I've been saving up for a turbo kit for awhile now, and it's starting to drive me crazy. I can't decide whether to just get a basic kit without an I/C and do all the cold side stuff later when I can afford it, or wait a little bit longer and buy and install it all at once. Will I have any trouble adding cold side later? Will it cost more money to add it later than it would paying for it in the kit in the first place?

I think I'm just afraid I won't have enough power to make me happy without an intercooler. So I guess my next question is, what are the limits (relative) without one? This is for my daily driver, but I'll run it at the track 2 or 3 times a year. I've been told some people run a little shot of nitrous and that can act as an I/C, is that a good option to just use that when I go to the track? Thanks for any input.

 

you should be good on the power without an intercooler for a while and it will save you money. hopefully by the time you decide to go to an intercooler it will make you happy again for a while and you may be able to get one cheaper. It would also save you of having to change too much at once, making troubleshooting that much harder. If you put an intercooler on it right away when you go to look for more power it will be more expensive to go faster from that point. it will also give you time to save/think about maybegoing to an air/water I/C.

 

People run around with 9psi Vortech blowers without intercoolers on daily drivers all the time, and their cars aren't melting into the ground. I ran 13 psi for a while with no intercooler, and nothing blew up until I was dumb enough to try to find the limit of my 36 lb injectors (I went way past what they could handle).

I picked up 2 mph (~20 hp) on my turbocharged 302 by removing the 2-core air-air IC that came with my Turbo Technology kit. If you can't fit a properly sized, properly located air-air IC in the front of a Mustang (or any other car), then it's a waste of power, money, and time to have it just for the sake of having an intercooler.

Keep in mind that you will need to add fuel when if you use nitrous for an "intercooler." And then, if you're running 2 power adders, people will talk shit if you're not running 9s...lol

Mark

 

You could build a water/alky injection kit for about $100. I have run a 11 year old procharger & a 306ci @ 17ibs boost with a 50/50 mix and at the track with 117 octane ran 10.90 @ 123. I can not hook all that power safely on the street, so the engine will not see the same load as at the track with slicks. I run 93 octane on the street with my water/alky setup, with no problems.

 

Thanks. I think ~9 PSI on the street could make me happy for now, but I'll definetely need more for the track down the road. I wish everything wasn't so expensive, then the decision would be easy

 

AMEN!

 

Well, you can damn near split the stock block with enough power WITHOUT an intercooler.

I didn't run one with my twin setup...made plenty enough power for me, just decided to get one when I built the single, cuz it looks so cool to have braces out front That AND the intake temps drastically lowered...but who's counting? j/k

Nick

 

I'm with Nick. I have a stock block and new I didn't need one to split the block. So I just went ahead and made one with T-bird intercoolers. Not the best, but good enough for now, and I don't worry with pump gas. But I figured might as well do it now. When I upgrade later, I will just make one to the same size, but better efficiency, and bolt it in.