What is an Intercooler?

[MaroonRegal]

Ok, I know enough about engines to understand how most everything works, or at least how it's supposed to work. Basically, I understand enough about auto mechanics and physics to be dangerous. But one term I don't understand is "Intercooled." What's it mean?

[Guest RedCutlassSL]

An intercooler or charge air cooler is an additional component that looks something like a radiator, except air passes through the inside as well as the outside of the intercooler. The intake air passes through sealed passageways inside the cooler, while cooler air from outside is blown across fins by the engine cooling fan.

 

The intercooler further increases the power of the engine by cooling the pressurized air coming out of the compressor before it goes into the engine. This means that if the turbocharger is operating at a boost of 7 psi, the intercooled system will put in 7 psi of cooler air, which is denser and contains more air molecules than warmer air.

 

From How Stuff Works.com

[dbtk2]

Any turbo or supercharger creates heat when it compresses the air. Because of this you can only run so much boost and timing advance before you get knock from the heat. So, if you want to make more power you can put an intercooler after the compressed air to cool it down before it gets to the engine, so then you can run more boost and/or timing.

 

An Air to Air Intercooler has the boosted air going through the inside and outside air passing through the outside to cool the boosted air.

 

An air to water intercooler uses a closed water supply that has its own radiator on the front of the car to cool the water and then the boosted air passes over the intercooler that has the cooled water running through it to cool down the air. An air to water system has more components and is more complex but cools better.

 

On a naturally aspirated engine an intercooler will probably actually hurt performance.

[MaroonRegal]

Thank you.