HS Marston Intercoolers - Price and supplier info thread

[IanH755]

As part of my research into the spec for my car the intercoolers were another thing which seemed to be an expensive and time consuming part to source.

KWE wanted over £1k for their “untested in the UK” set and the only other one we knew of was the HS Marston’s ones that Classba and Brett have which, again, had been posted as costing around £5k-6k.

Now the company I work for is an Aerospace company and I know that HS Marston’s are umbrella’d under “UTAS” which is another Aerospace company, so I went to them direct and asked how much a set of their IC’s would be direct to myself. After a whole bunch of head-scratching (they couldn’t find the original spec) we discovered that it was actually a company called Radtec who had designed the original spec and Marston’s had only supplied a set of cores, nothing else (I’d assumed they supplied the whole finished item). After telling me the price of the cores they supplied (around £2000) they passed me on to Radtec who actually sell the finished item.

So Radtec get the Marston’s cores and your OEM ICs and the basically swap the cores. There’s a slight size difference between the Marston’s/OEM cores so some work has to be done modifying the end tanks to fit the bigger Marston core. After it’s welded and pressure tested you then have the choice of an anodised finish or a raw metal finish.

So, the important bit, the price - £4200 for a set but they will drop that if there was a group buy of these. All the prices are in the e-mail I’ve attached from Keith Lycett who is the point of contact for Radtec ***EDIT - As of Sept 2017 the price is now £3000 if you give Radtec your old IC's to re-use***

Now we know the price of the Radtec/Marston’s we have a choice between them, the KWE’s (see here for my review thread) and potentially Sportmile.

The KWE intercoolers will make the power, are much cheaper and work well on the road however, as there are no fans fitted and the core is thick metal, they soak up lots of heat from repeated runs in static air (i.e. dynos, drag strips etc) and struggle to cool down again afterwards (again in static air, not on the road). Plus they stop making power by 6500rpm as they seem to be limited air flow wise – So cheap and do the job but suffer when the car isn’t moving.

The Marston’s are will flow the same power figures and are much better thermally and at high flow levels but they’re 4x the cost – So expensive but very good thermal performance.

Sportmile are an unknown yet but Doug at MRC is very excited by them and from the results he’s seen so far of the development version, he seems to think that they will be even better than the Marston’s. So depending on cost that’s what I’ll be looking at if I decide to change. We know already that they’re much thicker and that the two Aux rads have to be removed and replaced by a bigger centre Rad instead to create space for the IC’s – So an unknown!

The core sizes are as follow for those interested –

OEM – 225 x 290 x 80
Marston’s – 270 x 275 x 76
KWE – 255 x 280 x 95
Sportmile – Unknown but much thicker than any of those above Doug said.

[FUBAR]

Nice writeup on the different IC's

I would be interested in a group buy if that was a possibility.

[Sepang]

IanH755, by any chance u still would like to organize group buy for marstons?

[IanH755]

Sepang - To be honest organising group buys is a pain, especially for something as rare as these. However from what people have told me recently the price has dropped to about £3k if you give Radtek your old IC's to use (post updated above) which is better than the original group buy price IIRC.

[Matt@Hs-marston]

hi guys,
Ive been doing some research regarding our customer base and Ive found that there is a lot of miss information flying around about Marston Cores in the modified car communities
I've been working for HS Marston for 4 years and been on the Motorsport section for 3.
the way Marstons operates makes it hard for people like yourselves to get a good idea about what we do, as we do not advertise and only offer very limited information on our website.
id be happy to answer any of your questions.

[Henry3467]

Hi Matt what’s the cost for the I/c for the rs6 c6 please

Many thanks

[Matt@Hs-marston]

Henry,
we usually only supply the core of the I/C to Radtec where they then manufacture and weld the tanks to the core, because of this i am unsure of the whole I/C cost

if you want the price for the core you'd need to give me the M number of the core.

[rs6_sid]

are we able to buy cores direct form you ?

[CHEQUERED]

CSF was also keen to make them up, they had received quite a few requests for C6 stuff, they needed a 3d scan (easy enough to get and do) but i dont have any spare cores i can readily scan.

examples of their dual cores.

https://www.facebook.com/CSFradiators/p ... =3&theater

[zex]

It looks like HS Marston intercoolers are no longer available.
This is the reply I got from them:

Sorry but we no longer have a Motorsport business, the business closed last year.
Unfortunately I can’t help you with your enquiry.

Best Regards
Ian

Ian Bullock - Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Manager, MRO - | Power and Control
COLLINS AEROSPACE
HS Marston Aerospace Limited, Wobaston Road, Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, WV10 6QJ, UK

Is it possible that there is only one type of upgraded intercoolers available on the market?
CSF never replied to my email. Also Radtec never replied.

[S4Player]

I got mines via radtec with no issues

[Doug_RS6]

Can I just say 4 grand is insane for a couple of intercooler. Quality product or not these people see folk with expensive (when new) cars coming. Look at the prices for excellent performance products for Evos etc. Nothing like the same price. I fully get that there is a difference in the parts but 4 grand is nonsense for a couple of fairly small intercooler. Half of that price would be expensive. The core will be generic to items and they are reusing the specific end thanks.

[zex]

That is all true but the only other option is KWE which are 1500EUR and as mentioned above, don't perform as well plus you have to take the fans off. For someone that has hot weather it could be a problem in traffic.
Besides these two models there is no other option. I was looking for cores but I couldn't find them in dimensions which will fit this car.

[Doug_RS6]

I'm not saying there are better options. Unfortunately there aren't. It's just insane prices to be charging for what are fairly simple items. I suppose that is part if the problem with less tuners being involved. In the Evo scene there are so many good tuners and manufacturers. Also unfortunately space us a massive premium on the RS6 otherwise fitting a large front mount would be an option.

[RS6-T28RPH]

I have been looking at these recently, may be able to get a set of custom units made? Still need to get in touch with them.

With regards to the fans, in speaking with Ricky (RE Performance) he is of the opinion that the heat soak acquired from being standstill in traffic is quickly lost when moving again so in removing the fans the increased surface area of the core exposed is preferential for performance vs the fan cooling whilst standstill. I guess you dont use full boost in traffic

https://www.treadstoneperformance.com/v ... tercoolers