The big Intercooler thread.

Ebm said:

That's good to hear. Especially at that price. Good deal.

For street driving, could you give me stock vs upgraded numbers? I keep hearing people mention it stays pretty much at ambient.

Click to expand...

Here is my thread on both the MAP street and MAP Race cores
The short story is 2 degrees difference charge air temp at 140+mph
By 150mph the charge air temps are identical.

I don't have a log of the stock one, (Swapped it out on the second week I owned the car and didn't bother to save any) but by 130 mph the CATs were ~125 degrees, by 140mph the CATs were 135+ and the car was pulling enough power to make it a struggle to go faster and making me worry about the engine. It took a looong time for the temps to come down too.
I've said it before, the stock intercooler is barely suitable for a stock car driven gently. It cannot even handle a stock car driven aggressively. Any tune is going to be mostly wasted on the stock one. All upgraded intercoolers, including the Mishimoto and some of the no name Chinese ones will work very well on any stock turbo application.

Alloy said:

Could you give some insight as to why you swapped back from the JLT to the OEM box? I'm currently running the stock box with the street Map IC. Living in South TX and not too happy with the temps. Before I consider swapping for a Levels, I wanted to see what others were doing amd why.

Click to expand...

Speed & power.

My tuner (www.adamtuned.com) did a Facebook Live video and dyno'd the OEM box back-to-back w/aftermarket intakes, and the OEM box picked up almost 30hp over the aftermarket piece.

With swapping over to the OEM box, drop-in filter, and upgrading to the Levels Race Core (from MAP Street Core) I think we picked up like 5 tenths in the 1/8th mile in the middle of the FL summer.

Glenn G said:

All upgraded intercoolers, including the Mishimoto and some of the no name Chinese ones will work very well on any stock turbo application.

Click to expand...

We can agree to disagree on this brother, lol.

MAP Street Core was too weak for the FL Summer Heat. I've had a friend with issues w/his Mishimoto keeping up w/the FL Summer Heat as well. I only recommend Levels Race Core to anyone in the hotter climates like FL, TX, CA, etc. if they want to get a real improvement in their CAT's and have the ability to make power all summer long.

MiDiablo said:

We can agree to disagree on this brother, lol.

MAP Street Core was too weak for the FL Summer Heat. I've had a friend with issues w/his Mishimoto keeping up w/the FL Summer Heat as well. I only recommend Levels Race Core to anyone in the hotter climates like FL, TX, CA, etc. if they want to get a real improvement in their CAT's and have the ability to make power all summer long.

Click to expand...

I am in the same boat with the heat as I'm located in TX. Yesterday my dash reading was 100 deg. When in slow traffic my IAT was 158 with Map street. While cruising on the highway I was at 109-110. It gets up in temps fairly quick so I was considering the levels race core. I am still only on stock turbo with stock waste gate and in the process of email tuning also with Adam. I probably need to get a waste gate b4 the larger core IC.

MiDiablo said:

anyone in the hotter climates like FL, TX, CA, etc. if they want to get a real improvement in their CAT's and have the ability to make power all summer long.

Click to expand...

You forgot the Humid Swamp lands of South Louisiana
ETS intercooler works good for me.

Alloy said:

I am in the same boat with the heat as I'm located in TX. Yesterday my dash reading was 100 deg. When in slow traffic my IAT was 158 with Map street. While cruising on the highway I was at 109-110. It gets up in temps fairly quick so I was considering the levels race core. I am still only on stock turbo with stock waste gate and in the process of email tuning also with Adam. I probably need to get a waste gate b4 the larger core IC.

Click to expand...

The wastegate is a great, affordable mod. Yet it's only gonna further highlight the need for the larger intercooler. You'll be able to hold more boost for longer periods of time, and the intercooler not being sufficient is going to require the tune to pull timing bc it's getting too hot/hotter quicker.

I'd suggest the upgraded core first, personally. Then add the wastegate.

Marvinmadman said:

You forgot the Humid Swamp lands of South Louisiana
ETS intercooler works good for me.

Click to expand...

You right! Lol

MiDiablo said:

The wastegate is a great, affordable mod. Yet it's only gonna further highlight the need for the larger intercooler. You'll be able to hold more boost for longer periods of time, and the intercooler not being sufficient is going to require the tune to pull timing bc it's getting too hot/hotter quicker.

I'd suggest the upgraded core first, personally. Then add the wastegate.



You right! Lol

Click to expand...

Have you experienced a timing pull? I think I'm noticing this with my stock EB in miami. Seems like hesitation when accelerateing and a strange noise as if you in too high of a gear, like trying to start in 2-3rd gear.

Alloy said:

I am in the same boat with the heat as I'm located in TX. Yesterday my dash reading was 100 deg. When in slow traffic my IAT was 158 with Map street. While cruising on the highway I was at 109-110. It gets up in temps fairly quick so I was considering the levels race core. I am still only on stock turbo with stock waste gate and in the process of email tuning also with Adam. I probably need to get a waste gate b4 the larger core IC.

Click to expand...

So...upgrading an intercooler will do nothing for your IAT temperatures. The only thing you are able to do here is isolate external heat from the inlet to the air box, so really a Velossa Tech air duct is about it to reduce those. You need a data logger to see the temps after the intercooler unfortunately (I sure wish Ford had given us a gauge for pre/post intercooler readings).

FWIW, my temps have dropped 30-40 degrees on average switching from the stock IC to a Mishimoto, and while it doesn't recover as fast as what a larger unit would recover, it's loads better than what the stock unit was, and perfectly fine for my daily. A tune should really wake this thing up now

DUNDEM said:

Have you experienced a timing pull? I think I'm noticing this with my stock EB in miami. Seems like hesitation when accelerateing and a strange noise as if you in too high of a gear, like trying to start in 2-3rd gear.

Click to expand...

On the stock intercooler? All the time! :frusty:

Anyone running the FP tune? If so, which intercooler did you go with and what gains/temp drops did you see? I read a few posts back the MAP intercooler saw a drop in throttle response (not sure which tune it was running)

Has anyone installed the CPE intercooler without removing the bumper?

lizardrko said:

Has anyone installed the CPE intercooler without removing the bumper?

Click to expand...

I think it can be done but I don't think it's worth the headache. The Bumper comes of easily

EAndre said:

I think it can be done but I don't think it's worth the headache. The Bumper comes of easily

Click to expand...

What kind of Charge air temps are you getting in this Miami heat this summer? Any regrets to go bigger on the intercooler?

DUNDEM said:

What kind of Charge air temps are you getting in this Miami heat this summer? Any regrets to go bigger on the intercooler?

Click to expand...

Yeah the CPE is struggling with the humid heat. I generally sit around 135° in the city and on the highway it cools down pretty good and is generally around 10° above ambient. Yeah I should've gone bigger in my opinion but this one still works way better then stock.

EAndre said:

Yeah the CPE is struggling with the humid heat. I generally sit around 135° in the city and on the highway it cools down pretty good and is generally around 10° above ambient. Yeah I should've gone bigger in my opinion but this one still works way better then stock.

Click to expand...

I don't think you would do much better with a bigger unit. Cooling is all about airflow, if no air is moving across the core there is no cooling effect. The only thing a larger unit would provide would be more rapidly decreasing temps once you start moving a bit faster.