Touch it with your hand or tongue .... Lol
Seriously though.... You will feel a power loss ... Or maybe you won't however your engine goes boom zoom not so zoom bang bang silence all in the space of twenty seconds....
Best to be not guessing, get a dyne tune and they will let you know, and getting sensors/gauges if your running your car hard.
Intercooler is one step, there are many more things needed. The turbo efficiency, along with limiting radiating and ambient air temleratures exposure is a third of the battle to making an efficient engine :)

Sorry all, notifications is bugged or something. 
 
I'm running a TD06 pushing 18psi, with plans to possibly go higher in the future. My concern is heat soak will be an issue (if it isn't already). I don't plan to go super crazy and very adamant on staying with SMIC. No way I'm willing to cut the trunk or have the money to pour out for a A2W system (which also means more maintenance too...)
 
Just don't know whether it will be a worthy upgrade seeing as it will place the IC closer to the manifold. Might have to heat wrap the manifold then?
 
@Steve_A and Tony - how much did you pay for shipping from Racer X? Their website seems all wonky quoting me 200+ USD just to ship their air intake box and nothing else. 760 USD for intake box + the intercooler in discussion. Surely this can't be right???
 
Edit: I live in WA where summer gets to 45 or more nowadays. Crazy stuff, just really worried about cooling when it gets this hot!

Looking at that Racer X intercooler setup pictured it doesn't look very good. The intake pipe is running right next to the dump pipe, so intercooler piping is going to get really, really hot. Even if you thermo wrap your intercooler pipe its still going to get extremely hot and not make any difference. Maybe if you don't have that huge Racer X intake manifold you can run a better route but I can tell you if your piping ends up like the one in the picture you will have problems if your car ever goes to the track. On the street the dump pipe and manifolds don't get too hot as you won't spend much time at wide open throttle. A few laps on the track and you will have issues. There is a lot I can write about this to explain it all as because I have been trying different things to reduce intake temps at the track but its too much to type. Basically just need to know a few things:
Aluminium is an excellent conductor of heat so heat will spread through the pipe very fast and it will heat up very fast. It also cools down fast if you can cool it down but that close to the dump pipe which a the track will get above 600 degrees easily and with a few cm gap to your intercooler pipe, the intercooler pipe will start heating up to huge temps. Thermo wrapping the IC pipe will not help as it will just get hot through conducting heat anyway and the thermo wrap will trap the heat in it, stopping it from being able to cool fast.

track_mr2
Looking at that Racer X intercooler setup pictured it doesn't look very good. The intake pipe is running right next to the dump pipe, so intercooler piping is going to get really, really hot. Even if you thermo wrap your intercooler pipe its still going to get extremely hot and not make any difference.

How about a different setup that doesn't have the turbo and dump setup so high up? Such as the one on the Racer X website:

 
Shouldn't be as bad as what you described then? Based on your experience; on a similar setup to this picture, a regular greddy/ebay common design SMIC vs the larger core Racer X one - do you think there will be a noticeable difference?

That 2nd picture looks awesome. Yeah that's a good setup aslong as the dump pipe doesn't get close intercooler pipe on the down section to the intercooler. Air to Air intercoolers can only get a charge down at a maximum to ambient air temperature, so it just depend how hot your intake air temp are off the current intercooler setup. Piping wise that is a good setup.

Oh for the second part of your question with regards to a ebay intercooler versus the racer x one. Pressure drop and flow is a major issue with an intercoolers design, so I would assume with the racer X one they would ensure it is well designed and has good flow, as for the ebay ones I can't really say. Might be just as good, might not....never used an ebay intercooler so have no idea if they are any good. From what I have read the skyline guys don't seem to think they are bad.....guess it depends which one.

Sorry for what might be a stupid question:
 
What about mounting a SMIC where the air filter box is? This keeps it on the 'cooler' side of the engine bay here the intercooler pipes do not run over the dump pipes etc. Similar setup to what most W2A intercoolers are, except just the normal SMIC mounted on the other side? 
 
Will that work?

That would work except where will your intake to the turbo suck in air from? Currently your airfilter runs to the that side. What you are referring to is almost like the Border setup (there is one for sale on here currently). Then the intake gets routed to the other side. When it comes to intake/intercooler piping there are probably about three things you DONT want.
1. lots of sharp bends
2. very long route
3. a route that gets very hot (near the exhaust) 
 
Other then that you can stick the intercooler anywhere you can get cold air.

track_mr2
Looking at that Racer X intercooler setup pictured it doesn't look very good. The intake pipe is running right next to the dump pipe, so intercooler piping is going to get really, really hot. Even if you thermo wrap your intercooler pipe its still going to get extremely hot and not make any difference. Maybe if you don't have that huge Racer X intake manifold you can run a better route but I can tell you if your piping ends up like the one in the picture you will have problems if your car ever goes to the track. On the street the dump pipe and manifolds don't get too hot as you won't spend much time at wide open throttle. A few laps on the track and you will have issues. There is a lot I can write about this to explain it all as because I have been trying different things to reduce intake temps at the track but its too much to type. Basically just need to know a few things:
Aluminium is an excellent conductor of heat so heat will spread through the pipe very fast and it will heat up very fast. It also cools down fast if you can cool it down but that close to the dump pipe which a the track will get above 600 degrees easily and with a few cm gap to your intercooler pipe, the intercooler pipe will start heating up to huge temps. Thermo wrapping the IC pipe will not help as it will just get hot through conducting heat anyway and the thermo wrap will trap the heat in it, stopping it from being able to cool fast.

 
Haha this is my setup as shipped! Not a track setup though, its for a street car. No reason not to go trunk mount if your building a track car!
 
I will however be getting creative with heat management. Reflective silver foil will reflect 96% of radiant heat and is much better on intercooler pipes then thermo wrap. Ceramic coating should help with the turbine housing and dump and I'm going to play around with some thermal dispersant coatings too :)
 
The second pic posted is how most setups will be routed with the RacerX intercooler, you'll only have to mount the turbo up high as I have if you go for a large turbo or internally gated EFR,  they take up ALOT of space.
 

That reflective silver foil/gold foil will do nothing, tried them all. Your intercooler pipe will get so hot from just driving for 10minutes you will not be able to touch it for even 2 seconds. Can tell you from experience. My intercooler pipe is much further away from the turbo manifold and I still can't touch it. I've tried wraps, insulating, nothing works because the pipe itself will conduct heat then spread it right through. You'll be making enough power from the turbo setup anyway so not going to be a major deal.