Strapping a great big turbocharger to your car is all well and good, and while it will work without an Intercooler, it won’t be working at its best. That’s why most cars with turbocharges also have an intercooler fitted.
But why is this? What does an intercooler do and how can it benefit a car with forced induction?
When you compress air, as is the case with a turbocharger, you heat it up. In fact, air gets incredibly hot when it’s compressed. However, it’s not the generated heat that is the issue, it’s what that heat does to the air.
Turbochargers work by compressing air and getting more of it into the engine. More air means a green light for more fuel, and that means more power. Unless that air is too hot.
The hotter it gets, the less oxygen rich it becomes, meaning it doesn’t burn as well. This is where the problem lies. You can shovel all the air you like into your engine, but if it doesn’t burn well enough, it won’t do anything.
This is where the intercooler comes in. The air sucked in and compressed by the turbocharger is passed through the intercooler before it reaches the cylinder.
As it passes though, the intercooler – as the name suggests – cools the air, thus making it more oxygen rich.
That means it will burn better, which of course means more power. It’s really that simple. And intercooler cools air. That’s it.
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