Liquid to Air Intercooler

[CROM]

Would mounting a liquid to air intercooler do anything to reduce air temps, if it was mounted in between the intake filter and the intake manifold? Does the supercharger pull in enough air to make this efficient and cost effective, no one has mentioned this before...just wondering... I dont know crap about this

[Marc]

I was looking at water to air intercoolers for my car shortly after I got the charger. It is not feasible to install one in a Honda due to the cramped engine bay. The ideal mounting location would be right next to the manifold. Lots of luck doing this in a crowded Honda engine bay.

If you were to manage to place it in the front bumper like turbo cars there would be a loss of driveability due to the losses resulting from running all that plumbing to get from the intercooler to the intake manifold. That's why non intercooled turbo cars are generally more fun to drive on the street than intercooled cars because the non intercooled cars are much more responsive on the street.

The best thing to do to reduce the air temp is to run water injection or NOS. Not to mention these two options are MUCH cheaper than intercoolers. Water to air intercoolers are around $1000+!

------------------
Marc
1997 Civic EX, Supercharged

[mrBurns]

I could be totally wrong about this (so please don't flame me if I am), but I think that in the location you are talking about an intercooler wouldn't be any good. Isn't that going to effect the air temp before the blower begins to compress the air?

------------------
Sammy
s/c'd '94GSR

[CROM]

Yup, that is the problem I guess...you need to some way, mount an intercooler between the Charger and the Manifold...I guess it is a real pain in the ass because Adam Surawatari couldnt even do it with his Supercharged NSX.....

[Grey]

If an intercooler before the charger will show no benefit, why do so many people with the chareger recomend the AEM "Cold Air" intake?

[1fstGSR]

because colder air means lower intake temp bro! So getting colder air to the supercharger = more power

------------------
13.24 on a smokin' motor can't be bad!?!

[mrBurns]

Like Will said, cold air is good anytime (as long as you have the fuel to go with it!). However, if you are going to go through the trouble of intercooling your set-up, you really must do it after the compressor for the most benefit.

------------------
Sammy
s/c'd '94GSR

[Grey]

Thanks mrBurns, that was the type of answer I was looking for. Still I can not see where, other than cost and time taken to install, an AEM cold air intake would be more beneficial than a liquid to air intercooler, given that "colder air means lower intake temp bro! So getting colder air to the supercharger = more power"
Personally, I agree that the time+money of an intercooler before the charger exceeds gains. But, I also do not believe that a cold air setup lowers the temp enough to make a big difference to the air after it is compressed.

[mrBurns]

I see what you are saying, Grey...

I think that there are two points to consider here. You have already hit on the first one, which is the cost/difficulty of installing an intercooler as opposed to installing an AEM intake.

But more importantly, I think we have to consider the amount of temperature reduction is not infinite with an intercooler. Lets say that the liquid/air intercooler is 100% efficient (which it isn't). This would lower the air temp to whatever the ambient temp of the water in the intercooler is. I will assume that this is around 80 degrees or so. This is a GREAT reduction if the air has already been compressed and started out at 200 - 240 degrees before the intercooler, but not so impressive if you cooled the air before it is compressed when it may only be 110 degrees (for example, I am just making up round-about figures). It just isn't worth it. You can do almost as good with a CAI.

As far as whether or not the AEM intake makes enough of a difference to be worth it, you may be right. But it should (in theory) make some difference, however how small. I don't really know. But my point is that an intercooler is not going to be much better (ie, still wouldn't make much of a difference) and would be prohibitively costly and complex (for the minor gains).
Am I making any sense?


------------------
Sammy
s/c'd '94GSR


[This message has been edited by mrBurns (edited January 03, 2000).]

[Grey]

mrBurns, your explanation is great. Like I posted earlier, I did not believe the gains vs time/money would be worth the intercooler either. Your examples did however, show me where a CAI setup might be worth while.
Thanks again.