Intercooler

ej_290 · Aug 13, 2022

Hi

Will be getting an intercooler shortly, has anyone got any recomendations or steer clears on brands etc?.

Or are they all pretty much the same?

Currently running 380bhp, mk 3 cupra 290, will be getting a sports cat and full system as well, so something that will work well with this in mind.

Cheers

Damo H · Aug 13, 2022

Depends if you're going Stage 3 in the future?

If you're going stage 3 then for me its either the IE or Wagnar. They're not cheap but I'd argue they're the very best coolers money can buy and the IE in testing cools the best (relative overall to the pressure drop).

BUT

If you're only going Stage 2 then I'd go DO88. The price for its performance is outstanding, however that's not the reason I recommend it (its what I got).

The boost drop across the core is significantly less than any other cooler on the market, yet its temperature delta is still better than a lot of the other coolers (except say Wagnar). Why is this important? Well its putting less stress on your standard turbo, it doesn't have to work as hard to produce the same level of boost going into the engine:

Graph Sources

You can never guarantee things won't break, but Stage 2 is pushing your standard turbo to its limit.

Hence why I say if you're going stage 3, the turbos will have a lot more headroom, so reducing the temperature is more important.

All the above is just my opinion mind and some of it may not be based on 100% hard fact, just my own general education and knowledge, so if others have evidence to say otherwise then so be it.

However, its worth checking this site out, for him its a toss up between the DO88 intercooler and IE, but being based in the states, for him the DO88 is significantly more expensive to import to the US, so the IE is significantly cheaper. From memory when I got mine, importing an IE cooler from the states to the UK would of been just over double what the DO88 cost me.