I recently talked with the technical folks at Comptech and they said that they were currently debating whether or not to make an intercooler kit for the CLS/Accord V6/Tl through 2004 models. Apparently, all of these cars have identical manifold inlet sizes. The advantage to having an intercooler would be to allow a pulley swap that could add roughly 2 more pounds of boost safely to those cars already using the Comptech supercharger system. In addition, the Comptech people are thinking about upgrading the electonic fuel and spark curve control systems for this upgrade. The cost of the intercooler might be between one and two thousand dollars. The question is whether there are enough gearheads interested in buying this upgrade. You can tell, I'm game. Anyone else who might be should contact Comptech and inquire by e-mailing them at tech@comptechusa.com. The more interested parties they hear from, the more likely it is that they will decided to develop the intercooler.

 

Interesting information.

Let's see some dyno sheets when this hits the street!

 

That all sounds familiar. I better not see a copy of my design.

 

if it will fit under my RonJon kit, I'm down

 

awesome 2nd post man. so tell us about your car, i would assume its SC since your interested in the intercooler

 

We'll see. Comptech has promised in the past and has both delivered and not delivered. I liked scalbert's intercooler design. What some people need to understand is that every j series, although the same motor, runs slightly different, the stock tune of the computer can compensate for a/f on a stock or even slightly modded vehicle. But when boost is added it's a whole different ball game. If comptech brought to market something along the lines of the e-manage, specifically made for the J-series, not just some generic a/f and timing enhancements, then people would see a nice gain in power just from dyno tuning the car with the blower. And with the combo of the cooler, tune and more boost, i can see the j series making tremendous power on the stock bottom end.

 

Just FYI, Comptech stated the same thing 2.5 years ago so don't get your hopes up. I doubt they will do it as only a small percentage of the blower owners would opt for the IC and over half them already have an intercooler.

Sure, many would say they would but very few will actually pull the trigger.

 

I heard same news from ALLOUT.

I'll have him post in here.

 

Well, I can see Comptech is not universally loved. Question: Who has an intercooler alternative that has an e-manage system tailored to the 3.2 SC'd engine. Also, I'm a bit astonished at how much time and effort goes into to explaining why Comptech will not make the intercooler package (and, implicitly, why contacting them to see if they might is obviously not worth the time) or in writing as if Comptech has already decided to make the package.

 

You are taking it the wrong way. I think Comptech is great. But I doubt they will bring an IC to the market as I don't think there is enough market to justify the costs.

There has been a very good IC kit available with the E-Manage. Shad at Comptech is very aware of this and probably knows the limited market. If anything I feel Comptech is a smart and very reputable company. As such they won't dive into a project of this nature with certain limited returns.

The J-Series market has proved to be very fickle. When Comptech said they wouldn't make an IC system two years ago, I embarked on making my own. Many were interested and followed the development through. The car ended up making 369 WHP which was up from 315 WHP. When made available only about 20% of those who stated they wanted actually ordered. Now I do beleive that Comptech would sell more as they are doing this as an organization versus me doing it on my own (and ended up being at a loss). But IMO, even 20 kits wouldn't justify the costs which is about all I could see them selling to this limited and fickle market.

Just for reference, below are the pictures of the kit I made:

 

From what I understand, Comptech invested in machinery to make Aftercoolers. Their design will be under the blower in the outlet area. The RSX sits below the blower in the manifold section. They have probably learned quite a bit with their developement of the RSX Aftercooler. I don't think they've progressed enough to determine if the TL/Cl Aftercooler will be viable or not. It sounds like it's trial and error on the design to give enough temperature reduction without killing flow.

I agree that Comptech has been slow to market with some items and has decided not to bring some designs to market. For some reason, I have a strong feeling that Comptech will come through with this one. Once they design the Aftercooler for the new TL series, they will be able to market it to previous TL/CL owners as the outlet area is the same.

They will also be able to market and recover some of their R&D investment in their ACM (Advanced Control Module). Per their Spring Newsletter:

"Advanced Control Module - An Industry first; the Comptech ACM lowers V-TEC, Adds Injector Duration to Enrich Fuel, Filters the Knock Sensor, Manages MAP Sensor Voltage and Adjusts Cam-Phasing. The combined result is a vehicle with unparalleled performance, drivability, and reliability."

I know that they were working with Hondata to build this ACM (piggyback) unit. They will probably market this as a Phase II kit with the Aftercooler, ACM and HBP. Hopefully it will yield at least another 30-40HP safely on Pump Gas.

If Comptech comes through with this, I doubt that it will produce the HP gains that Steve's Hope setup produced. The benefit for me will be the CARB approval.

 

That will be difficult to get good flow and efficiency there. I had investigated that design but passed on it due to limited core space availibility. It will be intersting to see if they can and will do it; another upper rad hose will be needed.

I hope they can, but would not hold my breathe

 

 

Keep on rubbing it in Steve. I can only dream of getting those type of numbers. You don't have to remind me that California sucks ass. Options around here are limited. Over at a Central Californa Z website, one of the members was telling a tale that he was setup and pulled over by an undercover cop driving a Taurus. He had to take his car to a Smog Inspection Umpire that inspected his whole car and even examined his ECU. They're cracking down more and more over here.

 

BTW - here's a link to the Comptech Spring Newsletter:
http://www.comptechusa.com/newslette...ewsletter2.pdf

And to the Fall newsletter:
http://www.comptechusa.com/newslette...Newsletter.pdf

 

I definitely understand though. I would love to see Comptech come out with a CARB approved IC kit for the J-Series.

 

When is the '04+ TL SC kit going to be released though. I see it isn't on their website right now?

Although the J32A4 is a great acheivement. IMO, it will be harder to get power out of it. With the close coupled cats, the manifold will not flow like the J32A2 with headers. Even with adding 60 WHP to the TL 6MT via the SC, 285 WHP will be it. Obviously the IC can net some gains as well as other parts. But I doubt 350 WHP will be eclipsed easily.

I do feel 400 WHP could have been acheived if I took more time. But I will never know.

 

J32A3.

Minor correction.

 

I was sure they skipped 3 and went to 4.

Been wrong many times before though.

 

I'm curious, is the intercooler setup you pictured still available? If so, what might it cost? Also, if it cannot pass emissions in California, can it nonetheless pass emissions in Virginia?

 

I was of the same thought on the J32A3 also. I stayed with the 2003 so I could go with Headers and always thought that the integrated head/exhaust manifold was going to be a limiting factor. When I talked to Shad, he said that flow wasn't too bad and that the motor had quite a bit of potential. I still doubt that exhaust flow is as efficient as the J32A2 if you go to higher boost levels. Also, I would be concerned that an over rich fuel situation would be uglier with the cats tucked so close to the motor. I bet they would get awfully hot with the limited air flow around them.

 

It was suppose to be released in May, then June, then for sure in July, but August came and now has gone and we have not yet heard anything, not even a status update.

 

I was selling the entire system for $2550. But there was not enough interest to sustain that so I dropped the project. It wasn't an issue of passing emissions, it would pass a smog test just fine. But in CA they would do a visual and require a CARB sticker. In other states it wasn't an issue.

 

Wanna make one for my 04 TL?

 

I had actually looked into it and found it that most likely the only changes needed would be the base plate and the ECU connectors. The rest should have worked fine. But without a blower on a car to reference, it is just guess work.

But in the end, not worth it for me to try. However, if you know a local machine shop (preferably with a CNC machine) you could get one made. That is after the blower is finally released.

 

^

 

So, there is no way of getting one more intercooler kit from you for my CLS?

 

the sacramento acurazine group got a tour of comptechs facility a few weeks ago.....they got a shitload of nice machines, we didnt ask him about an IC for 3.2 v6 engines thogh

the guy said that the SC for the 3.2 tl engines are actually the lowest selling supercharger, and that more people buy s2k and NSK ones instead

 

I wonder why

 

If I had a blower already, then I would be in for sure. But unfortunately I'm waiting 'til winter to save up money to get one.

 

slightly off topic here, but somewhat on topic too....

i imagine many people would love to do this but are too afraid of tranny failure to do so. i'm surprise no one has tried to get comptech involved in aiding to create a solution to our transmission woes. surely they must have enough R&D experience available to help us out. and it would be win-win. the less we worry about our trannies, the more superchargers we buy. know what i mean?

SSTS

 

The boost is not enough to make the car run like shit, but i can see the extra power adding a lot of stress on auto trannies, which are still shit. Also not being able to upgrade the headers on the new TL is a bottleneck for sure.

 

i agree on all counts with you. my beef is that many 2nd gen owners are afraid of blowing up their transmissions. i don't see why we can't push to get outside companies involved in helping us find a solution. other companies stand to make alot of money of our problem by creating a "fix". i'm truly surprised that relatively few companies have jumped in on it.

SSTS