Vortech V2 SQ 99 cobra - Aftercooler heat exchanger uprgrade recommendations?

[snakeeyes99]

My aftercooler coolant gets hot real quick. I can see the coolant steaming out of the top of the reservoir tank. I've already changed the tank thinking it was a bad seal. While my second canton tank is better, I can still see the coolant seeping out of the top when I start pushing the car a bit for brief periods of time. Anyone else having this issue? Can I change out the aftercooler heat exchanger for something better? That small black heat exchanger vortech provides seems a bit on the small side. Any recommendations? And yes, I know I can add ice to the tank.

Thanks.

 

[98 Saleen Cobra]

Yes change it out with a dual pass heat exchanger from either a lightning or an 04 Cobra.. And upgrade the pump to an 04 pump and you'll be good to go. Me personally I'm going to go with a GT-500 dual pass heat exchanger because it's the biggest heat exchanger on the market i believe. I'll have to make custom brakets but that shouldn't be to hard.

 

[2V99GT]

have you thought about intercooling it?

 

[snakeeyes99]

98 Saleen Cobra > Where are you going to put the GT500 dual pass exchanger? I was looking at that too. It is massive. If you figure out a way to do it, let me know. I don't know where to get that in there. Post pics when you have them.

2V99GT > As far in being intercooled as well, I haven't thought about it because I didn't want to loose any boost. I hear you lose 1-2 lbs of boost with that. My aftercooler is already lowering intake temps, so intercooling seemed redundant. Correct my thinking if I'm wrong with this. Show off your setup if you are doing both intercooled and aftercooled. I'd love to see how the intercooler and heat exchanger are all going to live down in the front grille area.

Thanks for the responses.

 

[98 Saleen Cobra]

There's a way to make it fit man.. If people have fit a procharger 3-core intercooler that is effing massive, you can make a GT-500 dual pass h/e work just fine.. You just need to make a braket . trust me on this, if you have never seen how big a Front Mount Intercooler check it out and take down the measurements and then look at the measurments for the 500 heat exchangers.

 

[THAITED]

How about air to air I/C? much more simpler for a street driving.

 

[2V99GT]

98 Saleen Cobra > Where are you going to put the GT500 dual pass exchanger? I was looking at that too. It is massive. If you figure out a way to do it, let me know. I don't know where to get that in there. Post pics when you have them.

2V99GT > As far in being intercooled as well, I haven't thought about it because I didn't want to loose any boost. I hear you lose 1-2 lbs of boost with that. My aftercooler is already lowering intake temps, so intercooling seemed redundant. Correct my thinking if I'm wrong with this. Show off your setup if you are doing both intercooled and aftercooled. I'd love to see how the intercooler and heat exchanger are all going to live down in the front grille area.

Thanks for the responses.

i was saying ever thought of getting rid of the aftercooler and putting an intercooler on it? of course you're going to loose a couple lbs of boost, but the colder, more dense air would also make up for that loss. does your aftercooler not steal any boost? but if you're that worried about it, just install a smaller pulley. it's all about personal preference, but i prefer intercooling over aftercooling hands down. how how the car is driven and used can also be a deciding factor.

 

[Wildcard]

A good designed kit will only have a boost loss of 1 psi. Especially on a 99 it's an extremely easy intercooler kit to change up to and the air temps will be much lower than the aftercooler, which is done after about 30 mins. I switched up from my aftercooler to an air to air and never looked back.

 

[THAITED]

A good designed kit will only have a boost loss of 1 psi. Especially on a 99 it's an extremely easy intercooler kit to change up to and the air temps will be much lower than the aftercooler, which is done after about 30 mins. I switched up from my aftercooler to an air to air and never looked back.

If you car is DD, then I/C is what you need. My friend used to have the after cooler like yours and he didn't like it. Now he's running I/C and pretty happy with it.

 

[BADD281]

Honestly I would say your best bet would be an air to air intercooler. I almost went with the aftercooled route when building my car but ended up going air to air and will never look back. I did custom piping 3" whcih was cut and then tig welded once fitment was ok. I wanted to eliminate as many couplers as possible. I went with the Treadstone TR10 and it is amazing. The intake temps are almost never above 10 degree's ambient and it managed to pull 17psi after intercooler with a 3.12" vortech pulley, 10% overdrive crank and even through stage 3 ported heads (2V). This cooler loses so little boost even though its massive and is a horizontal style cooler.

In terms of losing boost switching to air to air that is only if you get a crap cooler. The air to water will actually be an even worse constriction once you up the boost compared to the air to air. Plus air to air makes it much easier to run a blow through setup which tends to have a little better driveability thanks to no backwashing of hot bypassed air back into the power pipe. In the end everyone has their opinion and any setup will work but I honestly love my setup and would recommend it to anyone.

 

[Ironhand]

^ Air to Air just works better for the centris and turbos. And you can make it fit. There is more room behind that front bumper then you relize. If not, then you could always make it fit!!