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For this application, "intercooler" and "aftercooler" is interchangeable. The Compech kit can be bought with or without the cooler.
Is the intercooler upgradeable??
Not sure what you mean by this. If you buy the kit without the intercooler, you can add it later. If you mean to put on a "better" one, why would you want to? The one that Comptech supplies works well. You can always go to a front mount intercooler, but you'll lose boost pressure. The Comptech one is air/water. A true front mount is air/air. You can also get an air/water front mount to replace the stock one. This lends the impression that you have a true front mount.
What does the aftercooler do exactly??
Whenever you compress air, it heats up. Hot intake air is an engine's enemy. An intercooler (or aftercooler) cools the intake air before it gets to the engine. This makes for a denser charge (more O2) and more power producing combustion.
Don't be misled about "more power" with an intercooler. While in principle, this is true, in reality, a Comptech without an intercooler has been used on this car for years before the intercooler was introduced. The power at the wheels didn't change much. The extra volume of the intercooler reduces boost pressure, which reduces HP. A smaller pulley is needed to compensate for this loss just to bring the power back up to where it was before. What you get with the intercooler is a safety margin and the ability to more easily upgrade later to higher boost and more output. If you never plan to do this in the future, then adding the intercooler is only "insurance" and as with most insurance, you generally don't really need it.
A front mount water to air intercooler is the best kind of front mount but comptechs aftercooler is best for the application. I do plan on running the (9 psi?) pulley.. (is that the 1 or 2 psi higher pulley?) For that, would i need a Front mount??
Also, when running a higher boost pulley than stock, which i thought was 7 psi for comptech, do i need internal work? ie pistons, rods etc... Because I dont want to get into that..
A front mount water to air intercooler is the best kind of front mount but comptechs aftercooler is best for the application. I do plan on running the (9 psi?) pulley.. (is that the 1 or 2 psi higher pulley?) For that, would i need a Front mount??
Some clarification is in order. The Comptech intercooled kit (for the intercooler part) comes with a heat exchanger that removes the heat from the compressed air. This intercooler has water running through it. The water pulls the heat from the air before it goes into the intake manifold. Then, the water gets pumped to a small radiator that sits in front of your stock radiator. Air passes through this rad and takes the heat out of the water and the cycle continues in this fashion. This system works really well and is more than adequate.
There 2 kinds of front mounted intercoolers (FMI). The one that you can get for the Comptech (and Vortech) is simply a larger radiator to replace that smaller one that is supplied. It's mainly for looks (bling) and actually doesn't hold any more coolant than the smaller supplied one.
The second kind is an air/air intercooler that doesn't involve any water. This kind is more typical of turbo applications. This one would not be very efficient with a supercharger application due to its large air volume.
The stock Vortech runs about 7 to 7.5 psi stock. The stock Comptech with intercooler is only about 6 psi unless you also get the smaller pulley that takes it up to 7 psi. If you go to 9 psi, you will not "require" internal build-up (unless you want the insurance), but you will need more other stuff like a stand alone ECU, injectors, dyno time, etc.
The gist of the above: No, a FMI is not required. It's for "bling" factor. No, you don't need to do internals if you go to 9 psi, but you will still need to spend some big dollars.
ps. I suggest you read all the FAQs at the top of Forced Induction. Lots of information there.
I know the "in" word is intercooler but, in truth, there is no intercooled S2000. Not that I know of.
An intercooler is a heat exchanger used to cool charged air in between two stages of a turbomachinery assembly. The term intercooler is only appropriate for a multi-turbo system, and not all of them at that. In all other cases, the appropriate term is aftercooler.
Parallel Twin-Turbo:
Two turbines, two compressors. Intake air can travel through one but not both compressors. Pressurized air exits the two compressors and is combined before entering a single, common aftercooler.
Series Twin-Turbo
Two turbines, two compressors. Intake air travels through both compressors, in sequence. A heat exchanger placed in series between the two compressor stages would be an intercooler. One placed after the second stage would be an aftercooler. The only application where I have seen this used is in large diesel engines.
Your on the right track. Since you already know you are going to increase boost....then definately get the aftercooler.
Regardless of how much boost your plan to run....there is no need for the FMIC....the stock radiator from Comptech is fine. Although the popular thing is run the full FMIC from tech2 to give it the notorious Force Induction look.
The kit is sold with and without the aftercooler. The aftercooler will run you and additional $1000.
I would recommend that you buy the kit WITH the aftercooler so that the install is much easier. If you buy the kit without the aftercooler and then later on decide to add it.......it makes for a much harder install. Rotating the snail, cutting tubes etc....
Comptech Supercharger...
