Right. The money would either have to go to a nice spal fan or two to keep the stock i/c cool (which really isnt that bad), or to a crazy cheap custom intercooler job (???) or to something else.

I would say dont worry about the intercooler until you have upgraded the turbo, or are planning to do so. Right now it will be fine to leave it with the stock ct26.

If you are concerned with intercooler/saftey, you could look into water injection, as that might be more in your price range.

Read this, then re-read it. This will tell you exactly what you need to do to start out making SAFE power on the 3sgte.

http://www.mrcontrols.com/primers/power.htm