Eliminating Intercooler

[grizzlyfarmer2]

What would happen without an intercooler at all? How warm is the air after the turbo?

[TRSCobra]

Detonation. Lots of it.

 

Good turbo response, though.

[grizzlyfarmer2]

Detonation. Lots of it.

 

Good turbo response, though.

 

Why would we get detonation? Can it be tuned to eliminate?

[PhilT]

Yes, stay below 2,000 rpm and you will be fine

[Beanboy]

You aren't going to tune for 300 degrees.

[Bolksey85]

Remove the intercooler and run alcohol and you'll be fine. Only alky, that is.

[Crawdaddy79]

But if you ever put the intercooler back in, make sure you wash it with lots of soap.

[johnAWD]

Why would we get detonation? Can it be tuned to eliminate?

 

Perhaps, if you were tuned for e85 and never ever went into boost.

[boostedgrocerygetter]

why would you want to

[PhilT]

Weight savings.

 

Everyone knows if you make a car lighter you make it faster.

[grizzlyfarmer2]

Its not that I would want to eliminate the intercooler. Its just that I'm curious as to what would happen. Or if anyone has ever tried. And also as to what the air temp is right after the turbo. With the volume of air moving through the turbo I couldnt imagine the cold side being that much warmer than ambient. If you have never tried how can you be sure it wouldnt work I know of a lot of tractors that don't use an intercooler although they are diesels.

[underground000]

diesels are very different, they dont have spark plugs they work by compression.

 

it might seem like our intercoolers are small, but it does work

[nm]

They used to run intercooler-less gas cars in the 80s. They would heat soak like crazy, and you'd have to tune them extremely conservatively to avoid detonation. Like to the point where you wonder why you have a turbo.

You "could" do it, but it would be completely pointless and you'd need to do extremely careful tuning so as not to blow it up. I'm not sure that the 2.5 is built durably enough, old turbo motors were tanks (or they blew up).

[bmx045]

intercoolers are for pussies. I run a straight pipe from the turbo to the intake manifold. I only do this when I'm washing the car because I don't want to get any soap in the IC, nor do I want it getting into the turbo or manifold so I block them with a pipe.

[Lardo420]

why would you want to

 

because racecar

[BAC5.2]

You can definitely remove the IC. Just keep boost very low.

 

The 91-94 Legacy Turbo had no intercooler. Throttle response was awesome. It drove like a much larger N/A engine than the small turbocharged engine it was. 160hp, 180ft-lbs at ~6psi. The caveat, however, was that the engine was EXTREMELY overbuilt, far beyond the engines of today. Closed deck, oil squirters that would pump oil onto the back of the piston for cooling, forged rods and high pressure cast pistons, and a relatively low compression ratio. Arguably the "strongest" and best Subaru engine ever built.

 

If you expect to crank up boost and actually try to make substantial power, you'll end up in total fail. You will HAVE to supplement the lack of intercooler with some type of liquid injection (either alky or meth) to manage intake temperatures. I'm typically opposed to any type of injection. It works, of course, but the costs outweigh the benefits for my type of driving (lots of potential failure points). If you are willing to live with the potential compromises, then it's a great solution for you.

[bmx045]

some people say you can just use meth with no intercooler...but im pretty sure you'll go through the meth as much as your gas tank

[CTATV]

I just merged my intercooler tubing into my radiator and got rid of the intercooler.

[BAC5.2]

some people say you can just use meth with no intercooler...but im pretty sure you'll go through the meth as much as your gas tank

 

It's been done. It requires some pipe work, and some knowledge, but it works. Clearly, it's more appropriate for a track car.

[grizzlyfarmer2]

So say I run 10ft of tubing with no intercooler would I expect ridiculous lag or is the intercooler the cause of the lag? I'm just trying to better understand the intercooler and everyoen here has such great opinions!

[bmx045]

So say I run 10ft of tubing with no intercooler would I expect ridiculous lag or is the intercooler the cause of the lag? I'm just trying to better understand the intercooler and everyoen here has such great opinions!

 

poor response is caused by pressure drop in the core, and without an IC the air is hot, I.E. less dense, I.E. more prone to detonation, I.E. need for retarding timing, I.E. no performance, I.E. no point in having a turbo, I.E.

[PhilT]

Lag is actually the time it takes to get the turbo rotor spinning at full speed. The larger the turbo, the larger the lag, but everyone knows that already

 

The length of the tubing or the size of the intercooler have very little effect.

[bmx045]

Lag is actually the time it takes to get the turbo rotor spinning at full speed. The larger the turbo, the larger the lag, but everyone knows that already

 

The length of the tubing or the size of the intercooler have very little effect.

 

 

better said, I'm talking more of a "response" change. I.E. going from a TMIC to a FMIC....a little response difference

[PhilT]

better said, I'm talking more of a "response" change. I.E. going from a TMIC to a FMIC....a little response difference

 

Correct. People generally go with a larger turbo at the same time they fit a FMIC though, and then blame the lag on the intercooler when it's 75% turbo and 25% IC.

[robitrice]

if i put a leaf blower directly on my turbo inlet would it spool faster?