Keep in mind the HKS intercooler is second hand and could be considered as slightly fouled over time, which means the heat transfer is not as effective as new. Heat will need travel through extra layers of dirt & grime to disperse. I would go Japanese made simply to avoid unnecessary modifications on these 100k + classics.
Good test, results out of actual applied reality. I've been telling people for ages in forums that they can find a very decent intercooler , especially for the money, in the autobahn 88 tube and fin one. I used to get a lot of banter and hate comments from people on the forums for suggesting to them something that works and would still leave enough money in their pocket to buy another go fast part for the car or treat the wife with something special, and it was all because back in the day the specific brand was a not known one. It is a credit to you and to all involved mate ,for putting down the time and effort to make it happen.
Intercoolers are obviously important, but I think the difference between all the brands is overplayed. As you've noted and as we've seen here, get in the ballpark and there's more important factors at play than intercooler performance. Throw E85 or race fuels into the mix and you're caring even less about the intercooler. I think the real difference between these units won't be their performance but their ruggedness and build quality. You may end up paying for that on the track with some cracks if you're doing some real work with it.
Nice work guys love this type of test! but I’d still regard dyno testing an air to air set up for comparison as inconclusive just for the lack of fresh air,even with a good fan it would be hard to match the front air pressure achieved at speed,definitely good for roughing out what the pressure drop differences are, I think it would make a good vid doing some testing at the strip with the different cores,plus kinda just want to see you make this thing scream.
Nice job Andrew. I now feel vindicated after going to a Just Jap, (Autobahn 88), intercooler. Incredible bang for the buck and just goes to show you can't just chuck money at a product and expect it to be the best. My Autobahn 88 needed a little modification to get it to fit as I wanted, but I have no gaps around the bumper, so no leaking past of ambient air, and now I know it does the job a swell or even better than the over hyped alternatives. I'm well chuffed! 🤘🏻
Quality test. I've got one of the 125mm thick Chinese copy of the old Greddy GT-R drag intercoolers, so basically the JustJap one but thicker, and I'm glad to see this test as it's always gonna be more than good enough for me! Nice one!
Was the HKS cooler flushed out and cleaned before testing to get rid of any buildup from inside it to be as close to a new vs new test? Also interesting test would be to do a ducted vs unducted intercooler as there is a lot of cars without the correct duct work behind/under the front bar to keep the air going through the FMIC.
Depends on the car and fit the location, like not having the crash bar insitu might have changed the results also, more or less flow is unsure, and how it redircts into the cooler. But some could ask for a repeat with no crash bar on the other 2 to at least make it an equal test.
A long time ago, I was told every 2 degrees temp drop equals 1 bhp improvement. That said, you need to consider also the workshop labour to install things. What you spend extra on getting a marginally better IC, and then also spending money cutting up your front bar, etc, you could spend that money elsewhere.
For sure, 1hp isn't worth the time or money, and I think this test while it's a good visual, it's too close to call it accurate. You could see that deviation in back to back runs on the exact same intercooler.
Awesome content again 🙌🏼 we all appreciate it! We know how much work goes into making this type of videos, this what makes this channel one of the best in this community. Thank you guys 🤟🏼
So good to see some honest testing and results. Was pretty amazed with how well the JustJap cooler performed. I'd imagine that in extreme circumstances the Hypertune would recover better from heat soak, being that it has less mass to cool. Great job guys. Keep it up.
@@MotiveVideo It would be awesome if you could overlay those temp and pressure charges for all the runs in a graph. Love the content . Thanks very much for all you guys do . The difference between lowest and highest input and output temps would be the icing on the data cake .
I love my Trust VSPL 600x300x76mm in my 180SX been rocking that since 2000 and has been a great fitting and performing intercooler though be nice if it was a GTR.
Ran a $200 ebay intercooler. Worked perfectly. Only made about 500hp to the rear wheels. Unless your at the the very edge looking for tenths there’s no point to dumping heaps of cash into an intercooler. So really it comes down to application.
I was having thoughts about restriction and pressure drop vs. air temp coming to my own conclusions and wondering if it would be brought up... NeK minnut Exactly my thoughts brought up. Very comprehensive testing and conclusions there Andrew, solid work.
I love this test and is the information I've been looking for. I too run an hks intercooler and hard pipe kit, (albeit in a Makinen evo6 not a gtr) it's 600x300x65 but fits in all factory mounting locations, and is old school jdm cool. It's a built 2.4L with gtx3076r gen2 with .83 rear, (twin scroll atp bolt on exhaust housing with 44mm external gate off housing and 3" v-band exit into atp 3" down pipe) makes 361wkw @31psi but the tuner said intake temps getting hotter than he'd like to see and exhaust is too restrictive (3" full hks hi-power).. Tuner suggested 3.5" minimum exhaust and 100mm thick cooler (also to vent wastegate to atmosphere, which I won't do) but I was thinking (hoping) intercooler could be kept, from what's evident here is that no it may not. Something similar size but more efficient, or larger aswell is necessary. Turbo seems to work harder to creat that psi, also the higher pressure drop which could be cause and solution of turbo working harder and heating the air more meaning less hp. Larger exhaust may benefit in aiding temps too in my case, but reality is it seems those HKS parts will need be recycled onto my galant vr4 lol, which is a shame but not a loss🤷♂️. Would have been nice to still use them on it but shows how the best then, isn't so now. Btw, my FD was the one on the dyno during your mazworx shop tour video years ago, still runs great even though "Rotaries don't last"🤣
Very cool. It would have been interesting to see what the temps were in and out of the cooler with probes. Just seen Warped Perception do it in his vid with the clear end tanks.
Thank you for doing this, I made a lot of power on an ebay 100mm intercooler. The results seemed very miniscule to where it really only would seem to matter when you're trying to trim .01-.1 seconds off of a 1/4 mile...if at all. I wish I had hypertune money back then because I like quality products, but thankful its not a critical performance changing part. I put my money into the turbo, building the head, and block. Garrett GTX 3582R Gen 2 and HKS step 2 2.8L with NAPREC built head.
Water to air intercooler vs air to air thats the one I want to see because everyone raves about water to air saying its the best like the builds on euros and even supercharging the ls with positive displacement.
Awesome man, I'd say for most of us we can get away with the cheaper one where if you have the money & or the car is serious & you want a 1 & done cooler setup then the Hypertune, 1 thing to keep in mind depending where you are is are you allowed to trim the bumper reinforce legally, in NZ you'll usually fail certification for frontal impact if the bumper reinforce is mod
Thank you for the comparison! I would love to see some repeated runs or multi-gear pulls to see if there is some further temp/power differentiation. I guess I was just hoping the power difference would be more noticeable when you have that much power.
Where is the thermal data? I feel the presentation of these results was done in a way that tiptoe'd around stating that the hypertune is a rip off and the JustJap is the clear winner
Would love to see the difference some competent ducting would make to the performance of an intercooler in comparison to no ducting at all. Great review as always!
Ok,so it doesn’t look like there’s too much performance difference on those tests. Should we just stick with our old HKS or trust intercooler? I’m going to. I wonder if you can claw back the small performance losses by just giving the old intercooler a flush through to get rid of any 15year old crap that’s sitting in the bars? It’ll be a cheap test to do.
Would be good to see a comparison against PWR. Aussie designed and made, design and supply heat exchangers for many race teams around the world including Red Bull Racing F1. Suprised they never seem to get mentioned.
Very interesting test, although I feel like going over the graphs at the end was a little irrelevant. They all performed the same, if you did three pulls on the one intercooler I’m sure you would see a very similar variation across all runs. It’s ok to say that you pay for a name or for quality, but from a performance perspective, at this power level, they all provided the same level of cooling.
HKS is the winner here I'm surprised it was that good. HKS wins because its period correct and it doesn't have a massive fuck off logo on it. Seriously easiest way to devalue your product (which is awesome in every other way) is put a ghastly logo on it. Weld a primo laser cut tag on it would looks heaps better.
You really aren’t doing the expensive brands much justice with these tests, first the Plazmaman intake is useless for under 1000hp and now hypertune intercooler really isn’t worth the extra money for the average consumer. In the real world though this could be different but still good to see a comparison. Look forward to the next tests 🤙🏻
Can you show us the intake temp data? I get these results work for the E85 your running but those of us running pump98 are looking for the biggest drop in temp.
Great comparison, but I really wish you had tested a stock intercooler for a base benchmark. That way buyers can evaluate which intercooler to upgrade to should they need to.
I've yet to see a difference with intercoolers on a dyno. However at the track (drag strip) the tube and fin cores heat soak early in the run; likely around the 330' (this was extruded tube and fin). IATs start to cook with big power. A switch to a bar and plate shows no heat soak during an entire run and even lower IAT going through the traps than they were at mid track. I'd take the HKS over the other two any day!
so a cooler that was made and designed 20 years ago makes the same power within 5hp of what is available today ? Makes you think, why the heck would you upgrade now when they nailed it 20 years ago....
nice unbiased vid! a new HKS might be different story. WE would like too see ausie brands punch-on like plazmaman VS hypertune maybe a bar & plate vs tube and fin would’ve been a better challenge, these two “should” have very different characters as bar and plate usually heavier
Plaz and processwest wont do it because they will crap their dacks when they realise ebay can match them. Their fanboys on forums will go mental for pushing 4K coolers for years, out of price regret.
The higher pressure drop from the hypertune and hks intercoolers is happening because they're doing a better job at cooling the hot air coming out of the turbo right?
Great video as always Andrew. Impressive result from all three to be honest, to think and old and likely very expensive at the time intercooler is similar to a modern budget versus a modern premium is quite incredible. I’d go the Hypertune as well if I had the money, it’s automotive porn - let’s be honest 😂
You really need to do this test doing 1/2 mile or 1/3 mile roll racing. Road Racing would do also. Need to see IAT's while the car is under a working load.
Great video as always! I wish you guys actually tested the Japanese intercoolers which were responsible for the old rumours you were speaking of. I have never personally seen a genuine HKS bar and plate intercooler. If it is genuine it must have been a short run. The HKS Type-R or Trust Spec-R 29F are the coolers solely responsible for the old legendary tales.
@@Scott_GT-R They have a HKS logo cast on the end tanks. I have one still sitting around and have had several in the past. The cores are a garrett bar and plate so they are probably the heaviest out of them all
they made them for a long time, prob 10+ years, prob over 15! Dont kid yourself buying one, they were always application specific, full drag, massive boost or circuit car that hammered constant laps. Part of the weight is the brazing is fairly stout to handle big boost/heat without splitting. If I recall these were rated to 1000+ but in reality its prob good for 1300 whp. The old rumours were based on fact, IC's will always be a balance of flow/cooling/burst strength. Better flow = less cooling. You only need to cool what you have or plan to have, left over is pressure/flow drop and a waste. Some of them had an extra tig weld on the end for more strength. Putting one of these on something under 1k hp will result in a loss of power but the most consistency over a long period of time. 99% of gtr owners dont need it. Would you run a stock gtr cooler on a 130hp petrol engine? Same thing, overkill
Anything other than a PWR water to air barrel cooler with an auxiliary interchiller is going to lose. Sorry, but that's simple facts. If you want better charge cooling than that, scrap charge coolers altogether and switch to alcohol fuelling.
A "super used" OG JDM cooler that was not (flushed and cleaned), a cheap JJ intercooler that outperformed the "uber" cooler, and yeah the Hypertune is best. L o fucking L. Nevermind that the Hypertune was the bigger cooler compared to the almost identical HKS and JJ.
