Has anyone done any 'real world' testing of these intercoolers to see if they actually reduce the air temp?

If so, by how degrees?

What about any increase in power/torque?

I know the theory......but I'm not convinced this style of cooler is actually having an effect on the air temp......either that, or I'm completely in the dark about how this design is supposed to cool the incoming air. I don't see where the boosted air is actually passing through the cooled area.

It looks like it's just a tank mounted to the bottom of the blower, that gets cooled water pumped through it.

How is that supposed to cool the boosted air?

 

Air passes between fins (like on a radiator) but instead of picking up heat the air transfers heat to the water and in turn is itself cooled, then it goes into the engine. The hot water is then pumped to the heat exchanger (radiator in front ) and is cooled by the passing air and then recirculated. They do work, quite well but can suffer from a sort of 'heat soak' on really hot days, the water will warm and have trouble cooling back down.

 

Under normal driving (non boosted) intercooling won't make a whole lot of difference because your boosting device isn't really generating any heat. I've got both systems on identical vehicles and here is a quick overview.

The centrifugal Mustang has an air to air intercooler and under wide open throttle it will knock about 130 degrees out of the charge temps running 8 PSI.
The roots Mustang makes about the same boost and both cars are set up to run exactly the same RWHP as a demostration of the difference in performance between the Centrifugal and positive displacement blowers.

The roots car and truck both run air to water and are pretty similar to overall results of the air to air but in the case of the roots cars (because of the nature of the device) generate more heat for a longer period of time during an acceleration. Air to water is also very suseptable to heat soak where the water in the core will continue to absorb radiated engine heat with no way to reject it until you restart the engine and begin driving down the road. We have generated reams of data both on dyno and in vehicle during our development programs so we can back up any of the statements made here.

Bottom line is, if your boosting, you should be intercooling. With all of the systems available out there, it would be foolish not to. Especially with a truck since (at least in my case) I still use it as a truck. So if I'm hauling my boat or whatever, there is a good chance I'll be boosting. With out an intercooler the ACT modifier will begin to retard spark to prevent knock as the charge temp rises. The 2 major losses when this happens are performance and fuel economy.

 

Yeah, I understand how they work.....let's get past that part.

I plan to use mine for towing, so an efficient intercooler is a big factor in my decision.

But........

On a centrifugal blower the air actually passes through the the cooling device, on the way to the head. Much like the big diesel engines and their cooled turbo boost.

On the Roots style, I don't see where that takes place. The intake runners leading to the heads are in close proximity to the water tank, but how does that cool the air going into the head?

It looks like the intake runners are bathed in this cooled water, but is that enough to cool the air?

Does anyone have a cross section photo, or drawing of one of these Roots type blowers with the intercooler attached?

 

The water acts as the mediator. Instead of direct air-to-air, like the centrifigals, the water acts as the go between. Think of the roots blower's intercooler as an air-to-water-to-air intercooler. There is a thinly finned raidiator inside the intercooler just under the blower, this is where the heat transfer from the air to the water occurs (lots of surface area to cool the passing air). Sorry I do not have a diagram for you. If you understand how it works it seems so simple, but I can understand how it could be confusing. Hell, most people have no clue how a superhcarger itself even works.

Ps. The water tank is connected to another radiator that is mounted in the front of the truck that, just as your engine radiator, is cooled by the outside air passing through it. You should be fine for towing, and you could always get a guage to monitor the intercooler coolant temps.

 

On an Intercooled Roots (Lightning) installation, the Intercooler is directly beneath the supercharger so that as the air exits the compressor it passes through the cooling fins of the intercooler.

The system is an air to water. The intercooler system has an independent reservoir and heat exchanger (radiator) and it's own electric water pump. Very compact and quite efficient.

 

Ok.....this is starting to become more clear.

I assumed the intake runners were solid aluminum tubes that came from the bottom of the SC, and ran straight into the head.....and that these were surrounded by water in the intercooler, which cooled the air charge.....somehow.

But, this is not exactly what's going on in that intercooler tank, is it?

I really would like to see what the inside of one of these intercooler tanks looks like.

Are the Roush/Whipple/Magna/Trilogy-Roots/intercooler systems the same.....in other words do they all use this thinly finned radiator you speak of?

 

Here is some pics of the Lightning set up.
http://fordtruckworld.tenmagazines.c...tercooler_pics
That should give you some idea how it all works and works well.

Phil