Intercooler in cold weather?

[specbks]

question for all you guys who drive in the colder weather.(or anyone) My turbo KA will be seeing cold snowy weather for 3/4 of the year. the rest of the year is not to hot either, maybe top of 75-80 degrees. if i install te turbo middle of next summer, could i run without and IC until hte following year? will it be fine with the sub zero weather? I'm just trying to limit cost. An IC is in the lineup but i'd like to wait until more money shows up (if ever!!!)Chris

[mean green s14]

just run it at lower boost until you get one4,5 psi

[specbks]

could I get another IC out of a junk yard and run it if i made the piping?

[WDRacing]

Yep, just get a used one if ya have to, but I wouldn't recommend not having one. I guess you could run 4 psi or so, but used coolers are plentiful and fairly cheap.

WD

[andrave]

its not the temperature of the air that matters, since the turbo is going to be heating it pretty indiscriminately.But anyway if you watch for detonation and keep the boost relatively low you shouldn't have a problem.Then again, there are plenty of decent IC's on ebay that go for under 100. Check the older supra ones, mark III... they have decent sized inlet/outlets, good mass, decent cooling ability. More than enough for a couple hundred HP and they usually go cheap because they don't have that mean aftermarket bar and plate look like the starion cores do. In fact I've seen flow charts that prove that the supra core actually out flows the starion core.

[specbks]

thanks, i was actually looking at a supra core this morning, thats what i will do to keep the cost down

[C-Kwik]

I would say just save up longer and put it together when you have all the components you need to do it right. You'll likely save more money in the long run if you approach it this way.

[:: orion ::]

Depends on the turbo...

A T3...no way would I run it w/o an intercooler. It's a good little turbo - i.e. at 6psi, it starts off in the ~70% range, and eventually lands to the right of the 64% area by redline...probably a 60% efficiency. That's pretty bad...fine with an intercooler, but that's some hot air without.

Now look at a T04E 50-trim compressor...starts at 68% and increases to 74% by redline...much cooler air.

Now I ran a 57-trim T04E at 6psi for ~6 months...made good power, did it safely.

GReddy sells their kit for 6psi without an intercooler, running a T04-sized TD05 IIRC.

So it can be done, just make sure the turbo efficiency is high, timing is good, and the A/F a little more on the rich side.

Later - Brian