Ryans Radiators Cairns - Keep Your Car Cool

Intercoolers

In a turbo charged car, the intercooler is a vital component to the performance of a vehicle.

It is possible to increase the performance of your vehicle by adding a larger intercooler from Ryan's Radiator Service.

At Ryan's Radiators we have a range of different sized intercoolers which have been pre-fabricated to suit most turbocharged cars.

As all of our work is manufactured locally, we are also one of the only workshops in Cairns who can build an intercooler to your specifications. So if you need any advice on modifying the intercooler set-up of your car contact us.

As you will see in the following information on how intercoolers work, upgrading this component of your vehicle is a major part of any turbocharged car modification process.

Power Gains

An example of a typical Front Mount Intercooler on a Subaru WRX. In this position the intercooler takes advantage of maximum air flow as the car is driving.

The Dyno Dynamics graph on the left shows actual increases in power from changing the size of an intercooler.

The test car in this example was a R33 Nissan Skyline GTR which, with it's already capable factory front mount intercooler made 158kw at the wheels. Simply bolting on a new larger intercooler assembly gave immediate gains of an extra 10kw of power at the wheels.

With these sort of gains available on even a highly tuned factory performance car, imagine what would be possible on a different car of less specifications.

How an Intercooler works

An intercooler is a heat exchanger. That means there are two or more elements that don't physically touch each other but a transfer of heat or energy takes place between them.

At wide open throttle and full boost the hot compressed air coming from a turbocharger is probably between 120 and 200 deg Celsius depending on the particular turbo, boost pressure, outside air temperature, etc.. This needs to be cooled down, which reduces its volume so more air molecules can be forced into the cylinder so as to avoid detonation.

Intercooler assembly shown with the
front bumper bar removed - The most common and effective position to mount an intercooler in a front engined car.