I am debating whether to purchase a front or stock location intercooler for my 87gn. PTE has one for sale. They state their front intercooler is the best one out on the market. Charged air systems have stock location and front ones for sale? What are the pro's and con's for both types?
I believe Red Armstrong published an article in the GSXtra comparing these two front mount ICs. On CAS's website there is info regarding front mount and stock location IC (Q & A type stuff).
Quad Air, Inc. - Red Armstrong
7161 Fitch Road, Olmstead, OH 44138
1 (440) 235 3232 (10am-3pm ET M-F)
Turbo Buick Newsletter (http://www.turbobuicknewsletter.com) just ran a complete article on intercooler. It was comprehensive. You should get a copy of this article.
Based on temp, Cotton's stock location gave an temp difference across the intercooler of 166°. CAS V-4 gave 179°. Stock was 152° and Duttweiler was 148°.
As far as the front mounts:
Cottons 220°
CAS V-4 225°
PTE 208°
ESP 211
So, the front mounts give quite a bit more additional cooling. There are other factors to consider. The article is pretty comprehensive. As it points out regarding the front mounts "...the Cotton's front mount and PT&E intercoolers are overkill for a car running low 12s and are more appropriate for mid-11 and faster cars". They did not test the CAS V-1.
Good luck
The Turbo Buick Newsletter article has some great info but the temp difference isn't the whole story. Unfortunately they couldn't control the weather and the temp during testing for different intercoolers was not constant. The differences in temps shown above are all so close that test variations can account for most of it. Looking at all the data, I'd say the PTE and Cottons pretty much tie for best. This was their conclusion too. The cars performance was almost identical also 0.05s and 0.3mph; Cotton faster, PTE quicker. Cotton or PTE - go with your best deal.
The best news here is we in the Buick community are blessed with several competent vendors all who make high quality products. Ya gotta feel sorry for those rice burners. They can't count on the quality we take for granted.
Yep, I agree. We do have some great vendors. The article was complex and you're right, they couldn't adjust for weather.
I feel sorry for the rice burners too. At least our cars don't sound like extended farts!!!!
i have a question.what is the reason no one uses a liquid intercoolers anymoore?