A question for those with forced induction, more specifically a supercharger. Does a larger intercooler equal more power ? Right now I have fmic but I upgraded to a larger supercharger but wondering if i needed up the intercooler size to take advantage of it?

 

Its about restriction and cooling capacity.

If your ic is still not imposing significant restriction, there is no real power to be gained. If its sized well to keep air reasonably close to ambient under tbe conditions you drive, no gain to upsizing.

But chances are it is a restriction if it wasn't oversized to begin with.

Keep in mind its a lot more complicated than just going 'bigger'. There are diff ic designs that are more restrictive than others. You also need to optimize height vs width vs depth to the available space its being installed in.

Adding depth can make it less restrictive, but it doesn't help much with cooling (most of the cooling is done at the front). So if your cooling capacity was fine, and only needed less restriction, the same size but deeper would be the easiest, as existing piping could probably be used as is.

But if you needed more cooling, then that wouldn't be a very smart 'upgrade'.

You need to do research, and maybe some math, to figure out what you need. Since I'm guessing you're not a math scholar or working in STEM, probably the easiest thing would be to research what others with similar setup to yours used and what success they had.

 

I believe that with changing to a larger IC in a SC application you might see a loss of boost at the same pulley size. Not much of an issue with turbo, but since superchargers have a finite max speed and generate a ton of heat at higher speeds, you may face diminishing returns. Same reason that big exhausts don't generally make a ton of extra power with superchargers - they increase flow, which in turn can decrease boost.

 

What? Loss of psi due to better flow isn't a bad thing!

psi occurs because there is restriction. Just like replacing a restrictive exhaust with something freer flowing, less psi due to better flow will result in more power.

The only way this isn't true is if you reduced restriction so much you end up on an an inefficient point on compressor map. You changed things so much now the compressor is too small for the application. This is highly unlikely if the compressor was sized appropriately to begin with. Even less likely if user recently upgraded to larger compressor, as op has.

 

Do you have a way to look at your AITs? Those would give you an idea.

 

Given that the boost is measured at the manifold, if an intercooler restricts it, it'll be because it's more restrictive.

Whether or not you can make the same power at a lower boost would be the real sticking point.

 

Everyone can benefit from reading Maximum Boost by Corky Bell. Calculating intercooler efficiency is not a complex equation. There are gains to be had by doing things without upsizing your core.

 

^ This!

 

Apologies for the slight thread derail, but I met him at his shop, and would go up when I had any excuse for parts. Very VERY nice guy. He let me stash my s2k at his garage for the 3 years I was at grad school. He had the space and didn't charge me a dime.

 

Some intercooler testing and efficiency reading:
https://motoiq.com/turbo-tech-intercooler-testing/