How does the intercooler work on our trucks? How much does airflow change the performance of this compontent? Are these the heat exchangers located behind the air dam?

Sorry to ask so many questions, I just realized I don't know the answers.

 

not totally sure on this question, and you may get a bigger response if you post this in the L forum cuz they use the same one, but there was an article in truckin in october on the L's engine and supercharger and intercooler, and i remember reading they said its intercooler was very efficient!
others will be around soon that can help ya out more. i'm sure ken800 knows alot about this

 

I can give you a ball park response, from my experience of owning a Turbo Volvo.

When you compress air you heat it. A good way to see this response is to feel the side of your home air compressor tank when it runs (warm), or a scuba tank being refilled (warm). Warm air is not as dense as cold air. The fuel is added to this hot air, and then is ignited. BINGO!! Power.

The intercooler is placed between the blower/compressor and the intake. The intake air is cooled, and becomes more dense. More density means you can shove more air into the engine, and thusly more fuel can added to burn. The result is more horsepower for the same amount of cylinder space or displacement.

Check this link for a good explanation of the intercooler on a turbocharged engine.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/turbo4.htm

 

Awesome, layman's term response there, PhillyRube! I could not have explained it better than that.

So a couple obvious questions would be:

1. How much difference does it really make to get cold air into the air filter box/add new cold air induction system if the intercooler is going to cool the air anyway?

2. What sort of modifications can or are being made to the stock intercooler to make the air colder? Electric fans, etc.

 

the inter cooler on our trucks is located under the blower and is cooled through an external cooler that cools the antifreeze that goes into the blower , the blower blows the boost onto the inter cooler and when it comes out the other side its about 170 degrees cooler than if there was no inter cooler , impretty sure thats how it works , all the while the anti freeze is puped in and out of the cooler to keep it colder

 

Well, I'm not a pro mechanic or an engineer, so I'm not sure how to answer. My thinking would be that if a certain design intercooler takes the air 20' cooler than no intercooler, then cooling the outside air allows more cooling, more density, more fuel, more power.

The math. Outside (ambient) air is 80'. The blower takes it up to 120', then the intercooler drops that back to 100'. This is fed to the cylinders. By using a ram air system, the outside air is cooler than the air under the hood. So, you take that 70' air, compress it to 110', then cool it back to 90'. Feed this to the engine, and you get a little more power.

Not sure how any aftermarket system would work, although with the Volvo I had, the intercooler looked like a big radiator, and was on the outside of the engine, i.e. intercooler, A/C condensor, radiator. Putting an electric fan on there might give you a little more cooling at rest or off the line, but once you reached speed, the air flow being pushed through would overwhelm the fan anyways.

I gotta get my kid the engineer on the phone and see what he thinks. I know this, he didn't get his brains from me!

 

The Truckin' article said the 2002 L intercooler takes about 200 degrees (if I recall correctly, maybe it was 100) out of the air going into the motor. It also said that it was EXTREMELY effecient and they would not change it.

Maybe its possible that the radiator/interchanger/whatever it's called behind the air dam could get a little help via a puller electric fan or two?

The L has a larger hole in the air dam to let more air in, some HD owners have address this with an L valence but I've heard no comments on performance improvement.

I wonder if installing a lower grill hurts performance of the intercooler any. Hmmm....

Also, do HDs have the new L intercooler or the old one? The new one is supposed to be much better. (Do I feel another part # search coming on? lol)

There are also radiator additives (redline water wetter, 40 below, etc.) that actually make the coolant cooler. Some are compatible with antifreeze, some are not.

Improvement with something like this may be minimal, but may be worth looking into.

Just some things to think about...

John

 

You guys are all following my thinking. I am a Mechanical Engineer, and I know inter coolers work, I just wanted to know if it was air to air or water to air and how efficient it was. Then you all brought up the idea of an electric fan (the EXACT reason why I started this thread). I guess the best (cheap and quick) test would be to completely block off the hole in the air dam and drive some runs, then remove the lower grille entirely and do some runs.

Being the engineer that I am, I am always looking for new ways to take our trucks to the next level.

I have also heard of using some Nitrous (or other compressed gas) to spray ONTO the intercooler/radiator. Compressed gas at ambient temp depressurizing to ambient temp will absorb a lot of heat (basically it will be really cold, like any areosol product).

 

I would think the fans would make a difference when sitting at a stoplight, driving in slow moving traffic, etc. I would DEFINATLY go the puller route.

Cover the hole, take the air dam off - good stuff, but be careful. Let us know what you get from it.

 

This is a great thread! Definitely what makes this site worth visiting.

Thanks for the additional info to all who responded, and 4WL HOGG, let us know what your results are.

 

Yeah Bill, we can talk about it when we go to the Nor Cal meet I don't think I will have a chance to get to the track to test it out before then though

 

I just hope the weather is good on the 23rd. My truck is so dirty right now after all the rain.

Gonna clean it tomorrow and try to keep it in the garage until then.

 

Aside from the aesthetic effect of removing my front license frame, I figured it resricts airflow to the intercooler.

I don't have any hard data to back it up but it's just logical that no plate means more airflow straight to the intercooler.

I'm gonna snap a pic of my truck tomorrow. With all the rain and being minus my back-up car, I have been driving the beast everyday. I think I could grow corn now with all the dirt on the wheel wells