What is the best intercooler out right now for the common rails??

 

I see alot of spearco ones but the banks one I bought has run fine I cant complain.

 

I hear good things about the hellmann and the new one from htt but I havent ran one to say how good they are.

 

I really like the HTT cooler. I saw a 150 degree drop across the board with it.

 

Thats not to bad. Aluminum tig welded units? Hows the pricing?

Not that I need one now but if all the guys that swore the banks unit wont hold high hp are correct then one day I may need one.

 

I wouldn't say that Banks couldn't hold HP especially when NADP is using them to a degree of success.

I have no direct experience with the Banks or any other than the HTT which I am running and I am very impressed with it all the way around.

 

Has anyone tried the new sub zero intercooler from ATS?

 

I am running a banks intercooler.....and truthfully for the price it can't be beat....not too say it is the best on the market, but for what i paid for it i could not buy another brand, especially with the upgraded tubing and hoses and intake horn

 

Yep thats what I bought it for. Seemed like a steal for what you get for the money. Ya get everything for the same price or cheaper than most peoples intercooler alone.

 

That is a good point. It is one of the few things banks gives a lot of value for. The difference in efficiency it may not, or may, have over some of the others might not be enough to justify the price of others as well. Just as the stocker is good to a certain HP point, the Banks HP point (whatever it is) I am sure is good enough for most folks.

Point is, Banks CAC may not be as good, (efficient) as Spearco, HTT, BD or others (and we really don't know that it is not), but the difference is probably not going to be noticed in the HP made by most trucks here and is made up in price for sure.

 

people told me they only test them to like 60 psi but that doesn't mean that at 61 psi they pop. Anyway the other thing is the piping is bigger than stock. Which also means that if you switch intake horns then u will need an adapter and the common aftermarket boots like rips won't fit .

 

The core construction is what makes one more efficient than others. Tube and fin construction is the same as a radiator is. That is the technology that has mainly been used for years. OEM uses tube and fin and so do Banks. Extruded tube construction has much less resistance in the flow. They tend to flow better with no restrictions on the inside. That is what we use in our intercoolers. Now with our new cast end tanks these will take 100psi.

 

So the only question I have is how much will this type of construction hold to?
if nadp is using them it should be pretty high right?

Also at what horsepower level does the cac become the restrictive weak link?

 

Who knows? Kantdrive is correct about the construction. But just like you made a choice in price, so did I. Sorry Pat, I really wanted the BD, but saved a bunch of money going the HTT route... so far it is impressive.

I think the question is always going to be out there about which is best until someone does actual head to head testing that measures flow, measures temp drop side to side, thermal efficiency and measures HP gain/loss under identical circumstances. Right now, no one really puts out any numbers other than to say "were bigger than stock" or "flow % more than stock". BD does however at least tell you their thermal efficiency is around 90%... That is something to go by, (and 90% is significant!) but no one else tells you this so???? What can you compare to??

 

Price can definately play into a purchase. The extruded tube construction does cost more than tube and fin. Anything is better than stock. In testing on our 05 at 70psi we had less than 1psi loss from inlet to outlet. The stock one was 18psi. Another "un named competitor" was 14psi loss, so you cant always bank on performance.