The designs are very much the same minus the slight differences in the end tanks… the ebay IC’s have different quality of materials and tolerances…
I have an RSPL and its awesome.
I have a ton of bent fins but thats because ive smashed the front of my car 3 times.
are thier stages of greddy IC’s the ‘kit’ i saw was $850 for a 98’ eclipse… didn’t ‘look’ ( finish wise ) like that at all however the ‘white’ metal piping, the skimpy couplers and cheese hose clamps are identical
probboally a VSPL, it isnt polished has a different core design and dosent have the jdm tight greddy logo on the couplers
That cooler is ass. I thought you were talking about the bar and plate ones. Much better.
I’m no IC specialist, but the end tanks on that Greddy don’t look that great. I don’t see how that would evenly distribute the airflow inside the intercooler. The core of it looks decent, but there’s no up close view, so you can’t be sure anyway, but imo the ebay one you posted has better end tanks.
on a stock S13 bumper the airflow passes threw only the bottom of the bumper that is why greddy designed it like that. it wouldnt make any sense to have the air passing threw the middle of the IC when no airflow goes threw it.
I’ve never had a chance to drive a car with a bar and plate intercooler but I don’t think it would be much different than a similar sized tube and fin in most daily driving situations. The one big advantage I can see would be it’s increased mass could ward off heat soak, however once heat soaked it may take much longer for the bar and plate to shed that heat. I think the bigger argument should be regarding size. I have run both small (side mount) and large (GReddy RSPL) intercoolers on my SR and although the difference in lag is hard to ignore it really doesn’t become an issue. The SMIC makes the SR almost lagless with a stock T25. Adding a big FMIC adds in a tiny pause when the revs are below 3000 but anything over that and boost is pretty much instant. Add in a T28BB turbo and things should happen even faster.
To the original poster, buy what you can afford. Even one of the super cheap FMIC’s will provide more cooling than a dinky SMIC, be it bar and plate or tube and fin.
Ditto! I am reading that book right now, very informative.
Theo