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trying to buy horsepower (and torque), then you would be better served with injectors than intercoolers. Member escturbo is one of my oldest friends, and we have run our Z's against each other countless times. He has almost identical mods, and is within 40 lbs of the same on-the-road weight as I. Intercoolers were the only difference, on his car, and they did not seem to give much of a performance edge with stock turbos and 15 psi. Maybe on the hottest summer days there was a tiny difference. Just not that great of a difference for the money. At least on stock turbos and injectors. If you were going to road race the car, maybe intercoolers would make more since at your mod level. But, unless you are making long gear pulls and sustaining high boost for extended periods, I think the stock intercoolers will do a decent job with stock turbos and 15 psi. Intercoolers will definitely be needed at higher power levels, but with stock turbos and injectors, they might give you a little more power, especially after extended boosting. I have recently installed deatshwerks 555 injectors with the adapter kit. Under $700 for everything. The car is able to make 21psi if I run the boost controller up that high. At least it will in this cold weather (~50 fahrenheit in Athens, GA at night). I don't run that much, because the turbos are very inefficient at that high of psi, and it would needlessly stress the turbos and the motor. I can, however, run 17-18 lbs safely, and make a substantial amount of power over my friends Z without injectors but with intercoolers. So, I would get the injectors, especially while the weather is being cooperative in delivering a cooled intake charge. Get injectors. Then, when the weather starts to heat up, get the water pump od pully, and intercoolers. Or you could just back the boost down when it's hot outside. The difference between 15 psi and 18 psi is far greater than the difference between stock intercoolers and upgraded ones. At least from a power standpoint. It's a toss-up as to which provides more of a safety margin, but I would say that the injectors will keep you from leaning out to the point of detonation no matter how much you push your stock turbos no matter what the intake temps were, because they can provide the fuel necessary for a proper air/fuel mixture. Whereas, if you install intercoolers only, and try to run 18 psi, you will destroy your motor (in short time, anyway) Also, alcohol injection is on my short list of future mods, but it is really pretty necessary to have the car dyno tuned to set up the alcohol injection. For the money involved, I would just go with injectors. I'm not so sure that custom tuning on the dyno is where I want to spend my money when I'm still running stock turbos without any nitrous. All said, though, alky injection is still a great idea. If you want a very cheap performance boost, you could install intercooler sprayers. I installed sprayers at the top of each intercooler duct, as far from the intercoolers as possible. I then ran a water line from the rear window washer fluid pump on the reservoir in the hatch. I tee'd the line into two lines that I ran (with check valves) to each intercooler sprayer. I had already deleted my rear wiper, so I rewired the rear wiper switch so that it controlled the ic sprayers. With both an "on" switch and a "mist" momentary switch, it is perfectly suited for either a quick spray, or to leave on during a hard pull. I gutted my factory console clock since I just use the clock on my head unit. I then installed a blue led inside the clock enclosure, and wired it to the sprayer switch. That way, the car appears unmodified. The switch is a factory switch, and the light indicating that the sprayers are on is hidden behind the purpleish clock cover in the console. That way, it is unseen until it lights up behind the cover. It is easily seen during the day, and just dim enough at night to not be bothersome. Of course, hearing the washer motor run is also a good reminder to not leave it on. If I make an 18 psi pull, and quickly stop and run the sprayers, the water coming off is surprisingly warm. If I start running the sprayers before I make the same pull, and leave them running during the pull, and come to a stop and get out and feel the temperature of the water coming off, it is much cooler...maybe about the same temp as it is coming from the sprayers. The difference with high VOC washer fluid even more pronounced. 32 degree fluid may have little to no alcohol in the mix. I have started using 0 degree fluid, which usually contains around 25% methanol, or another form of alcohol. The cooling effect of alcohol is definitely superior to water, and it is about $2 a gallon for 0 degree fluid. My intercoolers have also never looked cleaner and more bug free. Plus the fresh citrus scent that fills the air if I spray the IC's at a stop light. All in all, I spent about $10 and a couple hours of my life to pull a little more power from my Z. There's something satisfying about making power from a few bucks in parts, and the willingness to make it work. It's so different than just throwing money at the engine. (which I would love to do, if anyone wants to adopt me and my Z obsession) Sorry this post is so long. I gotta lay off the energy drinks.
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