intercooler?

Question

is it possible to an intercooler on a car with a turbo?

LMAO i meant without a turbo

Answer 1

yes it is possible to fit an intercooler with a turbo-the bigger the better

Answer 2

Yes, you can. I'd recommend it due to the higher intake charge temperatures that you get from running boost.

I don't subscribe to the bigger is better mentality. A turbocharger's boost is measured at the manifold in Pounds Per Square Inch or by Bar (14.7psi = 1 bar).

Lets say you have a turbocharger without an intercooler compressing X amount of air. When you add an intercooler you are adding more plumbing for the air to travel through (out of the turbo, through the intercooler, into the intake.) Not to mention the fact that the intercooler is a gathering place for the boost too. The bigger the intercooler, typically the bigger the plumbing in inches of diameter. Therefore if the turbo was producing 1 bar running through 2 feet of 2" plumbing (I'm just making these numbers up for reference) and you add an intercooler which adds 4 more feet of plumbing and you change the piping out to 3" diameter plumbing you'll experience a boost drop as measured at the manifold, even though the turbo is doing the same amount of work. You can compensate for this by turning up the boost, but you may quickly exceed the efficient operating tolerances of the turbo. Thats why it is wise to match the intercooler to the turbo to the engine setup and your desired performance for your budget.

Good luck.

Answer 3

Yes. Actually it's recommended that if you have a turbocharger to have an inter cooler
The Turbo gets its force from hot exhaust gases. What it does is increase the force of air going to the intake. You want an inter cooler to take the hot pressurized air from the turbo and cool it down before it is in the intake.