INTERCOOLER THOUGHTS? Are they worth it?? Noticeable improvement?

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Dmoore8886

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Just added a Cobb intercooler. Love it. It does make a difference in my opinion. I paired it with a new BBK 73 mm throttle body. It is a lot more responsive, especially in sport mode. Previously have installed AFE Cold Air, Bola Exhaust.
 

MacK88DO

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I installed the Cobb unit on my rig and I kick myself for not doing it sooner. I absolutely feel a noticeable difference being down in Texas. I understand all the warranty talk, but in my mind it’s simple. Don’t modify if you’re more concerned about paying for repairs. You gotta pay to play! In my mind if something breaks it’s just an opportunity to rebuild it better/stronger/faster.


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highway420

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Not sure why people user aftermarket BOVs - I've seen nothing but issues with them on this forum.
thought it was an upgrade... I've had a major code and gone to limp mode with it. driving normally on highway. :( Not to mention that horrible sprinkler it came with .. LOL... actually, not that funny. i'm still sore about it.
 

thor1958

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Your truck may make 450whp in perfect conditions on a cool 55 degree day w/ 30% humidity, but after a series of hard WOT runs, sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, running off-road in 4wd hard in 80+ degree weather, etc etc your peak power will star dropping as IATs rise, the ECM will lull timing to prevent knock & protect engine & you’ll start making less power until your down quite a bit & the truck rests/cools down.

An aftermarket intercooler will help alleviate this issue & help feed the turbos consistency cool dense air
 

thor1958

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Makes perfectly sense to me having an intercooler. In my country day temperatures range between 93 to 107 degrees and driving condition are challenging and car gets to do a mix of racing, Baja and hours of queuing every day. Loss of power is very noticeable and also worried about oil temp, gear box temp that goes very high, due to driving in manual mode and mostly sports. Truck also consuming a heck of a lot of oil, about 1 Quart per week. Got it as brand new 4 weeks ago. Lots of very old and slow trucks on the road and constantly have to go full out to pass them.
My worries though is that there are no specialist workshops here and in general very unskilled mechanics, so installing an intercooler might pose a challenge.
 

mad man

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It’s a challenge that’s for sure, have a ford dealership do it that way there’s no debate on it being installed properly!
Also I recommend whipple IC , that’s what ford uses on their modified raptors, like the Shelby baha raptor
 

White fog

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I was considering an intercooler as well and was curious about performance gains. I have a tune from MPT. Instead of an upgraded intercooler, I went with water / methanol injection. Big difference! Glad I went that route. No regrets.
 

8WOOD

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This isn't a drag truck. Power difference will be negligible. Tunes don't make any significant difference either. Anyone that argues otherwise lets meet up and i'll race your truck with my stock truck in a 1/4 and you'll see that we will finish with in a truck length of each other. Not dissing on custom tunes, they do make the driving experience better, but at WOT the engine on stock turbos an fuel system isn't going to do any better.

Only reason I see to upgrade is to move the intercooler for bumper clearance, or to avoid it getting clogged with mud.
 

xrocket21

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This isn't a drag truck. Power difference will be negligible. Tunes don't make any significant difference either. Anyone that argues otherwise lets meet up and i'll race your truck with my stock truck in a 1/4 and you'll see that we will finish with in a truck length of each other. Not dissing on custom tunes, they do make the driving experience better, but at WOT the engine on stock turbos an fuel system isn't going to do any better.

Only reason I see to upgrade is to move the intercooler for bumper clearance, or to avoid it getting clogged with mud.

You are completely and absolutely wrong. There is a HUGE difference between a stock truck and a tuned truck.

Stock the truck runs around 17 pounds of boost. Tuned it is more like 23.

https://www.fordraptorforum.com/threads/1-4-mile-times-pre-and-post-tune.61055/

A tuned truck will have nearly a second and 5 mph over a stock truck in the quarter.

Ive personally run a 13.99 in mine on a JDM tune on 35" 10 ply tires and Im pretty confident I can get that down to mid 13s. I only had 5 runs and tried a different mode each time.

A stock truck is not gonna runs 13s.
 
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Badgertits

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This isn't a drag truck. Power difference will be negligible. Tunes don't make any significant difference either. Anyone that argues otherwise lets meet up and i'll race your truck with my stock truck in a 1/4 and you'll see that we will finish with in a truck length of each other. Not dissing on custom tunes, they do make the driving experience better, but at WOT the engine on stock turbos an fuel system isn't going to do any better.

Only reason I see to upgrade is to move the intercooler for bumper clearance, or to avoid it getting clogged with mud.


You’re nuts. The gains from a tune are dyno proven. But you are kinda on to something in that the earlier tunes available & ANY tune that doesn’t touch the tranny will most likely not be able to exploit all the added power because the transmission logic & shift points are still stuck in the factory parameters & are not in sync w/ the rest of the drivetrain- so yeah, I’ve speculated the same- even called COBB out on it- show me the 1/4 mile times on a stock vs engine tune only truck back to back...

A tune that does address the tranny? Now your argument goes out the window, a custom tune that modifies the tranny as well- particularly on a 10 speed that reduces shift TQ & dials in TQ mgmt & pulled timing from ecm is going to benefit immensely from a solid tranny tune. You will get smoked by a fully tuned truck- no doubt.

Intercooler that consistently reduces IATs by an avg of 20+ degrees is going to allow the truck to perform better & longer, period.
 
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