HI, I AM LOOKING FOR SOME ADVICE ON THE BENEFITS OF A FRONT MOUNT INTERCOOLER.I HAVE BEEN OFFERED A COMPLETE KIT FOR THE RIGHT MONEY BUT AM UNSURE IF IT IS WORTH SPENDING THE MONEY ON MY 93 WRX.IF ANYBODY CAN HELP I WOULD BE MUCH OBLIGED.

 

amm..countless hours of fun in fitting, kept me busy for a couple of weeks, broke afew things in the process, but once fitted...Mind Blowing ...

 

Basically, they are more efficient.

When you compress a gas, it heats up (basically you have the same amount of energy in a smaller space). If you cool a gas in a fixed volume, its pressure decreases. Therfore if you then cool the air from the turbo, its density increases, its static pressure falls and this should encourage more air to flow.
Thefore by cooling the charge, you increase the mass of air flowing into the engine and get more power.

The i/c needs to be have small passages to maximise heat transfer and therfore needs to be large to reduce the back pressure.

The top mount i/c is limited in size and it also suffers at low speed as the heat from the engine rising actually heats the i/c up.

The front mount i/c can be larger which reduces back pressure, has a higher thermal mass, gets a larger cooling airflow , and does not suffer from heat soak as much.

As to if you need it ? probably not unless you up the boost. You could try the larger STi TMIC and put an i/c spray system on ?

 

thats what i meant....

 

depends on what power your running mate to be honest if youre after around 350+bhp id say get one,otherwise try a larger top mount coz youre gonna incurr a bit more lag because of the pipe runs to and from the intercooler,whereas the top mount is near on direct to the throttle body check this out makes for an interesting read http://www.spdusa.com/big_intercooler.htm