looking for an intercooler

[nickyt]

im looking for an intercooler for my 85 GN. i dont know any company's. what are the best for the buck? what are the cheapest? all i want is a cooler temperature and alittle boost in horsepower. thanks for the help.

nick.

 

[BRAD_PADGETT]

I also have an 85GN which I bought last year and about finishied with the restore. As a newbie last year I thought that the intercooler was the way to go in order to get a hot air to go fast. Wrong. Wrong, Wrong. You should study this site and all of the old postings as well.

The intercooler really has no material effect until you get above 60 mph. Do you plan to drag race the car? The cost to intercool a hot air is about $2,000. This is a bad investment. I choose to upgrade the exhaust headers, CAT as well as Hooker exhaust system for less than the intercooler alone. The improvement was tremendous. Also, any improvement to the turbo requires an upgrade to the fuel pump, adj. fuel pressure reg. and a hot wire kit. Also get a scan tool or computer. A high powered turbo without the fuel system upgrades results in knock and engine failure. Good luck- brad

 

[cool 84]

An intercooler is one of the best upgrades you can do. Spearco makes a pretty good kit. I paid $820 for mine back in '97 and I have no idea what they're going for today. I made my own using a Ford Powerstroke intercooler for less than half the cost of the Spearco using a much better intercooler but you have to do a lot of work yourself.

I've watched my friends run side by side. One had only an intercooler and one had headers/downpipe/exhaust. They were very close until the boost levels rose and the intercooled car definately had the edge. Eventually you should do both.

 

[cool 84]

One thing to note, the intercooler has an effect all the time whether sitting still or going 150mph. An intercooler will make all of your mods more effective and really makes going fast on pump gas much easier. The fact that I was trapping over 110mph in street trim with a ton of problems over 4 years ago speaks for itself.

 

[turbojack]

intercooler on a hot air ---YES !!

Ive got a spearco on my car ,and al I can say is WOW, at about 25/30 mph this car this car takes off like a rocket to way past speedo 85MPH,and with zero retard on my scanmaster---If I had it to do again,I deffenetly would---also a while back on these boards ,I saw a complete spearco kit go for about $500 new,,these kits come and go on the boards so keep your eyes open and get a super deal,then go out and hunt for a 87GN and give him a SUPRISE !

 

[85 TR]

yeah bought mine for 500.00$ works great .

 

[turbojack]

85 TR-----

how did you mount the spearco to the stock 86/87 location ?? Do you have pics ?? Been thinkin bout doing that. Saw a fella in texas who did that ,but wow,way too much fabricating. Maybe you got a better way ??If I could mount mine there ,it would solve my problem of where to put the air cleaner cone/hoses.

 

[Drac0nic]

If you want a good price/performance ratio, try a Powerstroke I/C. This isn't for the inexperienced though, expect to do some fabbing. I'm pretty sure there's a hot air or two out there with one on it, and quite frankly it'd be dubious you'd have to upgrade again ever.

 

[cool 84]

I doubt anyone would ever have to upgrade the PS intercooler. I was seeing only a 3 degree increase in temp from vacuum to full boost and there's at least one in the 9s right now.

 

[85 TR]

i dont know if it was the guy in texas but i did get the idea off this board and a pic i saw i do have pics and will try to get them up and it dosnt look pretty like that car but it works i bought my kit used and didnt get a pipe so instead of having someone make me a pipe i just cut the spearco ones .

 

[mytquick87]

I have a hardly used keith mease 15 row with 2.5" neck and powdercoated shroud. $500. firm plus shipping.

 

[turbojack]

spearco mounted in stock location--

85 TR-----
i WOULD SURE LIKE TO SEE SOME PICS OF HOW YOU DID THIS,,I COULD PICK UP SOME IDEAS ,I`M SURE,,THANKS, JACK

 

[85 TR]

pic's will be up soon

sorry

 

[tim sewald]

which Year model power stroke intercooler is the best to get? I have a good friend that is a service manager at a Ford dealership. Does anyone have any input on the Keith Mease unit?

 

[mytquick87]

Keith Mease has a website- i think its KMPerformance-he s a excellant welder and builds many performance products for our cars including 3" downpipes. there must be at least 1000 of his intercoolers on the road- i believe jack cotton used to sell them along with brian weaver from "G" Body Parts.com.

 

[daddyed73]

hey mytquick87

sent you an email

 

[Timberwolf]

I have a spearco front mount intercooler I'm putting up for sale. you'd have to run your own plumbing, but I have the I/C itself in excellent shape that I am about to post in the for sale section. I still have to shoot some pictures of it, but it looks like this:

http://www.roadraceengineering.com/parts/icpics/18inchic-sameside.jpg

I have the brackets too for mounting it in front of your radiator

 

[tim sewald]

Is anything else missing other than the plumbing? If I was to buy your intercooler all I would have to do is buy all the pipe, clamps and other small hardware? I have a 84.

 

[mytquick87]

i sent you an email back.

 

[Timberwolf]

Originally posted by tim sewald
Is anything else missing other than the plumbing? If I was to buy your intercooler all I would have to do is buy all the pipe, clamps and other small hardware? I have a 84.

yeah, mine's an 85. this is the I/C and the mounts. You just add the plumbing from there however you want to route it.