so im not sure if this has ever been covered or not...and im not really sure myself so i might as well ask....would there be any benefit to intercooling a N/A car?....or is that strictly something for a FI car?....fi id have to say ...whats your alls opinions

N/M I FIGURED IT OUT DUMB THREAD JUST IGNORE ME

 

strictly forced induction!!!!!!!!! come on man

 

lol yea even with everything i knew about f/i for some reason i was still thinkin you could....one of those late night type of things i guess...lmao o well

 

an intercooler just cools down the air entering the engine right? so wouldnt a really good cai do the same thing for a N/A car?

 

Damn...I was going to answer your question to.

You could always upgrade your cooling system as is but it's probably not even neccessary for you at this point (naturally aspirated) but I see you're going to be turbocharging soon anyways.

Not really, I'll explain.

The point of a intercooler is to cool down compressed air just before it enters your combustion chamber.

On an Air to Air setup, it utilizes the air from the outside (think of your car moving foward and air rushing into an intercooler) to cool down the compressed air. This is used on turbocharged setups for the most part.

An Water to Air setup basically works like a radiator to put it simply but instead of cooling down your engine itself, it's cooling down the compressed air charge (basically a second radiator aka heat exchanger).

A intake wouldn't really cool anything down on a naturally aspirated engine and the air intake temperatures aren't as high as an forced inducted vehicle without an intercooler.

Help you understand a bit more?

 

well...maybe...ive been thinking and holdin out to mod my car just because of a turbo is gettin old...i think i might just go supercharged down the road so that way i can do whatever mods i want to now ..im not worried about making a beast...250-300 hp is fine for me....lol i have to fix my sig. one day...thanks for the info anyways....

 

You're welcome

What do you mean by getting old?

 

you learn somting new every day right?

 

Yup. Did you?

 

yes i did from your post about how differnt intercoolers work

 

sorry i meant holdin out for a turbo and not bein able to do minor mods like headers and intake....because if i did a turbo those parts would be replaced and there would be no need for previous uprgading...so i think ill go super down the road so i can do the minor perf. mods now and enjoy the car more...but thats just how i feel

 

Cool. Glad I can help

 

Compressing air adds energy, which means it heats it up. Hot air produces less HP than cool air, because it's less dense. So, when a blower or turbo compresses air, it adds heat (quite a bit, actually). The intercooler acts as a radiator to move some of the heat in the compressed intake air to the outside air, thus cooling it. Additionally, the cooler intake charge is less prone to pre-ignition detonation, meaning you can run more boost with an intercooler without dangerous knock than a non-intercooled blown motor. This is responsible for more of the increase with an intercooler than without - it's the higher boost that the engine can tolerate.

While the incoming air in a NA car is not compressed, an intercooler might reduce the temp slightly, so theoretically it would help some, but it would be so slight as to be unnoticeable.

 

I mean, it's ultimately just patience. Spending those hundreds of dollars could go towards your turbo setup and trust me...you'd be 10x happier with a turbo setup than a silly intake and header...

Also, the lack of cooling can raise combustion chamber temperatures (also the lack of efficient cooling) which will or can lead to detonation...example: People who put 2.5" pullies on but don't do any type of aftercooling upgrades.

 

I was editing my post to add this very thought as you were replying to it! Great minds think alike!

 

Indeed they do

 

[QUOTE=LewiSS;842324
While the incoming air in a NA car is not compressed, an intercooler might reduce the temp slightly, so theoretically it would help some, but it would be so slight as to be unnoticeable.[/QUOTE]

Agreed, theoretically helps a n/a car. but in practice a FMIC would propably hurt throttle responce with the additional...

An LSJ style intake manifold however... more timing, colder temps, that would be noticable.

 

Probably hurt velocity a bit being that the source of air is taking a longer air travel.

 

the stock plastic intake on the 2.4/2.2 has the same amount of travel as the lsj intake manifold... and if im completely wrong, then its maybe .003 longer runners..

 

I was actually referring to a front mount air to air cooler...but were you talking about a water to air cooler?

 

Ah, i see the confusion, i didnt complete my thought in the first post...
"the FMIC with the additional tubing and intake run"

my bad its the cold medication..