Subaru Impreza Front Mount Intercooler Kits?

Question

Im looking at purchasing a front mounted intercooler kit for my 03 WRX Impreza Turbo can anyone gimme an insight into a best fitting option. ie one that requires no, or minimal bumper cutting etc. thanks

Answer 1

Any kit that has better cooling and as little pressure drop as possible is going to require you to cut the bumper up for fitment and also remove the factory crash beam. There is a risk in doing this because if you get into a minor fender bender and there is more damage than there would have been if the crash beam was there, the insurance company may deny your claim and possibly drop your policy. It happens if you search around. Also consider that a bigger intercooler and extra piping on the small TD04 turbo will move the power band to the upper RPM's a little because of the increased lag. I think you need to do a little more research as most quality top mounts can give just as good cooling and less pressure drop which means more power even at the same boost level. Also know that it's which ever you decide to go with, simply installing the intercooler is not going to do much for you. Tuning is required to get the benefits of better cooling. As far as heat soak, some good wrapping or thermal coating of the turbine side, up pipe and down pipe can reduce it quite a bit. Check out companies like APS, Perrin, and TurboXS for good quality front and top mounts.

Answer 2

Unless you are building a 100% race car that needs maximum airflow over the intercooler core to quell detonation by keeping the heat down in the engine, a top mount intercooler will work just fine. Is it AS efficient as a front mount? Not quite, by something minimal like 2%. Heat soak is only an issue if you are running at peak boost for extended periods of time, such as track days. On the street there isn't much benefit as you will spend 90% of your time driving off boost. There are kits from APS, TurboXS that require no cutting (supposedly), and they also offer upgraded top mount intercoolers, as do companies like Helix, which while somewhat unknown, have better prices than better known brands. Also, as another said, unless you've upgraded the turbocharger, heat shouldn't be much of an issue yet. Most people get front mounts because of the look, because it "looks" aggressive, and if that's the logic behind it, that's fine, but I wouldn't do a front mount on a WRX even if I doubled the power, at least not a street car.

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.



RE:

Subaru Impreza Front Mount Intercooler Kits?

Im looking at purchasing a front mounted intercooler kit for my 03 WRX Impreza Turbo can anyone gimme an insight into a best fitting option. ie one that requires no, or minimal bumper cutting etc. thanks

Answer 4

Well...anything that comes as a kit for your car is probably going to have minimal fabrication required, though most might require drilling into the bumper support. Good kits are going to be upwards of 1k as stated above (such as Perrin's kit)...but frankly you're better off just buying a chinese ebay special for around 100 bucks and piecing the kit together yourself (i.e. the silicone piping).



It's probably only worth it if you're running higher boost than factory.

Answer 5

Why would you?



The WRX is designed for a top mount, and you're not going to improve on anything by switching to a less efficient design.



Edit:



Oh? Really?



Yeah, try living in the REAL WORLD.



http://www.importtuner.com/powerpages/0304it_2002_subaru_wrx_2/index.html



Oh look, dyno proven results.



2000 to 3500 Horsepower: 2 - 8

2000 to 3500 Torque: 2 - 12

3500 to 5500 Horsepower: 0 - 5

3500 to 5500 Torque: 0 - 12

5500 to Redline Horsepower: 1

5500 to Redline Torque: 0 - 1



Looks like your average torque gain is going to be around 3-4. And your average horsepower gain around 2.



Yeah, that's clearly "improves greatly to torque ".......I'm going to guess you're only going to focus on the "12" part of those numbers, though.



But hey, if you want to spend $1000+ on 3-4 horsepower/torque.....that's your wasted money, not mine.