Which Is Better An Intercooler Or A Charge Cooler

[bluesleeper 3]

What are your thoughts guys? Let the fun begin??

 

Any advice will be much appreciated.

 

Cheers guys,

 

Gareth.

[badj 0]

I say charge cooler.

 

Not really too necessary on lower power applications though and will need a bit of under bonnet space, whereas an intercooler can be shoved out of the way :lol

[bluesleeper 3]

Sorry guys didn't give you much info!!!

 

I'm not sure which way to go as i'm supercharging my mi16, and not entirley sure which will be best for this application?

i understand i will need room for the charge cooler but is it that much more efficient that it's worth the extra space and cost?

whereas the intercooler is more space saving but may not be as efficient?

 

what do you guys think????

 

Thanks,

 

Gareth.

[wracing 19]

An intercooler is far more efficient! Charge coolers are good for drag use as you can super chill the water with lots of glycol and ice!!!

 

thanks

 

james

Edited March 18, 2010 by wracing

[roote 0]

for short blast's charge cooler's, but the water will warm up if your giving it some for long periods ie track, this was the advice i was given when ive asked in the past when working on a turbo technic's conversion.

[jimistdt 1]

I would have thought for ease of installation the intercooler wins the argument. In terms of efficency the chargecooler would give double losses, as the coolant radiator system wouldn't 100% reduce the coolant to ambient temp, also the chargecooler would not be 100% efficient as the means of cooling the air would be slghtly higher than ambient. With the intercooler, although that will not be totally efficient either, it doesnt require further mechanical energy to perform, whereas the chargecooler would require a pump, which would presumably draw power from somewhere. All theoretical of course, but i am in the process of part buying to intercool myself, so I may be being a little biased.

[shalmaneser 26]

Surely it has to be an intercooler for most road/track applications. A charge cooler adds far more weight give that you have to have a charge cooler>pump>charge cooler radiator and all the associated plumbing, whereas with an intercooler its just some boost pipes and the cooler.

 

only advantage I can see with a CC is the short piping run with should reduce lag, but the added weight and complexity of a CC setup makes doesn't really make it worth the compromises.

 

Just out of interest how are you planning on running the charger off the aux drive belt i guess? how will you run the alternator, or will the alternator/power steering/supercharger all run off one belt?

 

What about management are you going to run?

 

good luck with the project.

Edited March 19, 2010 by shalmaneser

[bluesleeper 3]

I love this place for real world knowledge not just the stuff people read in top gear or fast car!

 

Thanks for your advice guys I think you have brought me around to the intercooler way as i was thinking going down the c c route

 

I am going to power the charger with the aux belt and run the alternator off of the exhaust cam pulley on the gearbox end of the shaft hopefully unless there are better ideas out there, but as its tried and tested i'll prob stick with it.

 

As for management I was thinking K.M.S. or Emerald? any thoughts?

 

Gonna try and fab the plenum from carbon fibre/ origional manifold, any idea's where the best place for carbon matting is?

 

Thanks guys for all your replies,

 

Gareth.

[Tom Fenton 1,548]

I say charge cooler.

 

Not really too necessary on lower power applications though and will need a bit of under bonnet space, whereas an intercooler can be shoved out of the way :lol

 

No an intercooler cannot be shoved out of the way. It needs to be placed in air flow to be of any use.

 

A CHARGECOOLER can be placed wherever you like, as it transfers its heat into a secondary medium, which then dumps the heat out of the system remotely.