INTERCOOLERS

[Browndog]

I have a small one (intercooler) and it is a bit bashed up will fitting a bigger one give more power and will it affect any thing else . there is plenty of room for a long one along the bottom of the radiator.
My vehical is a mazda / Ford 2.5 intercooled turbo deisel ute.
Any help would be great.

[hosehustler]

Think of it like this,
Intrcoolers cool the air going into the engine.
The cooler the air going into the engine, the more you can fit in there ( as air warms it expands)
The more air you can fit into the combustion chambers, the more OXYGEN.
The more oxygen (which MAKES the fuel burn) the bigger the burn
The bigger the burn, the more the POWER
simple physics (if you're a fireman )
so I guess do you want a huge intercooler hanging down everywhere you go out 4x4ing, or do you want simplicity and ground clearance
hope this helps
Tim

[Browndog]

Thanks Tim the principles sound simple and the intercooler would be tucked away behind a TJM Bull bar. Is thier anyother things to take inter consideration , Like boost presure, fuel pump ????????????

[MATT4U]

take turbo lag into account is "LAG". it will take longer to fill up a bigger IC with air so longer untill you get the power.
With a bigger IC you could probably up your boost aswell

[eatenfuller]

guys ,boost dosent mean shit without more fuel to burn it.

[MATT4U]

yea you do need more fuel when running higher boost however i know in petrol applications you can get away with a small increase in boost without adjusting your fueling system, you canalso keep an eye on things via an air-fuel-ratio meter. Im unshure what the story with deisel is but im shore someone here can help him out (Freeboost hehe)

[Jungle]

Interesting. I always look at it like the bigger the IC, the bigger the pressure drop accross it. Therefore by increasing your boost before the intercooler you will end up with the original boost entering the engine block.

Does that seem right.

[MATT4U]

often an IC will up your boost as toyr getting cooler air compressed more so your getting more air in your engine, (more boost)

[DieselBoy]

To state the obviouse, the theory behind an intercooler is to cool the air down to a point where you create a denser mixture inside the combustion chambers.
Denser air and fuel mixture = bigger explosion.

Oviously if you are going to try to improve that denser mixture by putting a larger intercooler on, then you will have to adjust the fuel to suit, else the mixture will be lean and you will notice F.A difference.

You will not create less pressure from the Turbo.

You will increase the time it takes to build that pressure as it will now take a larger volume of air to fill the space inside the intercooler to that same pressure.
Called Turbo Lag.

You could fit a Blow off valve to reduce this lag. It releases the pressure in the intake manifold to a point were it is lower than the pressure in the exhaust and thus prevents the compressed air from returning back out the air intake and spinning the turbo in revese direction.
Obviously the latter substantially increases lag.
It also reduces the resistance around the impeller on the Turbo, alowing it to spool up quicker.
You cannot run antilag on a diesel. Clouds of blue smoke if you tried.

I personally would not bother with a bigger intercooler.
Higher boost, advanced pump timing will provide a bigger performance increase on a diesel.

Hope thats usefull,
Pete.

[Jungle]

You might have that backward Matt4u. Heating air increases pressure as the molecules spread out. Reducing temperatures reduces the pressure and therefore allows you to pack more air molecules into the same amount of space(volume). Therefore allowing more air molecules for the same pressure and this gives us more power because we can burn more fuel.

Thats a mouth full.

G

[MATT4U]

Bah, just rip out the ol donk, replace it with a SR20DET, run forges, ported head, cams, big turbo, large FMIC, big fuel pump, LOTS OF BOOST.


Or a RB26DETT if it will fit

[Jungle]

You will not create less pressure from the Turbo.

Thats not easy to explain either. Without pressure drop we don't have airflow. So the pressure at the turbo outlet will always be higher than that of the inlet manifold of the engine. Obviously the more junk we put between the turbo and the engine the more pressure drop we have.
The friction from the air travelling through the intercooler creates this pressure drop.
So you might have 15psi at the turbo outlet and 12psi at the inlet manifold.

Hope that helps.
G

[NJV6]

Correct me if Im wrong but back to the original question - I can't be sure but the Mazda/Ford TD is electronically controlled is it not? So it might not be as easy as 'screwing up the boost' or 'upping the fuel'......

If the pump can be tweaked and boost can be increased then talk to a diesel specialist and get them to have a fiddle. They are already running a pretty high boost, if anything could be improved it would be the off boost response.

Putting a bigger intercooler on or upping the boost will do diddly squat without having other adjustments made to the package.