same for any liquid (except at absolute zero) same as any material will contact / expand with temperature changes

But as its already vapour not droplets, the water can't take any thermal energy away through evaporation/ changing states from liquid to gas.

This has to do with the ideal gas law, PV = MRT, you increase the temperature and the relative humidity goes down, meaning more water vapour can be accommodated in any given volume of air, so the air water molecules which have condensated into droplets(due to the air beeing 100% saturated with water vapour and temperature differences) may become vapour again in the air.

But this again is about adding a mist of water / meth as finely suspended droplets not vapour into the system

 

Ordered 1 as these cars alter in the kick they give you
I am guessing heat soak etc on stock unit
Thanks

 

Which one did u end up going for?

 

Just bought the Chinese one from ebay
Asked them and said defo the 17 row one
Not sure if needs a map tweek now

 

Make sure you count it when it comes, they've been known to send the 13 rows instead.

 

Yes mate I asked them said defo 17 but obviously can't count on that

 

You will not need a map tweak, the MAF will pick it up.
we do not have a map tweak for winter when ambient temps are say -2 to 5 degrees, this will drastically decrease your inlet temps and still runs fine/better

 

Is this French one a direct fit no mods needed?

Do I need to worry about the number of cooling rows?

No remap need and performance the same? Car is standard at the moment except for airbox mod & K&N panal filter.

 

That french one is a rebranded chinese one for £70-80 more - if i were you i'd just get a chinese one!

Its not really modding either cutting the plastic bracket on the radiator slightly or filing a bit out of the bracket on the intercooler.

No remap needed and performance will be the same, although some companies do advertise power gains for intercoolers, mine felt slightly more willing midrange after i fitted it but it could be placebo!