Why do I need an innter cooler with the supercharger I just bought?

Answer 1

Any race-modified vehicle can benefit from an inntercooler system. An inntercooler is basicaly a small Air radiator that is mounted on the front of the vehicle. It is in line with your air intake system in some way and thus allows the air traveling to your engine to be cooled by the air hitting the front of the car. Supercharged vehicles particularly can benefit from this as a supercharger tends to heat up the air in its process.

Answer 2

haha...don't listen to any mumbo jumbo about how superchargers do not cause any heat. The fact of the matter is that both superchargers and turbochargers will compress the air. Compress air will cause more heat, and that’s the bottom line. Now turbo systems will produce more heat because they are run off the exhaust gasses, so usually on turbo systems intercoolers are mandatory.

Now an intercooler is not necessary on supercharger systems, however it will only compliment the system if you add one onto your application. Most supercharger systems in the lower boost range of 10 or below really do not produce that much heat, so an intercooler is not needed. Usually in the higher boost range you will want one to help control the heat.

Now if you did want to add an intercooler it will compliment the system in many ways. Since an intercooler is cooling the discharge temperature down, you can run more boost at a safer level. More boost will equal more HP. On top of that you can run a more aggressive tune, which in return will also give you more power. A more aggressive tune basically means you can run more timing, which in return will give you more HP. Another benefit of adding an intercooler is that it will help prevent detonation. Detonation is caused by too much heat or lack of fuel, and detonation will destroy your engine. So basically an intercooler is an extra safety net to help control detonation.

Now the down side of adding an intercooler is that it will take away from the efficiency of the unit. So basically if your system is 9psi of boost out the box…you might see 6-7psi of boost after the intercooler is added on. The main reason why the efficiency will suffer is because you are adding more piping for the air to pass through and on top of that the intercooler itself will cause a restriction in the airflow. However most people just get a smaller supercharger pulley to make up for the amount of boost that was lost.

The bottom line is, an intercooler is not necessary, however it will serve many benefits if you add one. It also depends on how aggressive and how much HP you are trying to achieve. Usually low HP or lower boost levels systems will not need them and the higher boost levels and major HP vehicles usually will want them.

I’m attaching a link for my sources that will help explain a little bit more about this subject. Hopefully all this will help you out.

Answer 3

You don't NEED an intercooler, but it will help make more power. You don't specify the specifics for some reason....the type of s/c, (centrifugal, roots, twin screw) the level of boost, the compression ratio of the motor (to determine max allowable boost) the rpm range you intend to run....etc. But in general an intercooler will lower the temp of the discharge air headed for the intake. That makes it more dense, which allows you to pack more of it into a cylinder. The more air you can get into a cylinder, the more fuel you can add to make power. Adding fuel and spark is easy, but packing in air at too high a temperature will raise combustion temps and create a wonderful knock that will tend to melt the tops of your pistons. Also, not all i/c's are air to air, there are also air to water...and on positive displacement style chargers, they are typically integrated into the new intake manifold, not in the front of the car. And Mr. Know it all....superchargers DO create heat. Anytime air is compressed, =heat is generated as a by-product. But at less than 6 psi or so, its not very much to worry about. Above that, you better plan on an intercooler or at least methanol injection.

Answer 4

With a "supercharger"? No
With a "turbocharger"? Yes

Hey "CHAD"

Superchargers do not heat the air.

Turbochargers do because they are powered by exhaust gasses flowing thru the turbine and the heat transfers thru the housing and the blade.

Superchargers are run by a fan belt, therefore, no heat transfer.