Department Of Boost
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Well here ya go kids, we did our intercooler (IC) water pump test. And here is some of the data for you. Not all the data we gathered, it was really a IC design test for us and the pump data was a bonus. We’re not going to be publishing data on what we found out about IC’s because that stuff is top secret and for us. No need to give the competition a leg up.
Test Rig:
Our test rig was set up like and engine compartment. IC where the IC goes, HE where the HE goes, pump where the pump goes (well, should go) and we used hose lengths pretty much identical to most of the IC systems out there. The HE we used is a stock 2007 GT radiator. We figured it would be a good middle of the road substitute. We couldn’t go and test every HE out there too. Every pump was run on the same rig, the same way, the same day. It doesn’t get anymore A/B than this.
Pumps:
-GT500/Terminator/Lightning Bosch pump. We used this as the baseline. This is what most kits come with. So everything is judged off of this.
-Lingenfelter Stewart EMP. This is the big daddy pump everyone has been talking about. It is a Steward Warner pump that Lingenfelter hot rodded to run at 18v. It’s a beast, and expensive ($570), and big, and heavy, and will be tricky to mount. Do not confuse this with the standard Stewart pump, that one runs at 12v and doesn’t perform as well.
-Davies Craig EWP150. We got this little fella from an Australian company that has been doing water pumps for years. Trick little unit. Because of how it looks we call it the “Turbo Pump”. It’s light, it’s inexpensive ($250) and looks cool.
-Meziere 55gpm
-Meziere 20gpm
-Rule 2000. This is a bilge pump. A lot of drag race guys use them in ice chests.
Stock IC Systems:
This is what most of you are going to be interested in. We replicated your average stock IC system and its restrictions. Pretty much all of the manifolds/IC’s out there have water fittings/ports that are way undersized compared to the hose diameter (3/4”). To add insult to injury most of them have a couple of hard 90’s in and out of the IC. We replicated a GT500 setup. This is a good benchmark. The Whipple HO for the 3v is about the same, the Kenne Bell’s a little worse, the Roush 3v TVS is about the same, the M90 is worse and the Coyote manifolds (Roush/Whipple which are the same) are about the same too. The Saleen and Eforce are a lot worse. So this data is going to be what most of you can expect from your current systems.
Results are in order of best to worst in gallons per minute (gpm):
Lingenfelter – 9.3gpm
Davies Craig EWP150 – 6gpm
Meziere 55gpm – 5.2gpm
Rule 2000 – 5.1gpm
Bosch/GT500 pump - 5.1gpm
Meziere 20gpm – 4.25gpm
Clearly the Lingenfelter is s a BEAST! It should be though. It’s expensive, it’s huge, it’s heavy, it’s a PITA to mount and it draws a PILE of amps. You had better have a good alternator to be running this bad boy. That said, if you want a silver bullet to solve your IAT issues and don’t want to gut your entire system and go crazy this is a great option.
Department Of Boost GT450 Intercooler:
We always thought that we made a better IC than the other stuff out there. And we were right (patting myself on back). Less restriction at the point where the water goes in/out of the IC pays off. Here is how the pumps ran with our IC on there.
Results are in order of best to worst in gallons per minute (gpm):
Lingenfelter – 13gpm
Davies Craig EWP150 – 8.5gpm
Meziere 55gpm – 7.5gpm
Rule 2000 – 7.25gpm
Meziere 20gpm – 7.25gpm
Bosch/GT500 pump – 6.5gpm
As you can see with the GT450's less restrictive setup all the pumps work better. An average of 28% better! 28%!!!!!! I don’t care what performance you are measuring, 28% is a huge increase. This is all down to our IC design, there were no other changes, none, zero, zip.
Other Stuff:
And this is just the start. We learned a lot from this test. You guys will be seeing our newer manifolds (R-Spec and Coyote) with even better IC’s than our GT450 is.
-The Coyote manifold is 43% better than the GT450 (and a whole lot better than the stock type stuff).
-The R-spec…..wait for it……is 124% better than the GT450. Yeah, 124%! We had that sucker moving 24.5gpm, and it was not with the Lingenfelter pump.
-Our GT500, Terminator, GT Supercar IC replacement kits will be 43-51% (depending on what car) better than the stock stuff that is in there now.
One more tidbit of info. We ran all the pumps at 14.2 volts (what your car is supposed to make) and 13.2 volts which is what a lot of them do make because of weak alternators/batteries/wiring issues, etc. That 1 volt in power drop killed every single pumps flow right about 20%. So if you have a weak alternator your pump performance is suffering. Check your voltage while running (you can do this with a SCT, Aeroforce, etc). You can find some quick pump performance just making sure your charging system is doing it’s thing.
So there it is, short and sweet. If you have any questions LMK. I’m going to post this and head out the door to play with the S550 for the day (working on it). I won’t be able to check this until late tonight or tomorrow morning.
Hope this helps!
Test Rig:
Our test rig was set up like and engine compartment. IC where the IC goes, HE where the HE goes, pump where the pump goes (well, should go) and we used hose lengths pretty much identical to most of the IC systems out there. The HE we used is a stock 2007 GT radiator. We figured it would be a good middle of the road substitute. We couldn’t go and test every HE out there too. Every pump was run on the same rig, the same way, the same day. It doesn’t get anymore A/B than this.
Pumps:
-GT500/Terminator/Lightning Bosch pump. We used this as the baseline. This is what most kits come with. So everything is judged off of this.
-Lingenfelter Stewart EMP. This is the big daddy pump everyone has been talking about. It is a Steward Warner pump that Lingenfelter hot rodded to run at 18v. It’s a beast, and expensive ($570), and big, and heavy, and will be tricky to mount. Do not confuse this with the standard Stewart pump, that one runs at 12v and doesn’t perform as well.
-Davies Craig EWP150. We got this little fella from an Australian company that has been doing water pumps for years. Trick little unit. Because of how it looks we call it the “Turbo Pump”. It’s light, it’s inexpensive ($250) and looks cool.
-Meziere 55gpm
-Meziere 20gpm
-Rule 2000. This is a bilge pump. A lot of drag race guys use them in ice chests.
Stock IC Systems:
This is what most of you are going to be interested in. We replicated your average stock IC system and its restrictions. Pretty much all of the manifolds/IC’s out there have water fittings/ports that are way undersized compared to the hose diameter (3/4”). To add insult to injury most of them have a couple of hard 90’s in and out of the IC. We replicated a GT500 setup. This is a good benchmark. The Whipple HO for the 3v is about the same, the Kenne Bell’s a little worse, the Roush 3v TVS is about the same, the M90 is worse and the Coyote manifolds (Roush/Whipple which are the same) are about the same too. The Saleen and Eforce are a lot worse. So this data is going to be what most of you can expect from your current systems.
Results are in order of best to worst in gallons per minute (gpm):
Lingenfelter – 9.3gpm
Davies Craig EWP150 – 6gpm
Meziere 55gpm – 5.2gpm
Rule 2000 – 5.1gpm
Bosch/GT500 pump - 5.1gpm
Meziere 20gpm – 4.25gpm
Clearly the Lingenfelter is s a BEAST! It should be though. It’s expensive, it’s huge, it’s heavy, it’s a PITA to mount and it draws a PILE of amps. You had better have a good alternator to be running this bad boy. That said, if you want a silver bullet to solve your IAT issues and don’t want to gut your entire system and go crazy this is a great option.
Department Of Boost GT450 Intercooler:
We always thought that we made a better IC than the other stuff out there. And we were right (patting myself on back). Less restriction at the point where the water goes in/out of the IC pays off. Here is how the pumps ran with our IC on there.
Results are in order of best to worst in gallons per minute (gpm):
Lingenfelter – 13gpm
Davies Craig EWP150 – 8.5gpm
Meziere 55gpm – 7.5gpm
Rule 2000 – 7.25gpm
Meziere 20gpm – 7.25gpm
Bosch/GT500 pump – 6.5gpm
As you can see with the GT450's less restrictive setup all the pumps work better. An average of 28% better! 28%!!!!!! I don’t care what performance you are measuring, 28% is a huge increase. This is all down to our IC design, there were no other changes, none, zero, zip.
Other Stuff:
And this is just the start. We learned a lot from this test. You guys will be seeing our newer manifolds (R-Spec and Coyote) with even better IC’s than our GT450 is.
-The Coyote manifold is 43% better than the GT450 (and a whole lot better than the stock type stuff).
-The R-spec…..wait for it……is 124% better than the GT450. Yeah, 124%! We had that sucker moving 24.5gpm, and it was not with the Lingenfelter pump.
-Our GT500, Terminator, GT Supercar IC replacement kits will be 43-51% (depending on what car) better than the stock stuff that is in there now.
One more tidbit of info. We ran all the pumps at 14.2 volts (what your car is supposed to make) and 13.2 volts which is what a lot of them do make because of weak alternators/batteries/wiring issues, etc. That 1 volt in power drop killed every single pumps flow right about 20%. So if you have a weak alternator your pump performance is suffering. Check your voltage while running (you can do this with a SCT, Aeroforce, etc). You can find some quick pump performance just making sure your charging system is doing it’s thing.
So there it is, short and sweet. If you have any questions LMK. I’m going to post this and head out the door to play with the S550 for the day (working on it). I won’t be able to check this until late tonight or tomorrow morning.
Hope this helps!
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