Intercooler airflow

[Apache]

On some high performance cars, the intercooler sits below a grill in the bonnet (NOT a scoop) - the Celica GT4 Carlos Sainz rings a bell.

Soooo... the cooling air for this must enter through the front of the car and exit through the grill. Presumably the air must pick up some heat from the engine on its way through.

My guess is this doesn't matter that much as there is still a big difference between the air temp on the compressed side of the turbo (possible over 110 deg.c due to the pressure effects, and the proximity of extremely hot exhaust gasses) and the air temp passing through the intercooler.

Therefore, I reckon top mounted intercoolers are likely to be within a few percent as efficient as front mounted ones, and the extra lag likely to be introduced by a front mounted one with the extra length pipes would offset the small advantage it had anyway.

Good work Boyo, Bushwhacker and the other top mount boys!

[POPEYE]

On some high performance cars, the intercooler sits below a grill in the bonnet (NOT a scoop) - the Celica GT4 Carlos Sainz rings a bell.

Soooo... the cooling air for this must enter through the front of the car and exit through the grill. Presumably the air must pick up some heat from the engine on its way through.

My guess is this doesn't matter that much as there is still a big difference between the air temp on the compressed side of the turbo (possible over 110 deg.c due to the pressure effects, and the proximity of extremely hot exhaust gasses) and the air temp passing through the intercooler.

Therefore, I reckon top mounted intercoolers are likely to be within a few percent as efficient as front mounted ones, and the extra lag likely to be introduced by a front mounted one with the extra length pipes would offset the small advantage it had anyway.

Good work Boyo, Bushwhacker and the other top mount boys!

Fitting mine on top as there's no where else for it to go,
There's a writ-up on the aus tech site regarding top and front mounted cooler and the guy reccons he got better perfomance with it on top, plus personally i like the beefy scoop, with a nice intercooler logo on each side

[BUSHWHACKER]

Ooh,ooh, you mean like mine?

[Dog_Book]

Youll find that factory top intercoolers have seals round them so no hot air bleeds into it.......only cool air in and down

[Apache]

Youll find that factory top intercoolers have seals round them so no hot air bleeds into it.......only cool air in and down

But with only a vent above it (like GT4 CS and similar) air cannot be forced down into it.

Anyone here measure air temp on compressed side of turbo without intercooler fitted?

[BUSHWHACKER]

But with only a vent above it (like GT4 CS and similar) air cannot be forced down into it.

Anyone here measure air temp on compressed side of turbo without intercooler fitted?

Don't know what the actuall temp is, but reading all the write-ups, comparison tests between a intercooled and non-intercooled Landcruiser Prado (3rd gen Surf) the intake charge temp dropped by almost 60%.

[The Lovely Boyo]

Anyone here measure air temp on compressed side of turbo ?

Hello,

Apache - you'll get people going again.

After a run, on the turbo side, the blue pipe gets very warm to the touch - estimate over 50deg. The inlet side blue pipe stays quite cool - estimate 25 - 30 deg. (Anyone got some electronic temperature probes (oooo, matron) and we could check it out?)

So my set up, even without rubber skirts (which would help) is working.

I'm going to experiment with soft foam edging before looking for suitable rubber - I'll just use the foam as a template.

[POPEYE]

You could do with two of those old smiths air temp gauges, one on the turbo side and one on the inlet, give ya both temps and it's two more bling gauges to fit

[laser_jock@work]

Engine top mouted intercoolers are also widely known as 'interwarmers' for obvious reasons. If you can mount one in front of the rad it will work much better but generally there's no room and they are frequently stuck on top of engines (even in production cars) almost as an afterthought. Even with rubber seals to direct the scoop air down the whole thing is still sat on top of a very hot engine.

All that said, a top mount intercooler it is still a mod I'd consider doing because the air intake will still be cooler than a straight feed. It's just a pity it's not easier to locate somewhere more efficient.