Intercooler before turbo?

[tomislavp4]

OK, I know how the stuff works: the turbo heats up the air> tha air goes into the intercooler and is cooled> the air goes into the combustion chamber.

But i wonder what would happen if you send the air to the intercooler directly from the intake and then to the turbocharger. Would you get similar results?

I think you would get similar results but I´m not 100% sure, anyone with experience with this?

[DaveKillens]

x

[rjsa]

OK, I know how the stuff works: the turbo heats up the air> tha air goes into the intercooler and is cooled> the air goes into the combustion chamber.

But i wonder what would happen if you send the air to the intercooler directly from the intake and then to the turbocharger. Would you get similar results?

I think you would get similar results but I´m not 100% sure, anyone with experience with this?

The air that gets in the intake is exactly the same that cools the intercoolers, so nothing happens.

The intercooler belongs after compression.

[tomislavp4]

This is what I was thinking:

If you have the intercooler after the turbo:
The air from the intake is 30 degrees, it goes through the turbo and is heated up to let´s say 60 degrees, than the intercooler colls it to 40 (I know the numbers are far from the real ones but just for explanation)

If you have intercooler before the turbo:
The air from the intake is the same as previous 30 degrees, it goes through the intercooler and exits 20 degrees cooler (just as in the previous example) now the temperature of the air is 10 degrees, the turbo makes it 30 degrees hotter and the air ends up at 40 degrees... guess I was wrong

The reason I´m asking is I saw a picture of a tuned Mitsubishi Lancer that had the intercooler before the turbo, it confused me. Guess they didn´t know what they were doing

[Scotracer]

The intercooler can only cool to ambient temperature so sending air from the atmosphere at say...21C to an intercooler that can only cool to 21C, then you wont get much of an advantage

[tomislavp4]

Yeah, guess not

[ISLAMATRON]

The intercooler can only cool to ambient temperature so sending air from the atmosphere at say...21C to an intercooler that can only cool to 21C, then you wont get much of an advantage

Usually, but for some of my customers we set up an intercooler "cooler", we spray water or alcohol onto it and it cools it down tremendously, sometimes below "ambient", sometimes a needed thing in the south florida heat.

But yeah, intercooler before turbo is a no go, you'd pretty much be trying to cool something that i already relatively cold.

[Scotracer]

The intercooler can only cool to ambient temperature so sending air from the atmosphere at say...21C to an intercooler that can only cool to 21C, then you wont get much of an advantage

Usually, but for some of my customers we set up an intercooler "cooler", we spray water or alcohol onto it and it cools it down tremendously, sometimes below "ambient", sometimes a needed thing in the south florida heat.

But yeah, intercooler before turbo is a no go, you'd pretty much be trying to cool something that i already relatively cold.

Yes but they are not all that common. I know Subaru put this into their top STI models and I believe maybe some Evos had it (?) but in general an intercooler doesn't have that. They do work, but they require a supply of fluid and a way of cooling that fluid.

[DaveKillens]

If some device is placed before the turbo to cool the intake air, it is called a "precooler". The "inter" is how you defined something in between as in this case, the turbo and engine intake.
A precooler sometimes can be installed, but it's purpose is to cool the ambient air entering the engine, and cool it down before it enters the turbo. Overall it produces a reduction in temperature, so further downstream when the air is compressed by the turbo the air temperature is lower than if you didn't precool it.
But to make a precooler work, there has to be some kind of mechanism (usually a water or alcohol spray) to cool the incoming air below ambient. Obviously, this isn't practical for a daily driver.

[ISLAMATRON]

The intercooler can only cool to ambient temperature so sending air from the atmosphere at say...21C to an intercooler that can only cool to 21C, then you wont get much of an advantage

Usually, but for some of my customers we set up an intercooler "cooler", we spray water or alcohol onto it and it cools it down tremendously, sometimes below "ambient", sometimes a needed thing in the south florida heat.

But yeah, intercooler before turbo is a no go, you'd pretty much be trying to cool something that i already relatively cold.

Yes but they are not all that common. I know Subaru put this into their top STI models and I believe maybe some Evos had it (?) but in general an intercooler doesn't have that. They do work, but they require a supply of fluid and a way of cooling that fluid.

No need to cool that fluid, usually I use the windsheild wiper fluid system and get rid of the windsheild wipers and use rain-x, pretty simple actually.

[Scotracer]

Usually, but for some of my customers we set up an intercooler "cooler", we spray water or alcohol onto it and it cools it down tremendously, sometimes below "ambient", sometimes a needed thing in the south florida heat.

But yeah, intercooler before turbo is a no go, you'd pretty much be trying to cool something that i already relatively cold.

Yes but they are not all that common. I know Subaru put this into their top STI models and I believe maybe some Evos had it (?) but in general an intercooler doesn't have that. They do work, but they require a supply of fluid and a way of cooling that fluid.

No need to cool that fluid, usually I use the windsheild wiper fluid system and get rid of the windsheild wipers and use rain-x, pretty simple actually.

Maybe I've just forgotten my thermodynamics since I left uni but how exactly are you reducing the temperature of the intercooler by supplying ambient fluid to an ambient intercooler? If the intercooler is situated well enough in the engine bay heat soak wont be an issue.

[PlatinumZealot]

The inter cooler mainly serves to bring the compression in the engine closer to isentropic compression. It takes less energy to compress the air.

[Shrek]

wouldn't it be more efficient to put the intercooler close to the throttle body/carburetor so that it would be cooling while traveling the intake tubing andthen cool off considerably than cool it imeadietly and lose some of that cold to the engine heat?

[Scotracer]

wouldn't it be more efficient to put the intercooler close to the throttle body/carburetor so that it would be cooling while traveling the intake tubing andthen cool off considerably than cool it imeadietly and lose some of that cold to the engine heat?

Sorry but could you re-word that because I have no idea what you just said

[Shrek]

would it be better to put the intercooler futher along the intake tubing so it would be colder when it enters the engine. (i never can interpret what my head is thinking)