- Mar 11, 2004
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Can you use an intercooler on a non-supercharged motor and run the cold air right into the intake?
Intercooler on non-supercharged motors?
- Thread starter Afastgts95
- Start date
I would think any cooling effects, if any, would be outweighed by the restriction the un boosted air encounters going though the intercooler. Now, if you would run a icebox type of intercooler to really bring down the charge temps down, then yeah, maybe it would outweigh the air restrictions. Try it and let us know! : )
Michael Yount
Mustang Master
Why use a heat exchanger to try and cool intake air to ambient temp when you can just pull ambient temp air right into the engine? It's extra weight, extra plumbing and it won't be any cooler than outside air anyway. An intercooler is needed for boosted cars because the act of compressing the intake air also heats it up. Compressed air coming out of a super or turbo charger can reach as high as 250F-300F. The intercooler is needed to take the heat back out. As alluded to above, if you could lower the intake air temp below ambient, there are gains to be had -- approximately 1/2%-1% HP for each 10F degree drop in intake air temp. But if the gains were significant, you'd see somebody marketing a gadget to do it. I've seen a few that place a "bulb" in the air inlet piping, and then they use liquefied CO2 to chill the bulb and as air passes over the cold bulb, it cools the intake air - in theory. Don't know how effective it is in practice.
JadeFalcon
Founding Member
you cant get cooler air than atmosphere, so if you pipe a simple intake into the fender youre going to be pulling cold dense air in, intercooler is totally unnecessary... unlike a turbo, which inlet temperature can rise over 250-350 degrees.
Michael Yount
Mustang Master
I know on jet engines they sometimes spray a fine mist into the engines to lower the air temperature while it's sitting on the ground cause they tend to heat up. A fine mist should be able to lower the air temp entering your intake as well. That said I don't know what a fine mist would do to your internals or the electronics on the way down... Prolly rust your throttle body amoung other things...
Michael Yount
Mustang Master
.....and there are still many people out there that inject water or alcohol or water/alcohol mixtures under boost (super/turbo) to cool the chamber and prevent detonation. Doubt there's much benefit for naturally aspirated - perhaps in AZ where the humidity is low and you could get some evaporative cooling effect. But for a lot of the country where the % humidity number follows the temperature number (F) in the summertime, not a lot of evaporation going on, if you know what I mean.
66Camaro454
New Member
- May 22, 2004
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ninjacoupe
New Member
A Chemical intercooler would work. Alchahol or water injection./ Air to Air would just be a restriction and water to air would end up heating the charge as well as being a restriction.
This sounds a lot like the idea someone else posted a couple of months ago about plumbing one of his A/C vents into his air filter box. Great idea, expect for the fact that you're probably loosing more hp by running the A/C compressor than your gaining by the cooler air temp. to your intake.
grrrrrrr said:
A fine mist will make your car run slower. The mist displaces molecules of oxygen that the engine needs for combustion.
It's why our cars run slower when it's humid out
Michael Yount
Mustang Master
Keep in mind that FAQ is written primarily with regard to boosted situations; that last bit on naturally aspirated applications seems hopeful at best.
I just said there were 'some' answers 
I didn't suggest that they were the answers that anybody wanted to hear. And I certainly didn't mean to suggest that this is anything I would recommend for a N/A setup 
I think maybe 'hopeful' could be an overstatement. Especially when talking about daily drivers. I just threw it out there for others to ponder 
I didn't suggest that they were the answers that anybody wanted to hear. And I certainly didn't mean to suggest that this is anything I would recommend for a N/A setup I think maybe 'hopeful' could be an overstatement. Especially when talking about daily drivers. I just threw it out there for others to ponder
Michael Yount
Mustang Master
slowgt - it was a very helpful post - in fact, I sent a copy of the link to my to my brother who's having exhaust temp issues with his Gale Banks modified PowerStroke diesel engine under load pulling a heavy trailer. Injection may be just the ticket for him - I hadn't seen that system/company before. I was just trying to let others know that (my opinion) if there were a lot to be had alcohol/water injecting naturally aspirated low compression set ups (what most of us drive), you'd see more of it out there. I don't think I ever seen or read about anyone injecting a naturally aspirated set up -- not that it hasn't happened; just that it's rare thing. And when it's not happening very often, that's usually a sign that it's not of much help to the masses.
ninjacoupe
New Member
