Larger Intercooler

[SteveAudioX]

Is there only one available, ?

Who makes it?

Could we, current SC owners just find one bigger that fits or is there a special equation for the correct internal air volume etc?

[Dave-Ellen]

I'm looking for one

[tdiplc]

There are quite a few manfacturers around but most of them are worse than standard. Same situation with exhausts, suspension, brakes etc etc etc.

[Scorpion]

I know a place that will make them to your spec.

[DUNCAN]

I'd be intrested in finding a larger I/C.

Mark, how much are your larger capacity intercoolers for the IS200 ?

[Bazza]

why does everyone want a larger intercooler

i was LED to beleive the original is more than enough

[SteveAudioX]

Does size not matter then Barrie ...

I'll tell ya what though, me car was running slugg recently with Hot weather, very slugg....

[Dave-Ellen]

The colder the air the better the car will go.

Bigger intercooler means cooler air.....

[ColinBarber]

Has anybody actually measured the air temp coming out of the intercooler? If it's near ambient temperature then it doesn't matter how big it is the air won't get any colder.

Also as Mark has posted before it not the size it's the efficiency of it that matters. You could quite easily fit a larger IC and it would make the air temp increase.

[Bazza]

my thoughts were that the intercooler is sized in propotion to the amount of air the compressor puts through

as colin said the cooler is only able to cool it to the temperature of the air passing through it, which is the same temperature as the air entering the system

have you thought of water sprays!

[tdiplc]

my thoughts were that the intercooler is sized in propotion to the amount of air the compressor puts through

as colin said the cooler is only able to cool it to the temperature of the air passing through it, which is the same temperature as the air entering the system

have you thought of water sprays!

That sounds a bit confusing

The intercooler can only reduce the air temperature to that of the ambient temperature. There is the wind chill factor to consider which luckily enough for our purposes gets cooler as the car increases speed.

Intercooler design is a complex subject because we want the air to pass through the core unrestricted to minimise the pressure drop, but we also want the air to be cooled which means introducing cooling fins in the airflow path. The more cooling fins we have the more flow restriction there is, and visa versa. Also it is important to have the correct volume of intercooler. If it is too big there is an unecessary flow restiction, if it is too small it will not cooler the air sufficiently.

It is good to have as much of the intercooler surface area exposed to a high pressure cooling medium (open mouth nose cone), but it is not essential (the radiators in my house keep me nice an warm in winter without the need for aiflow).

A lot of aftermarket intercoolers are worse than standard, so you have to be careful.

I would not change the intercooler unless I had a boost upgrade, but I would certainly consider a decent external water spray system