GN & TTA Intercooler Comparison

Having both a GN and a TTA, I had a chance to weigh each of the intercoolers and was surprised that the TTA IC was 1 pound heavier. I knew that there was a higher fin per inch count on the external fins but doubted that could account for the weight difference. When installing a Duttweiler neck on my TTA IC, I took the picture you see nelow. I also did the same with a GN IC to show the fin count on it. I'm pretty sure if the TTA IC were installed on a GN, you would see some gains on the track. It would be hard to say by how much, but I do plan to find out.

TTA Intercooler - Note the higher number of fins per inch in the core.

The GN Intercooler has less fins per inch inside

Here's something interesting;

When I was building a 15 row stretched intercooler made from two stock cores, I cut one of them in half so the top section could be welded on to the other full core. Looking down in the left over section I saw that the turbulator fins were damaged and decided to cut the tank off so I could get a better look at the damage. What I found, I haven't discovered an explanation for. The fins on the inside of the core looked like you see in the picture below. This is on the outlet side of the IC so the damage couldn't have happened by the turbo compressor wheel breaking and going inside the IC. In my opinion, this intercooler was assembled and damaged prior to the tanks being welded on when it was built. I also noticed that there were no marks anywhere that would indicate this damage was caused by something hitting the fins. My guess is that someone caused the fins to be bent by smashing them with their fingers.