are hks intercoolers good?

[sr420det]

i was wondering is the hks type-r intercooler worth its price?does it impove performance like increase air flow to turbo quick, and looks big and nice on a s13 silvia?

[Prok0]

i was wondering is the hks type-r intercooler worth its price?does it impove performance like increase air flow to turbo quick, and looks big and nice on a s13 silvia?

Yes HKS fmic's are good... increased air flow to the turbo? uhh... turbo pushes air into the fmic, not the other way around...

[TheTimanator]

i was wondering is the hks type-r intercooler worth its price?does it impove performance like increase air flow to turbo quick, and looks big and nice on a s13 silvia?
1.) why the type R? Unless your planning on something over 400 hp you only need the type S. But the type R can be used either way...
2.) It cools the air after the turbo going to the intake manifold. Cooler air means denser (sp?) air which equals more HP. It will not increase air flow or make it spool faster. In fact you might there might be a small pressure drop but its neglible (sp?)
3.) yes it will look big and nice and bling bling on an S13 silvia, but the last time I checked it was still extremely exspensive to import Silvia's and illegal to drive them. Anyway, if looks is what you want, why do you care if it improves performance...

Lastly and most important.... SEARCH b/c someone on this great big internet has covered this topic.

EDIT: woah, this thread went all wrong. Dude, people are going to be sarcastic and flame if you ask such uneducated questions without searching

[sr240mike]

Basically, the biggest intercooler you can fit with the lowest pressure drop is the best intercooler. It probably is worth the money as long as you have a big turbo in front of it. Yes it will look big and shiny through the front fascia so cops can see it from a mile away. I love livin in Cali.

[mjjstang]

I have seen the cheap spearcos on ebay for decent price, real or fake many people are happy with them. also I think the best cheap one is like blitz lm.

[sr240mike]

I was gonna say something about those spearcos too. They're about the same size for like $400 and all you need is the piping and your set.

[epoxy_nc]

i have a spearco and iut's awesome. it's pretty long, but not that high. it fits very nicely in my s13 coupe (93). my .02$.

[Var]

are hks intercoolers good?

It's not OBX. you dont have to ask if it's good. Everything HKS makes is decent quality or better. It will help you boost higher with stock turbo with less chance of pinging. A must in hot weather and you should build your own mister kit when you get it.

[Grandpa]

Basically, the biggest intercooler you can fit with the lowest pressure drop is the best intercooler. It probably is worth the money as long as you have a big turbo in front of it. Yes it will look big and shiny through the front fascia so cops can see it from a mile away. I love livin in Cali.

It also helps to know flow numbers and efficiency as well. I wish other manufacturers would publish these numbers besides spearco.

-john

[240KAT]

HKS>your life.

[Nismo240SX]

the hks type s is a excellent intercooler. very dense internal fins. the type r is the same, but larger.
Shaun (not ryan)

[niceassfd]

i have the hks fmic but my front kit covers half of it(charge speed). how does that affect my performance? thanks

[Var]

if half of it is exposed you should be getting pretty decent cooling.Usually the FMIC blocks flow to the radiator which makes you run hotter under hard driving in hot weather. if you can open up some air to the radiator it would help you more than opening up flow to the intercooler.

[GamblerZ]

i have the hks fmic but my front kit covers half of it(charge speed). how does that affect my performance? thanks

Obviously, if you have a big I/C, you want as much airflow through it as possible. IMO, if your fascia is covering 50% of the I/C, that is a pretty inefficient use of your I/C, particularly if the larger I/C size has resulted in a pressure drop. Then you would be better served with a smaller unit.
1. More efficient
2. Reduced pressure drop
3. Reduced weight (modest)
4. Better cooling (radiator)
As long as it fills the opening, you still have your "bling" factor to boot.

[silviaproject]

Talking about FMICs, what about ARC? Most tuners around here (I live in Switzerland) import HKS (which I wanted to go for), Apexi or Greddy (for ridicolous amounts of money though, if you consider pricing in Japan ur the US). Now a company with good reputation has started selling ARC-ICs as a special upgrade part to the 200 SX... (European 200 SX = Japanese S14, SR20DET) All I could get out of the net was, that they are a rather well known Japanese tuning company with good reputation... Does anybody know more about ARC-ICs, or how good they are especially in comparison to the ones by HKS (Type-R or Type-S)

[SirRacer]

anything that hks makes it excellent quality however for a lot cheaper u could get a good custom cooler built and have more money for mods

i run an hpi(www.hpi.co.jp) cooler and find its excellent, fits perfectly on the s14

[silviaproject]

well, didn't think of that, one company sells HPI-FMIC Kits too... The Problem is, HPI and HKS cost around the same here... Seems like importing on my own can save me lots of money... Having one custom built is quite impossible for two reasons: Aftermarket FMICs are basically prohibited, there' s only a small chance to have them legalized, imagine now the difficulties of a custom built, and second, even if I found someone to build me one it would cost me maybe about the same of a HKS GT-type :)

[silviaproject]

the legal problem becomes so crucial, because in Switzerland you have to turn in your car every now and then and have it inspected... so you can't just bolt-on an FMIC and hope, nobody's gona see it...

[silviaproject]

so i'll just will have to talk to the tuners, which one they think would pass the easiest... So I'll probably go for the HKS... thanky you anyway

[silviaproject]

But you don't know about the ARC-Intercoolers?

[silviaproject]

here's the link to their website, in Japanese, but babelfish helps a lot...

http://www.arcinter.co.jp/

[robs240sx]

Talking about FMICs, what about ARC? Most tuners around here (I live in Switzerland) import HKS (which I wanted to go for), Apexi or Greddy (for ridicolous amounts of money though, if you consider pricing in Japan ur the US). Now a company with good reputation has started selling ARC-ICs as a special upgrade part to the 200 SX... (European 200 SX = Japanese S14, SR20DET) All I could get out of the net was, that they are a rather well known Japanese tuning company with good reputation... Does anybody know more about ARC-ICs, or how good they are especially in comparison to the ones by HKS (Type-R or Type-S)
the ARC is the same quality or better than the HKS unit. in fact ARC makes some of the best cooling items for performance cars

[240KAT]

ARC has some weird-ass piping configuartions though

[fliprayzin240sx]

Id say the 2 best fmic out there rite now would be HKS or blitz LM. Everything bolts up perfectly. Greddy, piping kinda sucks, you still have to modify certain pipes.

[silviaproject]

Thank you all for helping! 240KAT could it be that you are referring to the ARC turn-flow models? These do indeed have weird piping... But I wasn't going to buy this model anyway...

So I think I'm going for the ARC Intercooler, if its quality really is equal or superior to the HKS. And it's even cheaper! But Blitz LM also sounds interesting, it's being sold auround here too and it's a lot cheaper than HKS or ARC, it's in fact the cheapest intercooler-kit with all-aluminium piping. (Or is the HPI IC an all-alumnium-kit too?)

But however, if the HKS is worth the money, i'll buy this one, because I already have a few HKS components in the car... So it all comes down to core quality now... who has the best core HKS, Blitz or ARC? I read on the net (in a Honda forum though), that ARC cores do provide less performance than a comparable unit, but other sources (Nissan specific) are considering them superior... And an ARC intercooler was also used in the Ultimate Street Car Challenge winning 350Z... :) You don't read about many people using HKS FMICs, but that might be because of the price too... Prices in Switzerland don't differ that much (only in a 300$ range), so all I want is to get the best performing IC for my money...

[silviaproject]

ARC Piping: ARC turn-flow vs. cross flow (which I'm interested in):

http://www.arcinter.co.jp/ica2.gif

(The S14 SR20DET Models on the bottom)