I was wonderind if a larger intercooler would increase performance. I was talking to a guy with a WRX. He showed me a picture of this intercooler he bought, I think made by perry or something. That core is like 30 x 14 x 4 . He is going from something like 24 x 10 x 3. I doubt he is putting more down 400whp. He is still on stock pistons and rods. Would just changing the to a big intercooler like that drastically increase performance without changing anything else? I am sure that intercooler is 1200+ dollars.

 

It's not just switching to a bigger intercooler is better, its just the bigger intercooler he got is more efficient than the smaller stock one. That is all. Remember, bigger is not always better. Too big of an intercooler and you loose some psi through it and you have to compensate for that by upping the boost on the turbo. To small of an intercooler and you are not getting the cooling effect of one.

 

The first size I listed was already a front mount. he is going from a smaller front mount to a larger front mount. The first one he had was already big, and the second one is huge. He is not changing anything else and expects big gains.

 

He is probably just doing it for looks and bling factor. How does he know he needs a larger one? Does he have temperature measurements? There is an optimal size depending on what kind of driving/racing you do, and going beyond that point doesn't help any.