Ive driven, dynoed, raced, pounded, exploded and just about any other word you could think of with stock location and front mounts and various turbos over the years. The front mount will be the most repeatable because heat soak is minimized by its location. The down sides are that its blocking the radiator and will require a fresh radiator and good fan speed. The Precision front mount is fine to at least 800hp/6000 rpm on a 231ci engine. Front mounts also throw a lot of weight on the front of the car especially if they are too big for the application. The stock location intercoolers are really good also but have less airflow over the core so the charge temp will be higher as the pass progresses and they heat soak easier but are more compact and sit more rearward so better for weight transfer. They do make it more of a pain to work on the front of the engine. Some would think that if a big one is better then the biggest must be even better. This is far from true. Bigger is better if the engine is flowing a lot of air. Air flow and pressure have to be looked at as two separate things. The cross sectional area of the inlet and the tubing on the core is a good indicator of the airflow potential and is just as important as the heat rejection. Keep in mind as the rpm goes up the air spends less time in the core. Thats where more cross sectional area and surface area could help. Running an intercooler that will support 8500rpm/1500hp applications on a car with a TA49 is a waste and will add a lot of weight to the front of the car. With methanol injection heat rejection is less of a concern and pressure drop will become more of a concern. I would expect about zero hp on a 115-120mph TA49/te44 car with a Precision stock location vs a front mount with a cool down pass. A few hp with the front mount if hot lapping. Thats about it. The volume of the intercooler has very little to do with the manifold pressure rise if the converter and combo is right. A TA49 car will spool faster than a T66 with everything else the same. My cast 60-1 (59mm inducer) with .85 a/r ex and clipped 76 P turbine will go from 5psi to 25psi in under one second. When testing turbos with a small stage 3 turbine like a 44/49 it would go from vacuum to 28-30psi in under one second on the trans brake with the Precision front mount. Almost as fast as i could put my foot to the floor. Keep in mind i had a 9.5" PTC, xfi, and the timing and fueling was optimized. A stock MAF car with standard chip would not spool anywhere near as fast.
