Infiniti Q50/Q60 3.0T Performance Heat Exchanger, 2016+

It's finally showtime. The conductor's wand raises, and each section of the mechanical, techno-EDM fusion orchestra that is the Infiniti Q50 starts effortlessly shredding through the notes. Will the less experienced player fold under the pressure where our musical veterans flourish? Let's find out.

Pump it Up

First let's take a quick dive into how the pumps operate in the VR30DDTT's system. These are integral parts for ensuring the heat that is extracted from the intercoolers is properly transported from the charged air to the heat exchanger. The pump, or pumps if you opted for the Red Sport, is electronically controlled by the ECM with two speeds, low and high domain as noted above. The operating speed of the pump is determined by a calculation of the engine's load and speed, or put simply, the manifold pressure and RPM. So, low domain covers most of your typical cruising where the high domain speed is when you put the hammer down.

You have to walk before you can run. I'm sure just about everyone's heard that colloquialism before. While it's cliché, it does ring true when it comes to our Infiniti Q50 heat exchanger. Before we see just how strong that new link in the chain is, we want to examine that link by itself.

When you last saw our heat exchanger design, it was just the outer framework of what our engineer had planned, but now those plans have come to fruition. The obvious characteristic that carried over from our last post is the sheer size of our heat exchanger. When compared to the stock unit, we might not have gained much in the way of thickness, but the growth spurt still allowed for a whopping 196% increase in core volume and a 97% bump in external fin surface area.

Size isn't the only improvement over the stock heat exchanger. Our engineer left the plastic end tanks behind in favor of a completely aluminum construction. In addition to adding more rows of fins to our core, our heat exchanger is sporting

When you put your foot down in the Q50, or any car for that matter, the force that shoves you back in the seat isn't just the work of one or two things, but rather the wonderous team effort of hundreds of moving parts. From the gears turning, the crank spinning the pistons, to the coolant gushing through the cooling and intercooling systems, this collaboration results in the harmonious sound of the VR warble and powerful forward thrust.

It's no secret that enthusiasts like us want to pile more on to that acceleration. Once we dug into our donor vehicle, we found that the stock heat exchanger can be the weak link in the chain pulling the Q50 forward, and leaves something more to be desired. After some preliminary R&D, we determined just what needs to be done with the heat exchanger to bring it all together.

When you slide into the cushy leather seats of your Q50 or Q60 you become somewhat of an orchestra conductor. Underneath the hood is an ensemble of working instruments, neatly arranged to play the moment you turn the ignition. The VR30DDTT fires up like a roll on the timpani with that characteristic Nissan V6 rumble. The woodwinds whistle as the turbos push boost through the intake, and the bass drops as hard as your foot, interlacing this classic concerto with the modern thump of EDM. It all sounds perfect. But what happens when the notes are off? What happens when one of the violists overheats and faints mid arpeggio? The whole orchestra stumbles and the audience can sense every jumbled note, which isn't much of a good look for the conductor. Heat can have a similar effect on your intercooling system, causing that splendid harmony created by all those working parts to feel a bit out of tune.

Air-to-water intercooling is the wave of the future when it comes to turbocharged vehicles, and