Is anyone interested in really trick intercoolers?

[Chris Wilson]

I have bought a slightly damaged Greddy intercooler for my Skyline and it's away in Germany being stripped to be re cored with either a Secan or Marston bar and plate core. I was just wondering if anyone here is interested in having cast alloy tanked existing intercoolers re cored with race efficiency cores? The problem with Secan is their inability to either supply at all, or on anything like a quoted time frame. The Marston cores are technically just as good, some say better, but are not yet as well known in this field, although Citroen use them in their WRC cars. These things are expensive, to give a guide a new core in this existing full size IC will cost me about 2000 UK plus VAT. It will be at least 20% more efficient than anything available off the shelf though. If there is interest amounting to say 4 intercoolers of similar size there's a very good chance I can negotiate a discount. They are really only going to be of interest to people looking for maximum IC efficiency on engines run for fairly long periods at high boost levels, or for those who simply must just have "the best".

[David Reid]

Chris from the wind tunnel testing (i.e radiator in a sealed tunnel measuring heat rejection at different airflows) I did at an OEM radiator/oil cooler/ intercooler supplier, the bar and plate type intercoolers were alway inferior to the modern fin and tube style. Also in the race world cores are often made my gluing the bar and plates together, which i found to be inferior to a proper brazed core.

 

Why do you say they are better?

 

When you say Marston do you mean Serck Marston of Hayes (they use glue together type)

[Chris Wilson]

Both Secan and Marston race cores are brazed, as far as I have been told, and offer about a 20% additional heat rejection over a normal core. I will double check about the construction.

[David Reid]

Things must have moved on quite a bit then as the benchmarking work I did (admittedly 10 years ago) PACE were the only brazed aftermarket intercooler core supplier I could find. The thing I remember most form the testing is that the Visteon core of the time which was used on transit, was considerably better than any of the other aftermarket cores I tested.

 

When they quote 20% improved heat rejection is that for an equilavent face area and depth with no increase in pressure drop across the core (both internal and external)?

 

I know we used to quote a y% better than a competitior but it was because our cores were also x% thicker.