Before I decided on purchasing an intercooler, I did what most hopefully do, and did a TON of research on which route I wanted to take. I knew off the bat:
1. I wanted something that could perform well to around 350-400whp.
2. I didn't want to chop the hell out of my car, in terms of safety, to make something work.
3. The fog lights had to stay, because this is a daily driver, and I didn't want big gaps in the front of my car, plus I live in the country, and in my book, the more light on the road at night, the better.
4. I knew I wanted something that was going to looked like it belonged on the car, as smooth and stock looking as possible, without completely hiding the thing.
5. I wanted the pipes to be hidden from a frontal view, but didn't really want pipes that had to run in front of the core, and route up through the bumper support.
I looked at many cores, which I will not name, because those are not what this review is about. I finally found a good amount of information on the Extreme Turbo Systems (ETS) kits and spoke with Tom many times on the phone and through here, DSMTalk. Yes, he's a member (vendor) here, which made the communication much more open.
The cost of these kits is a little bit more than some would pay for the typical eBay or other intercooler setups, but please make sure you read on to see why I had no qualms buying through ETS.
All kits come with 2.5" piping, but 3" is an option. Also, recirculation piping is standard, but you can get the blow through setup pipes if you choose that route, which you can also get through ETS. You also have the choice of which BOV flange you want welded to the pipe. The pipes can be configured for whatever turbo setup you are running, whether it's the T25, 14B/16G, 20g, T3/T4, etc. These kits are designed so you pick out the core for your goals, and if you upgrade your turbo, a single pipe is all that needs to be replaced to be ready to roll again! There are a few other options, like an IC stencil, anodizing, and so forth. The larger kits come with good sized aluminum mounting plates to attach the top tabs of the cooler to the frame of the car for strong support.
At first, I decided on the 7" street kit with a blow-through setup. Because this would be able to handle my Big 16g, and a blow-through setup would allow me to flow better on the front of the turbo and clear through the intake track. I could try out venting, but as I guess most would say, this is not the reason I was choosing this setup. After talking with Tom multiple times, assessing my goals and concerns, I decided to ditch the 7" and the blow-through thoughts and went with Race core in recirculation. I saved money over my initial choice, and I have a core that can handle whatever I will ever throw at it. I want to point out, Tom did not try to convince me to go to a bigger intercooler so they could get more money. In fact, they would have made more off me if he would have kept me in my 7" and blow through mind set. Tom talked to me about what my setup is, where I plan on going, and what core would be ideal for it. He assured me he wanted me to get the setup that would work for me, not what would cost more. A+ service there. When I received my kit, I found that my core measured to 9.75" high, but it's advertised at 10.5". I went and checked the website, and the kit is labeled a 10.5" kit, but the posted measurements are 10" high. I figured, well, maybe there's a little rounding, just like when you purchase a TV and they say it's 50" when it's only 48", but none the less, this is at least a .25" loss over the posted height. But, then I measured the depth of the core, which was supposed to be 3"...and it was 3.5" Woah. I talked to Tom, and he informed me that a batch of cores came in a little bit shorter than the standard height, so I was upgraded to the Pro Race kit to cover the height loss at no cost. Wow, not only did I not get ripped off, I got upgraded automatically. 2:tree:s
The Pro Race core in all it's glory. Mmmm mmm.
The instructions that came with the kit were for the 7" T25 install..but that's fine because I didn't use the instructions at all anyway. There were very nice pictures in there, though. Like 50 of them if I remember correctly, along with step by step instructions for the install.
A checklist of all quality checked and counting parts was included with the invoice, which was awesome to see that someone actually looked at all my stuff before sending it out. :tree:
Installation really is quite straight forward, just time consuming. Some cutting is required, but nothing structurally major such as core support, cross member, etc; just splash guards, bumper, and bumper support cutting were involved. :tree:
Everything was packed very nicely, with two cardboard sleeves installed on the core to protect the fins. All fins were beautifully straight! I was expecting blue ETS labeled couplers, but these seemed to be cut out of a standard 4-ply tube. Oh well, they still looks awesome and are incredibly tough! I swear I put the pipes in the couplers, and even without clamps, those damned things weren't budging (of course, I still used the clamps) :tree:
The silver powder coat finish looks really nice, but seems to be quite easily damaged. Just by rubbing them on plastic put swirls in the coat, and where they touch on the vents on the front bumper, it actually dug away some of the coating while installing it, on both the inlet and outlet pipes. I don't know much about powder coating, but I was under the impression that the stuff was Hulk tough? No matter, I just hope they don't rust where the coating rubbed, because these are standard steel pipes...
The pipe routing is very nice; nothing to installing these puppies in place. A couple bolts, a couple pipes, a couple couplers, a couple clamps. That's all she wrote. The routing nicely goes around all major structural points of the car without making the pipes long and ugly. The intercooler, though very large, fits perfectly between the fog lights, and the pipes clear them as well, which means the fog lights stay! Thing of beauty, and one of the deciding factors in me buying from ETS. The design is truly for this car. 2:tree:x
I did have to cut away some of the hood latch support to give the deep intercooler some room to fit behind the bumper, without cutting away all of the bumper. The instructions recommend hammering this out, but if I hammered it, I was concerned that it would throw my hood latch all out of whack, and I didn't want to deal with that.
With a little finagling, the pipes went in, the core fit nicely centered, and the thing was on the car!
This is an amazing kit, which didn't take a lot of stress to install like many things do, fits amazing, looks amazing, and hopefully does amazing. I still need some stuff before I can begin cranking some air through this thing, but, soon!
The customer service was top notch, and I think I talked the poor guy's ear off with questions, but he readily answered them all, and even called me back when he wasn't available to talk to. Awesome. 2 :tree:s
Again, my only concern in the whole package deal is the powder coating, which seems quite fragile, but maybe I have a misconception on powder coating, since I don't know much about it. I do live in North Eastern Wisconsin, and things around here are prone to rust, but I do not drive it in the winter, so I'm hoping that will help the situation. My beat up aluminum pipes didn't corrode, so I'm hoping these don't either...but if they do, I was informed everything is covered by a lifetime warranty from defects, corrosion, etc. What service, and what quality!
On the whole, ETS gets 9 trees out of 10. I hope the review helps out others looking for their intercooler purchase.
http://extremeturbosystems.com
Now, some pictures!
Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the aluminum plates cut, bent, and mounted to the cooler. I also didn't take pictures of the installing of the galvanized steel mesh I purchased to use as a screen for the vents in the bumper, to protect the intercooler from rocks and other objects. I painted the mesh black so unless you're looking really closely, you can't even really see it...so you get the effect of the front mount visually, while also protecting it. This mesh was purchased at Menards. But, you can make out the mesh in a picture or two.
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1. I wanted something that could perform well to around 350-400whp.
2. I didn't want to chop the hell out of my car, in terms of safety, to make something work.
3. The fog lights had to stay, because this is a daily driver, and I didn't want big gaps in the front of my car, plus I live in the country, and in my book, the more light on the road at night, the better.
4. I knew I wanted something that was going to looked like it belonged on the car, as smooth and stock looking as possible, without completely hiding the thing.
5. I wanted the pipes to be hidden from a frontal view, but didn't really want pipes that had to run in front of the core, and route up through the bumper support.
I looked at many cores, which I will not name, because those are not what this review is about. I finally found a good amount of information on the Extreme Turbo Systems (ETS) kits and spoke with Tom many times on the phone and through here, DSMTalk. Yes, he's a member (vendor) here, which made the communication much more open.
The cost of these kits is a little bit more than some would pay for the typical eBay or other intercooler setups, but please make sure you read on to see why I had no qualms buying through ETS.
All kits come with 2.5" piping, but 3" is an option. Also, recirculation piping is standard, but you can get the blow through setup pipes if you choose that route, which you can also get through ETS. You also have the choice of which BOV flange you want welded to the pipe. The pipes can be configured for whatever turbo setup you are running, whether it's the T25, 14B/16G, 20g, T3/T4, etc. These kits are designed so you pick out the core for your goals, and if you upgrade your turbo, a single pipe is all that needs to be replaced to be ready to roll again! There are a few other options, like an IC stencil, anodizing, and so forth. The larger kits come with good sized aluminum mounting plates to attach the top tabs of the cooler to the frame of the car for strong support.
At first, I decided on the 7" street kit with a blow-through setup. Because this would be able to handle my Big 16g, and a blow-through setup would allow me to flow better on the front of the turbo and clear through the intake track. I could try out venting, but as I guess most would say, this is not the reason I was choosing this setup. After talking with Tom multiple times, assessing my goals and concerns, I decided to ditch the 7" and the blow-through thoughts and went with Race core in recirculation. I saved money over my initial choice, and I have a core that can handle whatever I will ever throw at it. I want to point out, Tom did not try to convince me to go to a bigger intercooler so they could get more money. In fact, they would have made more off me if he would have kept me in my 7" and blow through mind set. Tom talked to me about what my setup is, where I plan on going, and what core would be ideal for it. He assured me he wanted me to get the setup that would work for me, not what would cost more. A+ service there. When I received my kit, I found that my core measured to 9.75" high, but it's advertised at 10.5". I went and checked the website, and the kit is labeled a 10.5" kit, but the posted measurements are 10" high. I figured, well, maybe there's a little rounding, just like when you purchase a TV and they say it's 50" when it's only 48", but none the less, this is at least a .25" loss over the posted height. But, then I measured the depth of the core, which was supposed to be 3"...and it was 3.5" Woah. I talked to Tom, and he informed me that a batch of cores came in a little bit shorter than the standard height, so I was upgraded to the Pro Race kit to cover the height loss at no cost. Wow, not only did I not get ripped off, I got upgraded automatically. 2:tree:s
The Pro Race core in all it's glory. Mmmm mmm.
The instructions that came with the kit were for the 7" T25 install..but that's fine because I didn't use the instructions at all anyway. There were very nice pictures in there, though. Like 50 of them if I remember correctly, along with step by step instructions for the install.
A checklist of all quality checked and counting parts was included with the invoice, which was awesome to see that someone actually looked at all my stuff before sending it out. :tree: Installation really is quite straight forward, just time consuming. Some cutting is required, but nothing structurally major such as core support, cross member, etc; just splash guards, bumper, and bumper support cutting were involved. :tree:
Everything was packed very nicely, with two cardboard sleeves installed on the core to protect the fins. All fins were beautifully straight! I was expecting blue ETS labeled couplers, but these seemed to be cut out of a standard 4-ply tube. Oh well, they still looks awesome and are incredibly tough! I swear I put the pipes in the couplers, and even without clamps, those damned things weren't budging (of course, I still used the clamps
) :tree: The silver powder coat finish looks really nice, but seems to be quite easily damaged. Just by rubbing them on plastic put swirls in the coat, and where they touch on the vents on the front bumper, it actually dug away some of the coating while installing it, on both the inlet and outlet pipes. I don't know much about powder coating, but I was under the impression that the stuff was Hulk tough? No matter, I just hope they don't rust where the coating rubbed, because these are standard steel pipes...
The pipe routing is very nice; nothing to installing these puppies in place. A couple bolts, a couple pipes, a couple couplers, a couple clamps. That's all she wrote. The routing nicely goes around all major structural points of the car without making the pipes long and ugly. The intercooler, though very large, fits perfectly between the fog lights, and the pipes clear them as well, which means the fog lights stay! Thing of beauty, and one of the deciding factors in me buying from ETS. The design is truly for this car. 2:tree:x
I did have to cut away some of the hood latch support to give the deep intercooler some room to fit behind the bumper, without cutting away all of the bumper. The instructions recommend hammering this out, but if I hammered it, I was concerned that it would throw my hood latch all out of whack, and I didn't want to deal with that.
With a little finagling, the pipes went in, the core fit nicely centered, and the thing was on the car!
This is an amazing kit, which didn't take a lot of stress to install like many things do, fits amazing, looks amazing, and hopefully does amazing. I still need some stuff before I can begin cranking some air through this thing, but, soon!
The customer service was top notch, and I think I talked the poor guy's ear off with questions, but he readily answered them all, and even called me back when he wasn't available to talk to. Awesome. 2 :tree:s
Again, my only concern in the whole package deal is the powder coating, which seems quite fragile, but maybe I have a misconception on powder coating, since I don't know much about it. I do live in North Eastern Wisconsin, and things around here are prone to rust, but I do not drive it in the winter, so I'm hoping that will help the situation. My beat up aluminum pipes didn't corrode, so I'm hoping these don't either...but if they do, I was informed everything is covered by a lifetime warranty from defects, corrosion, etc. What service, and what quality!
On the whole, ETS gets 9 trees out of 10. I hope the review helps out others looking for their intercooler purchase.
http://extremeturbosystems.com
Now, some pictures!
Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the aluminum plates cut, bent, and mounted to the cooler. I also didn't take pictures of the installing of the galvanized steel mesh I purchased to use as a screen for the vents in the bumper, to protect the intercooler from rocks and other objects. I painted the mesh black so unless you're looking really closely, you can't even really see it...so you get the effect of the front mount visually, while also protecting it. This mesh was purchased at Menards. But, you can make out the mesh in a picture or two.
