I am trying to fit an air/water intercooler in the front passenger fender area of my mustang. From my measurements I only have around a 15"x7"x7" area to work with. I found this intercooler on Ebay and it looks to be about the perfect size. But im worried it wont support the power im looking for. Ive decided that im going to be using 3" piping and the car should be in the area of about 800whp on somewhere around 25psi. Will this cooler be sufficent?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Water-Air-Intercooler-15-x-6-5-x-6-Long-Flow-/110629890211?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item19c20e28a3#ht_2211wt_982

 

My first concern is the restriction. Here is the process to determine if it is an issue.
1. calculate your cfm of your engine cid X rpm X VE / 3456 your going to be in the 300cfm area if your engine takes 25psi to make 800wheel
2. determine the pressure drop of this cooler. They claim 1200cfm and .2psi but they are seperate line items and I doubt it is only .2@1200cfm. You may have to go the the Bell intercooler site where they have good data and find a similar dimisioned core to check the validity of thier numbers.
3. Compare your cfm to this cfm to get a feel for the pressure drop.

As far as heat rejection goes your decision sounds easy becasue your space is very small. Put the largest core you can fit.

 

I've also heard from more than 1 person that the barrel style intercoolers don't work all that well.

 

Well it's actually not a barrel style intercooler. It uses the same type of core as many other styles of intercoolers but it just has smaller end tanks

 

I still consider it a barrel style, its long and narrow. Almost every other A/W intercooler made has a short, wide core, not long and narrow.

 

Well wouldn't the longer core help cool better since air spends more time traveling through the core? That may increase restriction just a little but I wouldn't think it would really be an issue. Not positive though. I've never dealt with air/water intercoolers before

 

I've done one of these. Make sure you get the right pump, something in the 3.5 gm range, the thing that really worked is an Ice chest, after every dyno run the intake was cold to the touch. I was making 300 hps. One thing though, Ice melts fast.

Ben