intercooler or non intercooled

I've been wondering, for 1/4 mile race only trucks, i see the pro street/pro stock guys are not running intercoolers, is this because of weight saving, street driving i know an intercooler makes a huge difference.

What are the pro's and con's to not running an intercooler for the sake of the 1/4 mile, no water, but yes there will be :nos::nos::nos::rockwoot:

I've tested an intake elbow that bolts directly to the turbo, bypassing the intercooler on a 6.0L. Spool up was amazingly fast, but of course EGT's were very pretty high(pegged 2000F). When I sprayed the truck, the EGT's were pretty much the same(~1300F) with or without an intercooler. On the dyno, HP was higher for a single pull fuel only, but about the same when spraying. I imagine in the 1/4 mile or a sled pull, fuel only the power would go way down with the contant higher temps. This test was with a stage 1 VVT with 245cc injectors.

In a nutshell, I think with enough spray it may be a good option. However, I'm not so sure I'd do it unless you simply don't have room for an intercooler. Like stuffing a 6.0L in a Focus or something. LOL

If you're going to run :nos: ..... absolutely no need for an intercooler when drag racing.

Banks has stated that on his S-10 Dmax running around ~40psi and running 7-8lbs of :nos: per run, the intake temps are right at 150f..... didn't say what the egt was.

I`d agree that for 1/4 racing, no need for an intercooler. On my jetski, I am running 20 pounds of boost and lose almost one full pound do to the cooler. Hope this helps.

The real test would be to find out how much power loss there is between running the intercooler and not. any time your cooling the charged air your gaining hp.

Intercooling is not just about temperature.

There are two ways to compress intake air. Mechanically (like your compressor wheel(s) do) or thermally, like your intercooler/water/nos does. Obviously the nos also increases the oxygen content, but the intercooling still holds true as well.

When an intercooler is removed from a system running enough boost to matter, if you had a flow meter on the turbocharger inlet you would actually record a dramatic loss in flow compared to the intercooled amount, all else constant.

Actual CFM flow would drop. A lot. Hundreds of CFM down the drain. Yet boost would almost certainly rise. #1, because the compressor(s) don't have to move as much air, and #2 because there is more exhaust gas energy with the increased EGT.


If you can cool the air with spray, or water then you don't need to bother routing in a cooler that would only have the possible downside of taking up space, and potentially causing restriction if undersized.

custommuffler said:

I`d agree that for 1/4 racing, no need for an intercooler. On my jetski, I am running 20 pounds of boost and lose almost one full pound do to the cooler. Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

Do you actually think it would make more power without the cooler?

Compare 1psi worth of compression vs say 100 degrees worth. Which air do you think will be more dense?

Air at 35psia and 70 degrees, or air at 36psia and 170?

Shawn,
I am going to try to run with no I.C. to see what happens. I have a prettty awesome Tig welder kicking around here that is slow because of the oil patch who I am going to have build us some elbows. I wonder if there is any point in having CO2 coil wrap the elbow to cool the little bit it can? Probably will not make a difference any ideas people have to help us out would be cool.

Does your big turbo feed the smaller charger on your compound set up? I am banging my head off the wall and need some help with kinds truck.