S2LEZZY

INTERCOOLER VS. AFTERCOOLER?

Mabie im ahh, id-oit?

Really, ive looked... i know the order of things, intercooler before, after-cooler... after. ha ha... How they work and what they do.. Got it.

but...

Can u combine them or is that redundant?

Does one work better than another?

Also... i know all turbo and superchargers are different but... do both generally tap into the coolant, or do some use there own rezo? and, is there a special coolant for these mini fridge's ?

Ty.

the 'aftercooler' is just a word that some companies use. They are all 'intercoolers'.

Superchargers will not tap into the coolant system at all, and turbochargers will only tap into the coolant system if you are using a turbo that is both water and oil cooled.

When you say 'mini fridge', im not sure i get what you are saying? I think you are talking about an air to water intercooling setup. That is what the comptech and the vortech SC setups use. Its just an intercooler that is closed off and you run water through the intercooler to cool the incoming air, instead of using air to cool the incoming air.

-Ty

S2LEZZY

ahh... thank you, that was it. the mini fridge nailed the answer i was looking for

thank you

Master S2K

good question, i learned something too

timg

Aftercooler: A component that cools compressed air coming from a compressor.

Intercooler: A component that cools air inside a compressor.

Typically, an intercooler would be between stages of a compressor system whereas the aftercooler is after the compressor entirely. Virtually all automotive "intercoolers" should be called "aftercoolers" since they are after the turbo/supercharger. An exception could be if a car/truck had multiple superchargers/turbochargers in series with an intercooler between them.

Tim

S2LEZZY

So.... no tap on the radiator, self contained units cooling the air before or after the compressor- they got to be using some sort of coolant, right?

How often do you need to swap that goo out?

I guess if you lack on getting one, the heat could spell hell for your o2 sensor and engine?

I have not seen any info on maintaining superchargers and aftercoolers in the faq or do it yourself.

Side note: a ugly little rumor i heard Comptech got bought out???
Vortech has gota luv that... is this true, or am i one of those people spreading rubish that i love to hate?

irphil

If your car has had a hot drive, let it idle for about 5 min to let the turbo cool down. Otherwise the oil in the bearing will turn to carbon and kill the turbo. That's the biggest cause of premature failure.

Burgman

Turbos and superchargers compress the air thus forcing more air into the cylinders for more power. Problem is air heats when it is compressed (usually way over 100 deg. F) thus causing the air to expand (less air density).

Running a engine strait off the turbo will give you more power than a normally aspirated engine because of the increased air pressure. The intercooler cools the compressed air thus providing the engine the same increased air pressure with more air density; all that extra oxygen increases power. The cooler air charge also makes the engine less prone to pre-ignition (pinging).

All that extra piping and air volume after the turbo on an intercooler system will cause a little more boost lag than a system running strait off the turbo. A air to water type intercooler system has a small, water filled, radiator in the compressed air stream. The system uses a small water pump and it's own small radiator in front of the main radiator to transfer the heat. THe main benifit is this system does not require a lot of piping between the turbo and the engine so boost lag is minimized. The downside is this type system is more complex than the air to air intercooler system.