Hey I was just wondering if an intercooler still helps if you don't have a turbo. Sorry for the dumb question but I really like the look of a intercooler but can't afford a turbo.


Thanks

 

Please no, only if you own a Honda! My co-worker has one on her prelude. Its an air-filter that looks like an intercooler!

 

no, it won't help. it'll actually slow your car down.
w/o a turbo or s/c, there will be no pressure to push the air through the intercooler so you will just have a large chamber that air sits in. You will have very little throttle response since it will take a long time before the air can get to the throttle body and when it does, it will actually be very warm, not cold.

 

only at your own risk

 

Just buy one, but don't hook it up. While you're at it, put a fake BOV and fake guages. Top it off with a Diving board around back!

 

a front mount cold air intake?! ahaha...thats awesome...ive seen one on a civic before, it was small, even for a civic front end....

 

Yeah next time I am in the parking lot at work I will take a picture!

 

crap... I just crapped myself...

 

One of the key reasons you have an intercooler is because when you compress a gas (i.e. air), you heat it. The function of the intercooler is to bring the intake charge back down towards atmospheric temperatures. For an N/A car, the intake charge is never pressurized, so it is never heated. Now if you were to add an intercooler sprayer, maybe....

 

I thought because the air was being forced (not compreseed) it expands due to the heat, and the point of the intercooler was to compress the air by cooling it so that more air can be forced into the engine.

 

THe question is now does a intercooler rob turbos of power as they have to push the air through... Or is the gain overcome by the restriction?

 

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

this will explain the basic concept of turbos. just for kicks check out this link on the bugatti veyron as well.

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

 

Thanks for the people who answered my ? seriously. Everyone else sorry I am not as smart as you.

 

Have you ever used one of those "canned air" cannisters for cleaning computers and stuff? They get really cold, really fast because the contents inside are expanding...it's just like the CO2 cylinder in an air-pistol. The faster you shoot, the colder the cylinder gets because the gas inside is expanding.....Conversely, if you compress the gas, it becomes heated. This all has to do with the friction of molecules against one another and their container as they are squeezed into the smaller space.

A turbo is nothing more than a big compressor, powered by a turbine. When the intake air coming from the air filter(s) gets squeezed in the compressor, it gets hot. The purpose of the intercooler is two fold. First, it allows the compressed air to expand inside the chamber (expansion equals cooling), second, since the heat that the intake charge gives off has to go somewhere, it transfers that heat to the cooling fins for distribution to atmosphere.

 

YOUR WRONG!

J/K, sorry I got my terminology mixed up, I was mixing up air compression and the denisity of the air.

 

Hey, if you want to know a lot about this kind of stuff, become a chemical engineer! This sounds like thermodynamics all over again ...


Basically, an intercooler without a turbo will just be a very VERY restrictive intake.