Fitting large Intercooler

homingbird

Hi I want to know will I get a drop in pressure from turbo with a larger intercooler fitted to my car.

The mod is worth doing as the standard intercooler is very small so as well as getting more air into the engine it will get a better chance of cooling the air having it bigger. Thanks

bear1

You just want to insert a larger intercooler but leave all the pipe work etc as standard?

homingbird

Yes I will have to get reducer pipework to connect up so all I want to know is will the pressure from turbo be reduced with larger intercooler.

bear1

homingbird wrote: »

Yes I will have to get reducer pipework to connect up so all I want to know is will the pressure from turbo be reduced with larger intercooler.

I'm not sure the intercooler alone will create any additional power.
If anything it may create more drag.

teediddlyeye

You will get zero extra power from just fitting a bigger intercooler.

You'll get the same boost pressure but more lag due to the larger volume of air in the pipework/intercooler itself.

Not worth it unless you're spend money on supporting mods i.e bigger turbo, fuel injectors and a remap. Big €€ to do it properly depending on the car.

Neilw

An intercooler alone can and does increase power, lower intake temperatures are going to allow more fuel to mix and hence more power.

Does depend on the car too, what car is it OP?

krissovo

Neilw wrote: »

An intercooler alone can and does increase power, lower intake temperatures are going to allow more fuel to mix and hence more power.

Does depend on the car too, what car is it OP?

They actually increase air density through cooling which means you get more oxygen rather than fuel. That’s where the power increase comes from.

teediddlyeye

Neilw wrote: »

An intercooler alone can and does increase power, lower intake temperatures are going to allow more fuel to mix and hence more power.

Does depend on the car too, what car is it OP?

Intercooler comes after the MAF, the ECU won't see any colder air and won't inject more fuel to take advantage of the denser air mixture. It'll need a remap to take full advantage.

homingbird

The car is a E34 BMW 525TDS & i notice in warm weather its not as lively as now when temp has dropped . It has a very small intercooler only about 3inches high that sits under rad so i thought by fitting a larger intercooler the air would get a better chance of cooling before entering the engine.I Have mods done to the car only remap left to do i wanted to sort this first before i go ahead with remap.
The car has a straight thru stainless steel exhaust.
EGR removed.
& a more powerful fuel pump.
I am restoring it so want to get the mechanical side sorted on it before i start on bodywork .I did think about doing a engine swap on it but changed my mind as this engine will run on veg oil if i want to go that route in the future .

homingbird

Drag should only happen on start up as the turbo has to fill a larger cooler i am thinking then work as normal .

selectamatic

Ya go for a bigger intercooler and then get the ecu chipped by someone with some experience, the boys up the north will be more used to tuning these. Before you get it chipped you'll probably experience some added lag due to the bigger intercooler but you will be less susceptible to heatsoak. You'll also probably need a manual boost controller.

I believe they'll do around 180bhp comfortably enough on the factory turbo and you'll need the bigger intercooler to help keep egt's somewhat reasonable.

Definitely don't go for an engine swap you can get big enough power out of these lumps if were to go down the fitting a bigger turbo route.

180bhp or there abouts would be grand for a nice usable classic though.

kirving

homingbird wrote: »

Drag should only happen on start up as the turbo has to fill a larger cooler i am thinking then work as normal .

Not quite. This would be true if it was water for example, or if there was no flow, or of you engine revs stayed constant.

But you don't notice power at constant revs. What will happen is every time there's a pressure differential across the intercooler, it could
take longer to even out due to the larger volume of air.

But that will depend on whether the new intercooler actually has a larger volume, the same volume but more fins, the route air takes, etc.

In general, you should get more power with cooler air, but the throttle response may be affected.

homingbird

With the cooler sitting under a heat source & being small doesn't help things not much chance of cooling the air at the pressure its pushed thru at being the problem.

Neilw

krissovo wrote: »

They actually increase air density through cooling which means you get more oxygen rather than fuel. That’s where the power increase comes from.

Exactly what I said

teediddlyeye wrote: »

Intercooler comes after the MAF, the ECU won't see any colder air and won't inject more fuel to take advantage of the denser air mixture. It'll need a remap to take full advantage.

Yes it will, timing will be adjusted but can only go so far, a remap as you said will make a much bigger difference but the intercooler alone can increase power.

On a 1.8t I saw 10bhp from an intercooler change alone, single small side mount cooler to a large front mount. Had the car dyno tested before and after.