Intercooler

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 1:14 am

I just had a strange idea. I wonder if anyone has ever tried to to put an intercooler inline with the intake on a naturally aspirated car.

Like, route the intake piping through a FMIC and make the vacuum of the engine pull it though. Obviously, this isn't a good idea, but does anyone think something along these lines could ever work?

teamliviD · Post by **teamliviD** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:38 am

it wont work. though a good idea.

nodestiny · Post by **nodestiny** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:54 am

You could do something with it. The downside would be that it would cause restriction in the intake (depending on the cooler, of course). Also, normal driving, it wouldnt have any benefits over a CAI. The only plus side is, you could spray it, making NA air EXTREMELY cold. Giving you around 10HP (depending)! Most likely NOT worth it though.

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:20 am

Yep, there wouldn't be any gains over a cold air intake, and the restriction would be killer. The reason I even thought of it, was because I saw a pretty much stock Civic with a FMIC bolted in to make it look like a turbo. And every once in a while, a truly good engineering concept comes from something seemingly pointless. This wasn't one.

nodestiny · Post by **nodestiny** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:22 am

There is also intakes that mount to the front that look simular to an intercooler... But most likely, since it was a honda, it probably had no turbo

JustANeon · Post by **JustANeon** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:29 am

Intercoolers bring the air back down to outside temps or as close as possible so yeah a CAI will out perform it

Baal · Post by **Baal** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 6:01 pm

If you want to cool down the intake it would need a refrigeration system like the A/C, but ofcourse running it would take way more power than it makes with cooler air.

The A/C uses like 10hp to cool down a small quantity on air, probably like 15% of what the engine "sucks" at WOT.

tamadrumr88 · Post by **tamadrumr88** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:08 pm

i think youd be ranging on lag with an N/A car having that long of an intake

most likely the midrange will suffer

another idea to look at for an intake is this:

bellows tube replacement, 60mm t/b, bore out stock airbox (to accomodate for the 60mm t/b), and put a k&n filter on there.... if i get time ill try this out this summer

J-Villa · Post by **J-Villa** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:48 pm

you don't need to bore out the stock airbox...60 fits in there....i tried doin a stock air intake set up with 60...didn't work b/c no way to mount the throttle body to air box...i actually ghetto'd it with zip ties to make it work but then the bellow tube came off...

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:57 pm

E3EsXt02 wrote:you don't need to bore out the stock airbox...60 fits in there....i tried doin a stock air intake set up with 60...didn't work b/c no way to mount the throttle body to air box...i actually ghetto'd it with zip ties to make it work but then the bellow tube came off...

It actually does work. The 60mm inlet of the TB fits right into the airbox. And if you have an MPx TB, there are two holes on that airbox side of the body of the TB that you can tap, and then screw the airbox to the TB. That keeps it sealed tight enough to work just fine. Here's a picture. And now we're way off topic.

This is my brothers car by the way.

J-Villa · Post by **J-Villa** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:05 am

mine didn't have any holes to tap??? and that's basically what i had set up but the bellow tubes came off under accel

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:13 am

E3EsXt02 wrote:mine didn't have any holes to tap??? and that's basically what i had set up but the bellow tubes came off under accel

hm. Well, his works. That's odd.

J-Villa · Post by **J-Villa** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:27 am

i thought about buying a cheap ebay intake so that way i have a hard bellow tube and run a mpx tb again with stock airbox...

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 1:43 am

E3EsXt02 wrote:i thought about buying a cheap ebay intake so that way i have a hard bellow tube and run a mpx tb again with stock airbox...

Nah, get some pipe from the hardware store. That way you can get the exact length you want. A stock airbox with a K&N, no resonator in the wheelwell, a hard short pipe and a 60mm TB is a pretty good little setup.....the airbox is just kind of big and in the way though, if you're doing other stuff.

J-Villa · Post by **J-Villa** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 3:23 am

that was kinda my idea

tamadrumr88 · Post by **tamadrumr88** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 6:54 am

yes that is one advantage of having an aftermarket intake over the stock airbox is that you free up alot of room in the engine bay

grambo · Post by **grambo** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 6:04 pm

One could always install a can/container of Liquid Nitrogen under the hood with a solenoid attached to a spray nozzle. Aim the mozzle at the CAI and use a dash mounted switch to blow quick bursts of super cooled vapor over the outside of the CAI to cool entering air inside.

Baal · Post by **Baal** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:05 pm

if you are goint to spray something, spray nitrous

OB · Post by OB » Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:08 pm

I had the same idea and shortly after i realized that it wouldnt make much of a difference, especially considering the $$-power ratio. having said that..:

Disclaimer:
im a bit of a noob when it comes to turbo systems, so heres a really simple question that came to me when reading this thread:

if an intercooler simply cools intake air, why is it so necessary in a turbo application? the way i understand it, since the turbo is ran on exhaust, wouldnt cooling the air coming OUT of a turbo (before going into the cylinders) be a much better way to make power and keep temps down? maybe im veeeery confused. someone school me haha

ps sorry this is way offtopic!

esteinmaier · Post by **esteinmaier** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:38 pm

You nailed it right on the head. Think Inter - cooler. Like inter - connect. It's between the 2 thingies we call a turbo and an engine. Check out some people's piping some time, and you'll see you're absolutely correct.

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 8:16 pm

esteinmaier wrote:You nailed it right on the head. Think Inter - cooler. Like inter - connect. It's between the 2 thingies we call a turbo and an engine. Check out some people's piping some time, and you'll see you're absolutely correct.

Hahaha.....

OB, you got it right, but you thought you were wrong. The intercooler is cooling the air coming out of the turbo before it goes into the engine.

OB · Post by OB » Wed Feb 15, 2006 8:53 pm

i read that it cools the intake charge, does that mean old exhaust fumes are cooled and stuffed into the motor at high speed (boost)? im so confused about turbos its not even funny haha. anyone know a super simple short way to explain it to me? id appreciate it a lot. heres what i think, correct me please:

initial thought: (i know it doesnt make any sense)

outside air- intake syst - intercooler- motor- turbo -????

new thought: (still doesnt make sense to me at the end)

outside air - intake system - motor - turbo - intercooler - motor - ????

anyone wanna fill in the blanks im puzzled. lol

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 9:06 pm

Go here please.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/turbo.htm

grambo · Post by **grambo** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 10:55 am

OB is gettin' it. Good for you man, the gears are meshing.....

OB · Post by OB » Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:14 am

quicksilvr wrote:Go here please.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/turbo.htm

good lookin out bro, i saw somethin just like that at turbobygarrett.com or somethin, and it helped but still left me a bit confused about how the flow works.

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 1:11 pm

I figured this picture would help...it's about the best drawing of how the flow goes.

OB · Post by OB » Thu Feb 16, 2006 3:31 pm

i take it the "ambient air" port is where the outside air comes in? i couldnt figure out where the intake charge came from, it looks like a closed loop to me haha

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 1:14 am

orangeblastsxt wrote:i take it the "ambient air" port is where the outside air comes in? i couldnt figure out where the intake charge came from, it looks like a closed loop to me haha

Yeah, the "ambient air" is where air enters the turbo. There's a question right now in "Forced Induction" about whether to run an open turbo or an intake. Open turbo looks just like the picture.....air goes right into the turbo (wherever it's at) without ever going through an intake tube. And where it says "exhaust gas discharge" is where the exhaust leaves and enters what is commonly called the "o2 housing", followed by the downpipe.

Also realize that NONE of the exhaust is going into the intake....it's simply spinning the turbine wheel on it's way out. The turbine wheel is linked right to the compressor wheel on the intake side, which spins when the turbine wheel does, compressing the intake air forcefully into the engine.