OK, I just found my new IC's. Earl, would you please also post pictures about the installation & required mods??!

I plan to have one on the car for thermal performance testing this weekend, I'll certainly document the install as I go.

you should get two, one for each side :D

They are certainly better than the 996 versions, but why still the plastic end tanks.

great find. sonnen has an awesome price on these - Pelican is at 723$, Tischer at 623$ and Sonnen is 454$ a piece. cores look good to me and the end tanks really sell these to me :D

for 900 seems like a no brainer. i just hope they fit. keep us updated.

:) doing just one for now so I can test the 2 different ICs on the same car.

Not sure why there's so much disdain for the "plastic" end tank -they are made from PA 66 GA30 reinforced polymer, the same thing all your intake manifolds are made out of. I've only seen one failure, and that was from a massive backfire through the intake which would have blown the welds off of an aluminum tank just as well.

I can see the differences with the stock units. I just hope they are significant enough to justify the trouble of putting them on...

Will you do a before and after dyno with the car warmed up? Or would that even be a factor? With the enlarged end tanks, they should make more power?

I'd like to see some test results but I'm still not feeling the stock end tanks. For a little more coin I'd go with 911 tuning units.

To be honest, I won't test intercoolers via a dyno (at least not simple chassis dyno), would you test radiators or oil coolers with a few 5 second pulls? Dynoing an intercooler may show some transient gains from a better flowing core (boost usually jumps a bit as well), but there are many cores out there that will dyno well but don't cool the charge air under any type of significant thermal loading. I will, however, safely do repeated 3-4-5 gear pulls to try and get them to some form of steady state IATs. If the IATs are significantly lower out of this core, then rest assured more power, or better yet, the ability to maintain more power (and safety) over time due to consistenly cooler inlet temps, is there.

I follow your goals, that's why I was asking if it would be a useful measurement to dyno. While cooling ability should obviously be the most important gain in intercooler performance, wouldn't air flow performance be a close second?

To expand on this idea, can anyone think of a way to test the ability of air to move through the intercooler without a dyno? A resistance test? Or would it suffice to say by design, there is a significant improvement.

I think a few of us would be willing to shell out a few dollars towards the cost of a couple of dyno runs. It seems like a dyno would fill in the last piece of the puzzle and tie in the cooling performance with the air resistance qualities.

Regarding plastic end tanks.... if they are good enough to withstand the pressure during rigorous testing of the beastly new 997s / GT2s, I'm sure it will be adequate for my lowly 450hp.

Absolutely, and a flow bench will tell you the pressure drop across the cooler at some amount of airflow. The trick is finding one configured to do intercooler tests. I believe Champion motorsports flow tested these vs the 997.1 core and they performed similarly -given the significant internal fin density improvement & the fact that the .1 coolers have a 1/4" or so open channel on each row (i.e. .1 cooler flow isn't that bad), this isn't a surprise even with the much improved tanks and wider cores. There is a balance between efficiency and flow and I trust that Porsche made a decent compromise when fitting this cooler on the GT2 RS -time will tell but clearly lowering charge temps was a priority.

I wouldn't mind throwing it on the dyno "just to see" after the thermal testing is done. I just wanted folks to understand that some intercoolers may dyno better yet cool worse when it counts (the $1500 knock-off core I posted on the last page is an example of this). Excessive charge temps will kill timing and power way more than asking the compressor for another 1psi to move air across a good core -at least under any type of endurance racing (thinking more towards the road racing crowd here).

my thoughts exactly

..really shutting up now 'til I get some data :)

It really is not strange. :) It has to do with air flow and equally using all the tubes so as to not overload the center tubes and decrease the center tubes efficiency. You can prove this by flowing testing and placing a Pton in the shell while flow testing to locate negative and reduced pressure areas. The purpose of the narrower ends is to force the air to the end tubes and thus utilizing them to their full capacity. When the necking is done correctly you will obtain more efficiecy from any core.

Porsche has done this for a specific reason in proportion to their cores and induction pressures being utilized. If a more efficient core is used, utilizing the same air flow science you will obtain an even more efficient IC.

Putting the above aside, have any IC coated with the Swain heat dispersant coating and you will gain another 5-7% efficiency ............ which is hugh. :cool: BBE Heat Emitting Coating .... For parts where you want to get heat out of a part instead of holding it in a part, BBE coating is applied to
help pull heat out of base metal. BBE is commonly used on intercoolers, air cooled cylinders, air cooled heads and brake calipers. Though the primary purpose of the coating is to improve cooling, the coating does offer a durable semi-gloss black finish. www.swaintech.com

The above are just some of the reasons why Secan IC's are so efficient and expensive. It's not really a secret, they simply incorporate all the state of the art principles and you have to dig this out yourself because they are not going to share. :p

ding ding! winner

though I would think that they are sacrificing some ultimate flow potential for the sake of distribution (not necessarily a bad thing), then again, looks can be deceiving when it comes to airflow. CFD runs & testing, which these guys do lots of at great expense, doesn't lie. The monkey in the wrench is when you try to take a cooler designed for 420hp and start pushing way beyond that. enter the 620hp coolers and things get interesting...hopefully

I love the vacuum cleaner analogy -now why do you think they shape attachments like that? :) yup, because that shape is optimal to distribute "sucking power"

Porsche designed their IC cores to dissipate a certain amount of heat. You need to choose your core and design the end tanks accordingly. It's hard to believe such secrets are still just that. Kinda reminds me of harmonic distortion and header flanges. ;)

earl3,

Thanks for taking your time in showing us the step that Porsche has taken in improving their intercoolers. Very interesting.