Intercooler options for a 3800 SC

[Matt Cramer]

Just acquired a Regal GS, and I'm looking into intercooler options as I can't think of a sound reason for a motor with a Roots blower not to have an intercooler. I don't plan on turning up the boost very much as this is a daily driver. What options are out there? So far, I've seen options from ZZ Performance, W Body Store, and that guy selling cores without the rest of the parts on eBay. How do these stack up? Any other options or good examples of home-brew setups?

[Imp558]

This is the guy I want to make mine, I like the idea of the phenolic body so it insulates the blower from the intake to help keep the intake cooler. Realistically if you aren't doing much boost it may be better to go with a "Short Stack" style, easier for hood clearance. Welcome to the forum.

 

[Matt Cramer]

Thanks! The "short stack" looks like a good system and it's hard to beat the price. And maybe I can persuade my wife it's a long term durability mod...

[digitaloutsider]

Frankly, I'd spend money elsewhere that isn't an intercooler if you plan on staying mostly stock. You're going to start breaking transmissions from power before you really need to worry about chipped pistons.  You need to scan the car and see what KR you're getting.  If you want daily reliability with extra power, I'd drop to a 3.5/3.6" pulley, get a ZZP 3" downpipe, 180 t-stat, 104s, and a tune and call it a day. 

[jake91]

What he said^

[Matt Cramer]

Frankly, I'd spend money elsewhere that isn't an intercooler if you plan on staying mostly stock. You're going to start breaking transmissions from power before you really need to worry about chipped pistons.  You need to scan the car and see what KR you're getting.  If you want daily reliability with extra power, I'd drop to a 3.5/3.6" pulley, get a ZZP 3" downpipe, 180 t-stat, 104s, and a tune and call it a day. 

To clarify, are you saying that without other mods there are not significant power gains from an intercooler and appropriate tune on an otherwise stock 3800, or that the power gains from the other recommended parts are going to be larger than those from an intercooler?

[digitaloutsider]

I guess I'm saying both.  Until you start getting to more serious modding and S/C pulleys smaller than 3.4" (or have some serious issues with KR on mild mods), there is going to be minimally gained from the expense and work involved in adding an intercooler.

 

As for your first point, you're not going to gain anything from adding an intercooler to a stock 3800 with a stock tune.  Add an IC and play with timing if you want, but again, don't really see the point..  You could move to an E85 tune if you really wanted to do that.

[Imp558]

An intercooler alone isn't going to provide terribly noticeable power gains. They are used primarily to cool the intake charge to a reasonable temp when you start making a large amount of boost to help control knock.

[Matt Cramer]

I was not really expecting the intake charge temperature to be at a reasonable temperature at 7 psi with a Rootes blower - I may need to stick a sensor on there and measure what I'm getting. I've seen turbo cars pick up reasonable gains from intercooling at 7 psi, and was expecting something comparable on these motors.