How to add a used intercooler to a pre-owned turbo or supercharger

Carl
By Carl Heideman
Sep 7, 2024 | Mazda, Turbo, supercharger, intercooler | Posted in Shop Work , Features | From the May 2018 issue | Never miss an article

Photography by Carl Heideman

[Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the May 2018 issue of Grassroots Motorsports.]

Remember that salvage yard supercharger build that we chronicled in the February issue? Using pre-owned parts, we boosted a 1992 Mazda Miata from 98 horsepower at the wheels to 153. Total cost for the entire endeavor: less than $200.

The project exceeded our power wishes and met …

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Comments
frenchyd
frenchyd UltraDork
2/5/19 3:59 p.m.

Another way to go to cool the charge would be to use alcohol rich fuel like E85.  

It would be wonderful if you could do a pull using the intercooler and then one using E85 without the intercooler. Finally one last pull using the intercooler with E85. 

MadScientistMatt
MadScientistMatt UltimaDork
4/27/24 11:51 a.m.

These days, new CX Racing or similar intercoolers are often cheaper than an equivalent sized junkyard piece.

DavyZ
DavyZ Reader
9/9/24 10:22 a.m.

Glad this story was reposted.  It's always comforting to see ingenuity like this being applied to solve situations where cubic dollars are not always (or don't have to be) the solution.

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