Fmic Operation

[bored33]

Hey guys,

This is aimed for those technical people. I can understand the basic principle just fine: compressed air goes in, heat from air is absorbed by the fins, cooler air goes out. Here's the part that has confused me and maybe I'm looking into it way too hard when there is simply an easy explanation. The inlet/outlet is usually located at the bottom of the core and the height varies depending on the size you want but it's usually around 600mm.

Does the tube inside the intercooler just go directly straight from the inlet to the outlet or does it snake its way using the full height of the intercooler finding its way to the outlet? If I remember correctly, last time I've looked right into the inlet/outlet all I could remember seeing is fins and since my memory is rather dodgy it has confused me on how the air travels within the intercooler.

Just looking at a typical size intercooler (600x300) there is alot of core there which means there's alot of space for the air to fill up before it reaches to the other end. Is this true?

Can anyone shed a light on the subject?

Every article I've googled so far just explains the principles of how an intercooler works but nothing on the actual mechanics.

[PM-R33]

Under vacuum the engine just sucks the air through the intercooler core. However once the turbo starts making boost, the turbo side all the way to the valves has to pressurise, this is the lag factor, how quickly it can pressurise the whole inlet. The entire intercooler core therefore has to be pressurised, so the entire intercooler will fill up with air. Therefore the larger the intercooler/pipework etc the longer it takes to pressurize, hence more lag in theory. The air travels throughout the intercooler sucking its way through but constantly under pressure.

Hope that kind of helps ya.

Edited April 27, 2009 by PM-R33