Is an upgraded intercooler necessary/desirable for non-track drivers?

[Eric Arroyo]

Hey guys, I've been doing a lot of research on tuning the Stinger, and I see that a lot of the fastest Stingers have upgraded intercoolers to help reduce heat soak. I don't plan on taking my Stinger to a track, I'm just looking to be pushed back a little harder into my seat when I take off from a stoplight.

Would an upgraded intercooler have any impact as a daily driver with a JB4 tune on a 93 octane map and intakes? Or is heat soak only an issues for back to back 1/4 mile runs?

 

[Shrikecorp]

Hey guys, I've been doing a lot of research on tuning the Stinger, and I see that a lot of the fastest Stingers have upgraded intercoolers to help reduce heat soak. I don't plan on taking my Stinger to a track, I'm just looking to be pushed back a little harder into my seat when I take off from a stoplight.

Would an upgraded intercooler have any impact as a daily driver with a JB4 tune on a 93 octane map and intakes? Or is heat soak only an issues for back to back 1/4 mile runs?

If your daily commute tends to turn into a mix of slogging....and roll races, 0-60 pulls, and the occasional WFO blast...then perhaps.

Personally, I have no recollection of those events, Senator.

 

[ecko04]

Necessary? As in you’ll go kaboom if you don’t upgrade the intercooler? No.

Desirable? As in cooler IATs (intake air temps) are good, you lower the risk of detonation, and your car will appreciate you more? Yes.

Be prepared for a bunch of varying opinions.

Heat soak is not simply a track thing. You have heat soak driving your car to the grocery store and back. Sitting in traffic you have hella heat soak. If you want consistent performance out of the car, regardless of if you’re tracking or driving daily to work, upgrade the intercooler.

There’s a lot of commentary and articles on this topic.

I don’t track my car, won’t track it, and don’t care about 0-60 times...and I upgraded the intercooler.

 

[Tonkabob]

It will make you a little faster but not much. You will notice it more on higher boost maps and longer pulls like on a dyno or doing a 1/4 mile. On map 2 or 3, 0-60 the gains will be pretty small. If you are going for a dyno number or a track or dragy time then go for it. Otherwise probably not. Tune and intake are the biggest hitters.

 

[DaJackson]

Hey guys, I've been doing a lot of research on tuning the Stinger, and I see that a lot of the fastest Stingers have upgraded intercoolers to help reduce heat soak. I don't plan on taking my Stinger to a track, I'm just looking to be pushed back a little harder into my seat when I take off from a stoplight.

Would an upgraded intercooler have any impact as a daily driver with a JB4 tune on a 93 octane map and intakes? Or is heat soak only an issues for back to back 1/4 mile runs?

Your in NH but I’m going to guess you don’t have a lot of 90+ days. Here in LA it’s 90+ for months. Those days it’s easy to get heat soak after a few min of spirited driving. An IC helps reduce that.

An IC is less about making the car faster on the first pull, it’s more about letting the 5th pull feel like the 1st.

 

[Eric Arroyo]

If your daily commute tends to turn into a mix of slogging....and roll races, 0-60 pulls, and the occasional WFO blast...then perhaps.

Lol, makes sense.

Desirable? As in cooler IATs (intake air temps) are good, you lower the risk of detonation, and your car will appreciate you more? Yes.

Heat soak is not simply a track thing. You have heat soak driving your car to the grocery store and back. Sitting in traffic you have hella heat soak. If you want consistent performance out of the car, regardless of if you’re tracking or driving daily to work, upgrade the intercooler.

I think this answers my question. I plan to keep this car for about 10 years so anything I can do to improve the longevity of the car is worthwhile to me. I didn't think about the sitting in traffic issue. Granted, that rarely happens where I live in NH, but still a good point.

And I know "longevity" and "tuning" probably don't belong in the same paragraph, but I plan on keeping the tune mild. I don't care to have the world's fastest Stinger. I'm really just looking for better throttle response and a little more push back from a stop/slow roll.

Thanks for the help guys! I'll add an intercooler to the eventual upgrade list . Now I just need to find some intercooler reviews.

 

[Eric Arroyo]

An IC is less about making the car faster on the first pull, it’s more about letting the 5th pull feel like the 1st.

Thanks for the feedback! I probably won't have many back to back pulls, but we do stay in high 80s/ low 90s for about a month here, then it's back down to mid 80s for the rest of the summer. And summer is when I do most of my more spirited driving. With all the snow and super low temps in winter, my tires won't grip enough to get decent pulls anyway haha.

 

[Yaro]

I don't know about v6 engines, but in 2.0 the cooler is so bad, that I see 50-60 degrees celsius (122-140 fahrenheit). This is very very hot and bad for the engine. Also I noticed that it takes ages to cool down the temperature. On my Evo it takes few seconds to drop the temperature (but the cooler is few times bigger).

 

[Callum]

I did a full blown track day. Stock IC. I don't recall having heat soak. The power was very consistent.

I did have an issue with the oil temps creeping up on me though.

 

[Oryan]

The stock IC isn't terrible. But even if you don't track the car, hot weather and/or lots of traffic can heat soak it. There isn't much reason to NOT get one besides cost, but I wouldn't make it a big priority unless you're somewhere hot and you start to notice heat soak.

 

[ecko04]

IC upgrades don’t have to be cost prohibitive either. You don’t have to drop $1200 on a Wagner.

 

[Manaz]

Heat soak is not simply a track thing. You have heat soak driving your car to the grocery store and back. Sitting in traffic you have hella heat soak. If you want consistent performance out of the car, regardless of if you’re tracking or driving daily to work, upgrade the intercooler.

Heat soak occurs when your car is sitting still and/or there is insufficient airflow to cool the intercooler. In traffic, it can absolutely occur - but by the same token, if you're in stop-start traffic, you're unlikely to be pushing the car hard enough for it to matter.

Heat soak is a big issue at drag tracks, where you spend a lot of time sitting waiting, and very little time with significant airflow through the intercooler - and by the time you have airflow, the race is basically over! This is why you see cars with dry ice on their intercooler's at drag tracks - trying to keep things cool.

For circuit racing, heat soak is rarely an issue. Sure, there might be a bit if you're doing a standing start - but once you're on the move, there's plenty of airflow.

Bigger ICs don't directly fix heat soak - they reduce the impact of heat soak though, as they have more thermal mass (and thus heat up slower - which means they also cool down slower, so what you gain on one side, you basically lose on the other). But the biggest benefit a bigger IC generally provides is more efficiency - the ability to more effectively cool the intake charge after the turbo compresses it (and as a byproduct, heats it). If the stock intercooler has an efficiency of 65% and you have ambient temps of 20°C and post-turbo temps to 120°C, then the post-intercooler temps will be 55°C. Replace the stock intercooler with one with an 80%, and post-intercooler temps will be 40°C. That is the biggest benefit of a replacement intercooler.

 

[Revvdmedia]

I've typically only seen the IAT drop between 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit in a 1/4 mile run from standing start to the end of the run. I would be interested to see how much more, if any, the IAT drops on an aftermarket intercooler over a 1/4 mile run.

 

[Tonkabob]

It varies based on the difference between IAT vs ambient temps. Looking at a few logs with my UP FMIC I see 10 to 22 degree drops.

 

[mitchyboy]

Call me crazy if you want, but i definitely noticed a performance increase after installing my JT intercooler. I think it's a good upgrade to do and has no negatives other than cost.

 

[TStaino]

I don't know about v6 engines, but in 2.0 the cooler is so bad, that I see 50-60 degrees celsius (122-140 fahrenheit). This is very very hot and bad for the engine. Also I noticed that it takes ages to cool down the temperature. On my Evo it takes few seconds to drop the temperature (but the cooler is few times bigger).

Do you know of any IC kits for the 2L, besides this one:
Kia Stinger 2.0T Maintec Performance Intercooler Kit - Kia Stinger dot com

 

[Yaro]

Do you know of any IC kits for the 2L, besides this one:
Kia Stinger 2.0T Maintec Performance Intercooler Kit - Kia Stinger dot com

Nope. We used Subaru GDB 14l front mount, but we are having evil problems with the car because of it.

 

[TStaino]

Thanks Yaro. What kind of problems are you seeing?

And do you think it’s specifically because you used the Subaru IC kit, or do you think you would see those same problems with any aftermarket IC kit?

 

[Yaro]

Thanks Yaro. What kind of problems are you seeing?

And do you think it’s specifically because you used the Subaru IC kit, or do you think you would see those same problems with any aftermarket IC kit?

Big intercooler - problems.