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Will a turbo intercooler work for a Procharger?

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As the title states will a cheap $300 turbo intercooler work well with a procharger? I recently heard on one of the field report podcasts that there was a difference between the two. I'm on a pretty tight budget so seeing a procharger intercooler being around $1000 vs the turbo intercooler at $300 I felt it was worth my time to ask about it here.

For an average built it doesn't make much difference if you use a cheaper option. I'm using large cheap Chinese intercooler for 3.4 bar of boost and it's doing its work just fine. However, if the goal is to squeeze every half a pony or get spool 50-100 RPM faster and that little difference really matters then it's worth spending big bucks on high quality stuff. But 99 percent of the cases you do not need those unless you are a pro chasing friction of a second...

They both work on exactly the same principle - transferring thermal energy (heat), from the air passing from the 'charger to the manifold, to the ambient air passing through the charge cooler.

What works for one should work equally well for the other.

That's a big price difference, though, is the "pro-charger" version an air>liquid type, as that needs more support for the addition plumbing and parts needed to make it work properly?

Another factor you may need to consider is if the "expensive" option is a vehicle specific one, with ALL the parts required to fit, it may be better value, overall, than a "cheap" one that is just the cooler and you have to search out all the other parts required to fit it, with potentially further modifications required on the vehicle and/or charge cooler end caps. Depending on what you have around your garage, and your fabrication skills, etc. the "expensive" one can actually work out quite resonable as it's saving time and additional fuel usage running around chasing parts.

As Shota said, depending on design details, a "cheap" cooler may not be much less efficient than an "expensive" one, especially as the price difference may allow the purchase of a larger version - but you do need to be careful because some "cheap" coolers aren't worth their weight in scrap aluminium.

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