Aftercooler to Intercooler after 6 months

MyBloodRunsBlue

MyBloodRunsBlue

New Member
Feb 1, 2007
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#1
well, i hear all this hearsay that after about 10psi, the aftercooler becomes useless almost so i have decided to sell my aftercooler and get an intercooler...am i making the right choice??? i mean i would rather just keep the aftercooler but if it's going to hinder me down the road i might as well go ahead and change it out now to an intercooler...give me ya'lls opinions....how much do you think i could get for my aftercooler?
 
#5
My setup on the DYNO ambient temps were in the 70's in the shop....

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#7
I don't know the difference in aftercooling and intercooling for a vortec(centri) but if you mean air to air vs liquid to air, then stay with the air to air for high boost,street driving. you may have to upgrade your current setup. intercooled(liquid to air?) cooling gives the most benefit only if you have a cold liquid,like ice water. 180 deg coolant water I am sure loses it's effectiveness.
 
#10
Looks like some crappy data-logging to me. The sensor looks very slow to respond.

As for aftercooler vs intercooler... An aftercooling is a heat exchanger after the blower/turbo. An intercooler is a heat exchanger placed between turbos/supercharges. So technically unless you have more than one blower/turbo it is always called an aftercooler.

If your peak temperature is really 86F, then it is working very well. That's only 16F above amient.
 
#11
spoc8hi said:
there is a reason that an intercooler is about $600 and your aftercooler is $1800.
Click to expand...

The cost difference between the two has less to do with the quality of the cooler and it's ability to cool the air charge and more to do with the additional parts and complexity of the design by comparison. The A/A unit is nothing more than a the cooler itself, some pipeing and some clamps. The A/W unit is a far more involved, compact design, with a sealed and integrated (and very expensive) coolant core, hoses, additional pipeing, clamps, exterior reservoir and additional water pump.

Personally, if you're not seeing really high ACT's and you take it to the track often enough that you would have the opportunity to run ice water in it before each run, then stick with the air to water unit.

The air to air unit is more reliable and requires less maintanence for daily use and proves to be less of restriction when you really start moving some air through it...not to mentin about 50lbs lighter on the front end of the car. The downside of course is it's not as consistent as the A/W unit.
 
#12
MyBloodRunsBlue said:
well, i hear all this hearsay that after about 10psi, the aftercooler becomes useless almost so i have decided to sell my aftercooler and get an intercooler...am i making the right choice??? i mean i would rather just keep the aftercooler but if it's going to hinder me down the road i might as well go ahead and change it out now to an intercooler...give me ya'lls opinions....how much do you think i could get for my aftercooler?
Click to expand...

Many of the faster centri cars use ICs because they are less restrictive and the AC start to become a bottle neck. I think on the vortech site they talk about not pushing over 10psi with the AC. I may be wrong though.

My friend used to have a aftercooled Vortech S-Trim on his 98 Cobra with a custom reservoir tank for it. He eventually switched to a IC because he said even with the bigger tank packed full of ice it wasn’t keeping his IATs low enough and the ice would be melted by the time he did his burn out and was to the staging lanes.

blkhorse said:
I don't know the difference in aftercooling and intercooling for a vortec(centri) but if you mean air to air vs liquid to air, then stay with the air to air for high boost,street driving. you may have to upgrade your current setup. intercooled(liquid to air?) cooling gives the most benefit only if you have a cold liquid,like ice water. 180 deg coolant water I am sure loses it's effectiveness.
Click to expand...

A/A = Intercooler
W/A = Aftercooler

spoc8hi said:
save your money for something else...mmr900... there is nothing wrong with what you have. there is a reason that an intercooler is about $600 and your aftercooler is $1800.
Click to expand...

Price has nothing to do with it. More expensive doesn't always mean better.

MyBloodRunsBlue said:
that's the thing...i can throw ice into the resivoir if it starts to get hotter
Click to expand...

Like I said ice really doesn’t help unless you can pack it full and there is no waiting at the track. If you have to wait in like then your pretty much screwed. Also that doesn’t help you when your driving down the road. It may look like it makes more power on the dyno but in real life it really does nothing
 
#13
bhuff30 said:
Looks like some crappy data-logging to me. The sensor looks very slow to respond.

As for aftercooler vs intercooler... An aftercooling is a heat exchanger after the blower/turbo. An intercooler is a heat exchanger placed between turbos/supercharges. So technically unless you have more than one blower/turbo it is always called an aftercooler.

If your peak temperature is really 86F, then it is working very well. That's only 16F above amient.
Click to expand...

That is intake temp over time, not over RPM.. Its was just to give a general idea.

When I was researching it many people said adding ice did nothing because it melted so fast. Because you already have the aftercooler, you might as well keep it unless you have a buyer that will buy it for a good price. Intercooling is cheap and effective, not to mention maintenance free!
 
#14
The 03 cobra guys sending 17PSI through an eaton, can get 2 passes at the track before the ice melts....I dont see a centri @ just 10PSI making very much heat.

if it is, then all you need to do is get a larger heat exchanger. And when your just driving down the road, your IC water will atleast be ambient. They are'nt running your water off of the radiator are they??? if they are, then freegin screw that and make it a seperate system!
 
#16
I have read posts over on MPH's forums that have talked about all the ice melting in the staging lanes.

But like I said before, since you already spent the money, just keep what you got. If anything, buy a big ass heat exchanger to help you out.

If you want to go with a FMIC you could always nitrous inject it :shrug:
 
#19
I've got an extra large coolant tank for my Allen kit. It's about the size of my battery and will hold a full bag of ice along with about the same amount of per fill. I'll get away with most times dumping the ice into the mix while I'm at the staging lane. After one run, all of the ice will be gone by the time I get back to the pits and the water temp is barely slightly over ambient to the touch.

Contrary to some opinions, icing the after cooler does make some difference on the run. In my case, there’s usually a .15 to .20 tenth difference between filling the coolant tank with ice water and hot lapping the car without it on a really hot day.
 
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