Best reliable intercooler

[felfyre]

I have bad experience with an aftermarket (suspected)intercooler leak, causing a blown engine, as my previous post. https://f10.m5post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1952803

Is there a way to test that the coolant leak is from the intercoolers?

And which intercooler do you guys recommend? As I have observed different brands have really similar design?(my mechanic suspected that it was made in china)I do think I need a new pair because of the hot climate here.

[m5rosco]

They don't make a massive difference to IAT's. If you want guaranteed reliability stick with oem. If you must have upgraded chargecoolers the CSF are arguably one of the best. However, I've never seen anyone else have an issue with any chargecoolers, cheap or expensive. I have Project Gamma ones, I'm not convinced they're any different/better/worse than any others out there. In the real world I'm not sure they do much. I run 15-20°c above ambient. They do look better than oem, and give an option for a nicely positioned meth port should I go ythat route later.

[crazyinp]

So far the only data available is for CSF that evolve posted, search on this forum , I linked YouTube video. People will come and argue here that all of them are the same but no one has provided any data. I am not saying those aren't but I won't believe it till I see the data. Assuming you are tuned, you probably want custom tune for you as all of them drop the boost due to the size. I think the real benefit of those would be if you race short races

[TinCanSailor]

Mishimoto has a set in development. They posted that they were dyno testing them about a month or two ago but news/info has fallen flat since the last update.

To date I haven't really seen a lot of good or bad info in forums about any particular vendor being good or bad. Even the "best" or most popular products have flaws and a mean time before failure.

[mike@x-ph.com]

We offer CSF, Racing Dynamics & Burger Tuning coolers. All of them will get the job done

[m5bbq]

I get your concern given your history. I don't think one is more "reliable" over another. Even if one were, I doubt we have enough data points. Besides, they usually blow at the thin channels, not at the welds-just unfortunate luck. That being said, if you're worried about intercooler blowing and dumping coolant into the engine, just put a level sensor on the intercooler coolant reservoir?

[crazyinp]

Here is evolve article and link to their YouTube video with testing the CSF. As TinCanSailor said, mishimoto is working on pair and hopefully would post some data. Those are the only 2 I have seen done any testing with imperial data (mishimoto haven't posted any yet but I hope they will do). Again the rest of the ones out there might be as good or even better but no one has done anything to show it, typically just use marketing words.

https://www.evolveautomotive.com/blo...m5-f13-m6.html

[felfyre]

Originally Posted by m5bbq

I get your concern given your history. I don't think one is more "reliable" over another. Even if one were, I doubt we have enough data points. Besides, they usually blow at the thin channels, not at the welds-just unfortunate luck. That being said, if you're worried about intercooler blowing and dumping coolant into the engine, just put a level sensor on the intercooler coolant reservoir?

I am not that knowledgeable about the engine, is there any product recommendation for the coolant sensor reservoir? Thanks!