Mease Performance's Intercooler - Super Stocker

These handcrafted intercoolers...        read full caption These handcrafted intercoolers are real masterpieces. Notice the smooth curves of the inlet and outlet tubes, the excellent weld quality between the tanks and the core, and the hand-polished finish. MPE proprietor Keith Mease set out to provide Buick owners with a super-efficient street/strip intercooler that bypassed the cooling problems, turbo lag, and bashed intercooler pipes that accompany a front-mount setup.

The evolution of Turbo Regal intercooler design marches on, despite the fact that these street terrors are fast approaching the 20-year-old mark. Hard-core 3.8 turbo fans have watched as big companies and regular Joes alike ran the gamut with the latest and greatest heat exchangers: from big necks to home-welded double stock locations, to front mounts, then back to more efficient stock locations. Of course, the main problem with a high-performance stock-location intercooler is just that--its location. The tiny stock Garrett cooler fit in the Buick's engine bay fine, but when the core size is doubled, things get a bit tricky. Only a handful of companies produce street/strip stock location intercoolers, with one being Mease Performance Engineering.

MPE, located in the south New Jersey hamlet of Tabernacle, is a precision fabrication shop that specializes in street and race products for GM EFI applications. Most enthusiasts know Mease Performance for its Buick downpipes and upgraded stock intercoolers, but owner Keith Mease's craftsmanship goes beyond those pieces. Mease is currently working on everything from Impala SS twin-turbo kits to custom, built-to-order intake manifolds--and many other items in-between.

One of those items is this beautiful 24-row stock-location intercooler. If you are just tuning in, GMHTP's resident turbo Buick recently picked up three miles an hour at the track with Precision Turbo & Engine's TE44 turbocharger and 50-pound injectors in place of the 30-pound injectors and stock turbo. The 157,000-mile, GNX rear-equipped Buick is internally stock and blowing oil from every orifice, but still was able to traverse Raceway Park's quarter-mile in 12.39 seconds at 110 miles an hour. Suspension shortcomings preventing anything higher than a four-pound launch will soon be fixed, but for now I knew that an intercooler upgrade would be the next logical step. So when Keith Mease offered up one of his polished 24-row stock-location intercoolers (part No. INTTR1, $899) for sacrificial power and temperature testing, we accepted in the name of science and got to work.

Conclusion
When I first saw the size of this intercooler, I figured that there was no way it would fit well. Well, I was wrong. It and the scoop were a handful to get lined up, but both items fit perfectly once in the Buick. Whatever residual turbo lag from the PTE44 was given the boot thanks to the low pressure drop--talk about quick spooling. Gripes were minor: the frame braces had to be moved, which was really no problem. And for an expensive upgrade, we had hoped for solid T-bolt clamps to retain the hoses. But for the power gains and temperature reductions that the Mease Performance intercooler gives you, these issues are almost non-existent. This dead-serious performance upgrade for 9- to 14-second turbo Buicks is available through Ramchargers (888/293-7267), Cotton's Performance (413/789-0531), and Dynotech Performance (908/704-8536). All we know is that it cooled our 12-second car's charge air like child's play. Maybe someday we'll have the power to really push it!

Fixing the Big-Boost Blues
We were stoked to have the MPE intercooler bolted up, as the stock unit had been too inefficient to push past 24psi. With a much larger, more efficient cooler installed, we were ready to push the limits of the crank bearings and C16 race fuel. The dyno pull started out fine with a smooth sweep of the boost gauge, but a 24.5-psi spike was met with an ear-rattling backfire. Thoughts of a ventilated engine block accompanied by an Exxon-Valdez oil slick in SLP's spotless dyno cell were immediate and grotesque.

Initial inspections showed no sign of a ruined block, thank God. The race fuel had come from a sealed metal container, and there were no errant fuel or vacuum lines in the engine bay--which pointed at the ignition. Our wires were good, but an ohmmeter test of the coil revealed a steady 10,500 reading on all three packs, strange since this coil pack was less than two years old and not corroded. Complicating matters further was the original module underneath the coil pack. It had checked out okay before, but strange tachometer readings and long cranking times had surfaced within the last half-year. And finally, I knew damn well that the Delco R42TS plugs were gapped at .035 and surely covered with a fine layer of lead, courtesy of all of the testing as of late. We let the car cool down for 20 minutes and made one smooth pull, but trying it again produced the same backfire. At this boost level there was no need to push things, especially without the shroud installed, so we ended testing for the day.

When I got back to the office, I put a call into Kirban Performance Products for a replacement GM coil pack (part No. 6795, $49) and module (part No. 6590, $175). KPP has a ton of stock-replacement parts on hand, many with a price tag a fraction the size of the dealership stock. When they arrived the next day I grabbed six new R42TS plugs and headed to the garage. The plugs were gapped to .032 and installed. Swapping out the ignition is quick and relatively painless--with the coil and module off the car and the six Torx bolts removed, be sure to view which wires connect at which terminals between the coil and module before unhooking them if you are only changing one component. Since I was changing both, I used the old ignition as a guide for assembling the new one. I removed the coil/module gasket from the old module and set it on the new one. The yellow lead went to tower number 1, the blue went to number 3, the green went to number 5, and the blues on the other side went to the 2, 4, and 6 towers. When all of the leads were connected and a dash of dielectric grease was placed on each, I gently bent the tabs down and screwed in the Torx bolts. The metal mount was bolted back on and the module/coil pack assembly was sitting in the engine bay in no time. The first cold startup was much quicker, and after driving it for awhile I've noticed that my factory tach isn't bouncing around anymore. But best of all, during our return trip to SLP's SuperFlow dyno, the improved ignition saw boost spikes of up to 25 pounds and took them in stride. Not bad for a 17-year-old factory GM ignition.

Calculating Intercooler Efficiency

When dealing with automotive intercoolers, efficiency--from both a thermal and a pressure standpoint--is key. In a perfect world, installing a performance intercooler into your high-tech GM would mean 100+ percent thermal efficiency (hot air leaving the turbo or supercharger is cooled back down to ambient temperature, or in the case of liquid-to-air coolers, even lower), and 100 percent pressure efficiency (no pressure drop through the intercooler). Unfortunately, we live in the real world, where 100 percent intercooler efficiency on a street car is a tall order.

Many factors influence the overall performance of your intercooler, including its core thickness, total surface area, fin design, end tank bends, height and width, scoop arrangement, and mounting location. But two of the most prominent variables are also the simplest: mounting location, and cost.

Since you can pretty much rule out GM producing the cavernous engine bays of the Tri-Five Chevys again, intercooler manufacturers have serious space constraints when designing coolers for late-model vehicles. They usually do an admirable job of finding space to mount the cooler, but many times airflow potential and surface area suffers--and so does efficiency. Regardless of that fact, many of the intercoolers on the market are between 80-90 percent thermal and pressure efficient. There are gains that can be made in both areas for sure, but serious technology and big bucks for the latest and greatest core designs would be needed to achieve greater percentages. And all of a sudden, 90 percent efficiency sounds pretty good.

Thermal Efficiency

To calculate an intercooler's thermal efficiency, you take the temperature in from the turbo minus the temp out of the intercooler, divided by the temp in from the turbo minus the ambient (or outside) temperature. Take that number, multiply it by 100, and you have the cooler's thermal efficiency. Here is the formula:

Temp In-Temp Out
------------------------       X 100 = Thermal Efficiency
Temp In-Temp Ambient

Our stock, 157,000-mile, heat-cycled Garrett intercooler was tested in 69.3-degree-ambient temps. The air entering the intercooler from the turbo was at 267.4 degrees, and was cooled by the intercooler to 150.3 degrees.

267.4 - 150.3 = 117.1
-----------------------------      X 100 = 59% Efficiency
267.4 - 69.3 = 198.1

Fifty-nine percent thermal efficiency is not good in anybody's book.
MPE's enormous super stock-location intercooler fared much better. During testing, the ambient air was at 80.7 degrees. From a 269.5-degree intercooler inlet temp, the Mease unit cooled the charge air to a chilly-by-comparison 102.8 degrees.

269.5 - 102.8 = 166.7
----------------------------       X 100 = 88% Efficiency
269.5 - 80.7 = 188.8

Eighty-eight percent--29 percent better than the stocker. Numbers like that justify the 900-horse core rating that MPE gives this cooler!

Pressure Efficiency

Finding pressure efficiency is easy: simply divide the pressure on the outlet side of the intercooler from the pressure on the inlet side.
Pressure Out
-------------------       X 100 = Pressure Efficiency
Pressure In

Unfortunately, the scale that read pressure differences on the SuperFlow was 0 to 100psi, which meant that the recorded pressures weren't as precise as we would have needed to accurately test both intercoolers.

However, let me share my findings: during dyno testing, I was running 24 pounds of boost. When I removed the stock cooler and installed the MPE unit, I had to turn the boost rod out (or down) five full turns to get back to 24 pounds. Just installing the new intercooler would have bumped the boost from 24 to 29psi, which indicates a much lower pressure drop through the MPE core.

I've heard that a heat-cycled stock turbo Buick intercooler loses between 3-5psi through the core during high-boost operation. So let's use that worst-case-scenario 5psi drop in this formula, while running a hypothetical 24psi of boost:

24psi Out
--------------       X 100 = 82% Efficient
29psi In

The turbo has to push much more air to make up for that pressure loss, and more boost equals more heat. In this case, the stock intercooler would only be 82 percent efficient.

We don't know what the exact pressure drop is in the MPE stock-location intercooler, but let's draw on past aftermarket intercooler research and assume that it is exactly 1psi. So, at 24psi boost:

24psi Out
-------------       X 100 = 96% Efficient
25psi In

The turbocharger doesn't have to work as hard with a 96 percent pressure efficiency, which means that cooler air will be entering the intercooler. The way the MPE intercooler performed for us so well, our guesstimate of 1psi pressure loss could be excessive!

Everything has been maximized...        read full caption Everything has been maximized for big flow on the MPE cooler: 24 rows dwarf the stock cooler's 10, and the end tanks and 3-inch outlets are huge. Although the depth and width of the MPE unit is very close to those measurements on the stocker, the height is a whole 'nother ballgame. The stock cooler measures 9.75 inches, whereas the MPE cooler's height is a whopping 18.25 inches! This increases overall surface area from 119 inches to 232. That surface area adds a ton of cooling power, without widening the core and increasing pressure drop through it. Words fail when the MPE stock-mount intercooler is compared to the stocker, although Rob Schneider summed it up best in Deuce Bigalow--that's a huge bitch!	Delving into both cooler's...        read full caption Delving into both cooler's construction methods show more differences. Although both use a tube and fin design with louvered fins, MPE used shorter 3/8-inch fins in the all-new core, while Garrett used 1/2 inchers in the stock core. Also, MPE fit 6 fins per inch for better cooling power, and Garrett had 4 per inch. From a flow perspective, the tube and fin design will flow less internally than an equally sized, new-technology bar and plate design used by some aftermarket companies.	MPE overcomes that obstacle...        read full caption MPE overcomes that obstacle affordably by simply making the tubes in this tube and fin arrangement taller and wider to make up the flow difference, saving the consumer a wad of cash. And, tube and fin-style cores offer much greater heat transfer efficiency thanks to the thickness of the tube-face material.
This photo of the MPE intercooler...        read full caption This photo of the MPE intercooler shroud shows the divider in the inlet, which directs airflow into the upper portion of the cooler to prevent hotspots. Wing nut and bolt adjustments on the sides of the shroud allow the user to keep the scoop up high for street driving, and down low for max airflow at the track. MPE also offers a thinline electric fan for use on the backside of the cooler for the ultimate in repeatable cooling.	We decided to dyno test the...        read full caption We decided to dyno test the stock cooler, swap it for the new one, and test again. We wanted as much data as possible for this test, so we propositioned SLP Performance Parts of Toms River, NJ for a little SuperFlow dyno time. Chief Engineer Brian Reese would be handling the testing, and his staff prepped the Buick by tapping my Houston downpipe above the dump for a wide-band 02 sensor.	GMHTP was looking for not...        read full caption GMHTP was looking for not only horsepower and torque numbers, but for intercooler inlet/outlet temperature readings as well.
To measure those parameters,...        read full caption To measure those parameters, Brian and his crew tapped both sides of our stock Garrett cooler with thermocouple fittings and ran the lines to the SuperFlow control unit.	Several pulls were made to...        read full caption Several pulls were made to back up our previous best of 361 horses and 434 lb.-ft. of torque at the wheels. Those numbers, recorded after 10 minutes of warm-up driving on the dyno, were almost exact from where we had left off with the PTE44 turbo and 50-pound injectors.	Meanwhile, the MPE intercooler...        read full caption Meanwhile, the MPE intercooler had been equipped with inlet/outlet pressure and temp fittings, as well. With directions in hand and SLP's Joe Bouboulis assisting, the cooler swap began. The Mease Performance Engineering intercooler came complete with everything needed for installation. The only other items needed were a drain pan, some thread sealant, coolant, and a tool set.
Since many of the stock intercooler's...        read full caption Since many of the stock intercooler's bolts had a nasty habit of falling out anyway, removing it along with the shroud took all of 10 minutes. We also disconnected the battery, took off the radiator cap, pulled the up-pipe and MAF pipe, and removed the serpentine belt.	From underneath you can see...        read full caption From underneath you can see the passenger- and driver-side intercooler brackets, both of which must be removed. Note that the drivers-side mounting studs are left on to mount the new bracket. Now would also be a good time to unbolt non-MPE frame braces if you've got 'em. They won't remount in the original locations with the MPE intercooler, since it hangs down lower--we learned this lesson the hard way. You have two choices here: you can re-drill the passenger side brace to clear after installation, or you can buy 1-inch-outer-diameter mild steel replacements from MPE for $90.	The driver-side bracket bolts...        read full caption The driver-side bracket bolts up no prob to the factory location, but the passenger-side uses two six-inch water pump through bolts to mount its bracket. The bolts were prepped with thread sealant on one end, and we ended up removing the water pump pulley to access the original water pump bolts. We quickly removed the two bolts underneath the water pump housing and swapped them for the longer studs. Once they were tightened down with lock washers, we loosely installed the bracket and popped on the intercooler-to-turbo transition hose and clamp.
The hardest part of the MPE...        read full caption The hardest part of the MPE cooler swap was actually lining the big cooler up with its mounting brackets. Both Joe and I gave it a shot, to no avail. We then combined our efforts and with four hands at work, we were able to line up the four mounting bolts with the adjustable brackets. It took some patience, but once the bolts were tightened down, the cooler fit like a glove. No turbo clocking was necessary with the PTE44 to line it up with the intercooler inlet neck, although it may be a different story with a bigger turbo. The turbo-to-cooler hose was connected and tightened, as was the MPE up-pipe.	he MAF pipe was reconnected...        read full caption he MAF pipe was reconnected and clamped down. All remaining loose ends like the radiator cap and battery cables were reinstalled. At this point it was getting late around the SLP digs, and we didn't have time to take the Buick off the dyno and get it on a lift for shroud installation. We tried a couple of pulls without it, but an ignition problem reared its ugly head (see "Fixing the Big-Boost Blues"), and we were forced to drive home without the shroud, and without dyno numbers.	For the shroud installation,...        read full caption For the shroud installation, a lift is a must--enter Stage 1 Automotive in Pompton Plains, NJ (973/839-4900). We stopped by to have our air conditioning charged and proprietor Rob Chilenski offered to get the shroud in place. The rubber air diffuser was removed, and loosening the sway bar attachments yielded enough room to squeeze the shroud into place.
Self-tapping screws secured...        read full caption Self-tapping screws secured it, and the diffuser and sway bar mounts were placed back into position. A word of note: the two rubber front airdams may have to be adjusted or cut not to interfere with the enormous scoop, and a flat length of rubber hose may be needed between the swaybar and the scoop to prevent false knock readings.	Back at SLP with a 5-gallon...        read full caption Back at SLP with a 5-gallon can of race gas, we hooked everything back up to the intercooler and the dyno. The car was prepped by uncapping the dump, draining the 93-octane and refilling with C16, bumping the timing to 27 degrees low gear, 25 degrees high, turning the boost up to 24 pounds, and hooking up DirectScan and the wide-band 02.	Reese was able to keep an...        read full caption Reese was able to keep an eye on the pressure and temp numbers from the hand-held SuperFlow control unit.
Horsepower at the wheels jumped...        read full caption Horsepower at the wheels jumped from 361.8 to 387.1, and torque went from 434.0 lb.-ft. to a wicked 465.2 at the rollers--25.3 horses and 31.2 pound-feet more. Notice how the horsepower and torque curves from the MPE cooler don't drop off at high rpm like the curves from the stock intercooler do.	This graph shows the awesome...        read full caption This graph shows the awesome cooling power of a high-efficiency intercooler in relation to the stocker. The empty triangles represent the stock Garrett intercooler's performance--although the numbers continued off the graph, 69-degree ambient air (open circle at bottom) was heated by the turbo to 267 degrees (open triangle, top). The stock intercooler cooled that charge to 150 degrees (open triangle, bottom)--a 117-degree reduction. But the Mease intercooler blew the stocker away. An 80-degree ambient temp (closed circle at bottom) was heated to 269 degrees by the turbo (closed triangle, top). After passing through the new intercooler, that air was only 102 degrees (closed triangle, bottom), a huge 167-degree drop. That's within spitting distance to ambient at 24 pounds of boost, and damn close to the 100-degree air that the temp sensor in the air filter was reading on DirectScan. That is scary efficient.	Track testing was performed...        read full caption Track testing was performed in much worse conditions than our last test of the TE44 and 50-pound injectors. On April 1, 2003, 56 degrees, 40 percent humidity, and a minus-725-foot density altitude allowed the big Buick to post a 12.39 at 110.30 miles an hour. When we tested the MPE intercooler on August 25, 2003, the temp climbed to 84 degrees, humidity reached 87 percent, and the density altitude was over 2400 feet. And since we must obey the stricter noise requirements now in place at Raceway Park, the dump pipe must remain closed. We've seen over 7 horses at the wheels with it open on SLP's dyno, so we know we left some on the table during drag testing. With the same 4-pound launch, 1.80 60-foot time, and 24-pound max boost, we turned in a 12.34 ET at 109.33. And although they're not the numbers that we would be reporting in cooler air, it is a better ET in horrible conditions. When fall comes and brings cooler air with it, we see three tenths being slashed off of the Buford's ET.