Anyone who follows me on facebook probably already knows but for those who don't I finally upgraded my intercooler.

I've put it off long enough but after logging 156°F IAT temps last year, enough is enough. Pump gas and high IAT just don't get along well, so I just kept putting more water on the fire to keep the house from burning down so to speak and by water I mean meth and water, a 14gph nozzle to be exact.
I wanted to go with a tried and trued ETS intercooler but with the current economy, purchasing said intercooler while living in Canada, was not very friendly to my wallet at the current near 30% exchange rate, effectively making a $660 intercooler into a $985 one after exchange and import taxes. So I sought out something comparable at a more cost effective price range that A) would work with my existing piping and B) let me keep my OEM fog lights. The Treadstone TR1045 seemed to fit right in the bill.

I did however find a lot of conflicting info regarding the Treadstone cores, some said they were great, others said they were no better than your next average eBay Chinesium core, then found some saying they were a nice middle ground between the well know Garrett cores and the cheaper cores. At under half the cost of the comparable ETS core, I decided to take the risk, buy one and try it for myself.

Here's some comparison shots of the new Treadstone and the old Punishment Racing:







Punishment Racing fin pack(note the light shining right through):



Treadstone fin pack(no light shining through):



Install pics:





Yes I keep my crash beam(QC is very stingy on removing things like this)