Charge Cooler Vs Intercooler??

[paul5gtturbo86]

Ok what are peoples experiences with charge coolers?? Whats best to run on the 5?? Charge cooler or intercooler?:smokin:

[JP Racing]

Well alot of the time it comes down to lots of things like:

Are you running a std engine?
How much room in the engine bay do you have?
What are you using the car for track road or drag racing?
How much you are prepared to spend?

I personally like charge coolers as i can run a really small boost run and it seems to work really well with my setup.

If modding the engine then extra cooling which ever way you decide is a good idea.
Do you have enough room to put a good sized intercooler somewhere and state of tune will decide how big you go.
Chargecoolers will need a header tank so you will have to find room for one and same for a pre rad.
If using the car for track then an intercooler will have infinate cooling while you are moving and works well while charge coolers on track can get to much heat soak if the pre rad isnt big enough but will still work if all components are good and correctly sized.
For road both will work fine same as above really.
For drag racing some people prefer chargecoolers as you can put an ice bath in the header tank to cool the water down which can lead to the intake temps being cooler than ambient but again a good sized intercooler will work just as well :)
A good chargecooler will be expensive unless you can find one second hand but buying second hand has its draw backs as it could have a leaking core or rad etc etc as unusal as it sounds i have a pace core at home which was leaking and was brought off ebay i should have checked it before fitting and only found out after the water level started to drop after a while and upon strip down you could see coolant laying inside the core. Intercoolers seem to be lots cheaper but you get what you pay for. A poorly designed intercooler wont work as well as a good one and usually the better ones are more expensive.
Another thing to consider is weight. A large chargecooler with big pre rad and large header tank will be heavier than an intercooler and its pipework.

Hopefully ive not confussed you too much and given you a little more info to help you decide ;)

[paul5gtturbo86]

Thanks for the reply I checked out afew charge cooler set ups an ive decided its something ill do at a later date ill stick to a intercooler this year! Until I can afford a new chargecooler kit