spdzone

I am looking at an 01 vert with only 2000 miles on the car, it has a non intercooled magnacharger. My question is, how necessary is the intercooler? How much power is to be gained and is it also a matter of safety? The car would be driven in Washington state where we don't see a whole lot of extreme heat, if that makes a difference.
I know they sell a intercooler update kit, but I am not sure if I really need it.

Thanks,

John

baldie

I think it's +40-50HP at the flywheel.

bandit_99

Are there more benefits, such as enabling the mag to run more boost/smaller pulley?

Chris@East Coast Supercharging

The theory of the intercooler does not really add horsepower per say, it allows you to make safer power because you are cooling the air charge before it reachs the combustion chamber. The intercooler will alllow you to run a few more degrees of timing and a little more boost safer. Thats where you will see the benifit of the intercooler.

SteveL2

Yes on the smaller pulley. Without intercooling, going to a smaller pulley drastically increases heat. I don't think it's only a linear increase, either. So, if you do something to increase heat (e.g., pulley change), then counteracting that increased heat is great. If you don't, then the car will want to detonate, and it will pull timing out on its own, or your tuner will pull the timing out. In either case, less timing means less performance.

Indeed, there's a member that recently ran a 35 shot of nitrous and got great results on top of his Magnuson. My guess is that's at least in part because of the cooling effect of the nitrous.

Heat + forced induction =

SteveL2

Oh, and by the way, you likely already know, but just in case you don't, Magnuson offers an upgrade package where if you buy that car and decide you want intercooling, you can send them your Magnacharger to have it upgrade to the intercooled version. Ain't cheap, though............

vettewreck

a non-intercooled mag wil get you in the 450-490rwhp range. An intercooled one will get you into the 490-520rwhp range. But you can always just add a small, 35hp shot of nitrous when you really want to romp on your car and it will act as a toggle switch intercooler. You'll get the 35 HP from the nitrous shot PLUS the HP from the cooling affect.

wrustywrench

my non ic got me to 381 rwhp,, a4.....very hot day to dyno. I am sure there is more there....rather be safe than sorry, my car is out of warranty except for maggie one I bought

mdhmi

John,

People have been running just fine for years without the IC. Don't let that disturb you any unless you live in an area that has *extremely* warm climate. Enjoy your new ride.

Cheers,

Mark

W!ngnut

Exactly what I would say. I have the NON I/C and sure...would like to change and may later but my car runs great here in NC which is warmer than the Washington area.

TANGLVR

Has anyone actually dynoed the intercooled Mag after the motor heats up...ie, after many passes? Seems to me like putting the intercooler in the path of airflow would create a restriction, also it would act as a heat sink being enclosed within the engine.

Now ice water at the track would be great but not practical for everyday driving.

I've seen some of the posts with power increases with the intercooler but would want to know what the gain is after say 10 pulls....that is before I drop 1500 on the retrofit

StuzVette

According to my conversation Friday with Roger Preston, former NCCC pres, and Corvette enthusiast in Pompano Beach .... 50 hp gain over nonintercooled...
nonintercooled do not produce as much HP...
either are reliable...from what I have seen...

I'm looking to order mine first of next week...

Z06XTRM

507 RWHP with intercooler.480 RWHP non intercooled mag.

StuzVette

Where did you get those numbers?
Are you comparing magna charger...?
...because they just advertised 130 hp gain is now worth 180 hp with the new intercooled magna charger...

auctiondepot

Assume these perimeters for HP increases.
IC Non-IC
Pulley 3.3in 3.5
PSI at port 6 psi 5
D temp Inc 12F 50F
Density Ratio .97 .92 about 5% increase
D Press Ratio 1.05 1 about 5% increase

The Magnacharger adds about 2 PSI with a smaller pulley and by adding the heat exchanger or intercooler about 1 psi is lost and at 6000 rpm you need an additional 10 HP to spin the blower faster. So effectively you get an additional 1# of boost that is about 5% denser.

A 5% denser charge is about 20RWHP plus 1# of boost another 20RWHP then less 10HP additional blower drag, the predicted gain should be 30RWHP.

Having the blower spinning faster will help develop pressure sooner, more torque at 1500rpm.

But then again I could be wrong.

vettewreck

I did 491rwhp with my non-intercooled mag with just a 3.3 pulley. Stock is 3.4 which is rated from Magnasun at 5lbs of boost.

StuzVette

Can I assume you are talking about the C5 and not the Z06...
because I understand that the maga charger intercooled has two part numbers one for the C5 and one for the Z06... The Z06 has a larger pully due to the higher compression...
the actual hp is comparable for both the C5 and the Z06 with the installation of the magna charger...
Apparently, with the new intercooled magna charger, some distributors in south fl are pushing 8psi in a C5....



[Modified by stuart, 6:40 PM 5/25/2004]