Intercooler Hazards

This is something I have never researched before...

Are there any hazards to the intercooler if something gets inside it? For example: mud, dust, debris, water, beer, saliva, urine, vomit, soup, milk, and uhhhhh... seme....No! Just no! :rofl:

Besides the I/C sprayer spitting out water and not harming it one bit and with the cars being used in rally, I have not really seen anything remotely close to damaging the intercooler! What does this mean?

Being extremely clogged would restrict airflow and thus cooling.
Don't shit in it.

Ok, but for example, if mud were to get on top and then trickle through the fins, is there anything to be concerned about? I'm not sure how the intercooler works EXACTLY when it comes to the fins and bullshit going through.

Ok "inside" vs "on" is something you need to distinguish between.

"On" = fine. Rocks and stuff will bend fins that lowers efficiency slightly. But that's life. You can drizzle maple syrup on your IC and it'll be fine. Just hose it down if you get a chance.

"In" = no effing way.

The heated air inside is cooled by the passing outside air. The inside air moves through the tubes in the IC and the fins act as a heat sink to draw the heat from the air inside the IC. If you clogged the tube and fins from mud or debris, you lose your heat transferring ability.
Don't shit on your intercooler. Just hose it out if you do doodoo on it. Or use poopouri !

Thank you both. I was referring to the exterior of the intercooler up until this point. Now that I'm slightly wiser, answer this question for me:

At what speed does the air INSIDE the intercooler move, during normal throttle and WOT?

depending on how many miles ran with stock evap system the inside slowly become coated with oil and loses efficiency. cleaning it with some paint thinner or alcohol can fix that. I know a dudes stock 2011 sti turbo pretty much blow up and pieces from the compressor wheel got sucked into the IC and ruined it so its a possibility. the exterior is completely isolated from the interior unless it gets punctured. the fins are basically just heat transferring devices that help with the cooling and feed into the efficiency of the IC.

Alin said:

Thank you both. I was referring to the exterior of the intercooler up until this point. Now that I'm slightly wiser, answer this question for me:

At what speed does the air INSIDE the intercooler move, during normal throttle and WOT?

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The vf 48 is capable of moving 36 lbs/min or 470 cfm. I would assume that the IC is seeing similar.

Spamby said:

The vf 48 is capable of moving 36 lbs/min or 470 cfm. I would assume that the IC is seeing similar.

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So, the air inside moves at 470 CFM, per se... The two fans I have mounted are rated at 1550 CFM each... So, in order to cool the air down, you need rapid movement from the external to induce cooldown on the internal?

Air moves even when you don't think it does. More air movement means a faster supply of cooler air outside.

Alin said:

So, the air inside moves at 470 CFM, per se... The two fans I have mounted are rated at 1550 CFM each... So, in order to cool the air down, you need rapid movement from the external to induce cooldown on the internal?

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holy shit. now you are getting REALLY technical lol... fans or not the air that moves across the fins facilitate heat transfer. at what rate is a question for mechanical engineers that have great knowledge on thermodynamics. you have to factor in the speed of air and the type of metal alloy in order to calculate the amount or rate of heat transfer. bottom line is the average joe can find out by trial and error by running tests in order to conclusify efficiency but the rule of thumb is the larger the IC the better the cooling properties and mounting fans does help. of course not all IC's are made of the same metals nor are they designed exactly the same. There is alot of R&D that goes into creating an intercooler as well as politics so you just roll with what you prefer in the end.

Spamby said:

Air moves even when you don't think it does. More air movement means a faster supply of cooler air outside.

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Ok, ok, ok... Too many questions in my head now. :lol:

1) There is air movement through the intercooler at idle?
2) What temperatures are optimum for the intercooler? (Obviously cooler is better, but there has to be a threshold...)
3) At what temperature is the intercooler useless?
4) Can the intercooler overheat past heatsoak? (Not sure if this makes sense, but whatever)
5) The turbo sucks in the air from the intercooler and depending on how hard it is pushed, throws out hotter air, correct?
5) Is there a formula to see the temperature increase for the temperature going in and then being pushed out through the turbo? (Any correlation whatsoever?)

To figure your cfm you need to get the lbs/min and then multiply the air density 13.076 by your lbs/min flow.
I should think your IC to be capable of flowing that or more. But there are a few more variables such as volume, sizes of cores, tubes, plumbing etc. that probably need to factored in.

Alin said:

Ok, ok, ok... Too many questions in my head now. :lol:

1) There is air movement through the intercooler at idle?
2) What temperatures are optimum for the intercooler? (Obviously cooler is better, but there has to be a threshold...)
3) At what temperature is the intercooler useless?
4) Can the intercooler overheat past heatsoak? (Not sure if this makes sense, but whatever)
5) The turbo sucks in the air from the intercooler and depending on how hard it is pushed, throws out hotter air, correct?
5) Is there a formula to see the temperature increase for the temperature going in and then being pushed out through the turbo? (Any correlation whatsoever?)

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1. Air is a fluid thing. It's constantly moving.
2. I would say whatever's cooler than the incoming charge from the compressor.
3. At heatsoak. Or when temps are at or above compressor outlet temps.
4. Literally it can heat to liquid state but in our case not gonna happen until your heat source is extreme like a fire. But your tube and fines will help keep it cool even in the perceived stagnant air.
5. The turbo suck air from the air intake and discharges the heated air to the intercooler. A by product of compressed air is heat. Your turbo could see discharge temps of 200* or more.
6. Yes, there is math for everything. It's what makes the world turn.

Spamby said:

To figure your cfm you need to get the lbs/min and then multiply the air density 13.076 by your lbs/min flow.
I should think your IC to be capable of flowing that or more. But there are a few more variables such as volume, sizes of cores, tubes, plumbing etc. that probably need to factored in.

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My intercooler: JNA Performance Big TMIC.... Or so that's what the guy said it was when I bought it back in 2012.... Now that I actually do some researching, the sale thread that I commented on nasioc is the ONLY thing about this TMIC... So, now we have an issue. I have a mystery TMIC... :doh:

Spamby said:

1. Air is a fluid thing. It's constantly moving.
2. I would say whatever's cooler than the incoming charge from the compressor.
3. At heatsoak. Or when temps are at or above compressor outlet temps.
4. Literally it can heat to liquid state but in our case not gonna happen until your heat source is extreme like a fire. But your tube and fines will help keep it cool even in the perceived stagnant air.
5. The turbo suck air from the air intake and discharges the heated air to the intercooler. A by product of compressed air is heat. Your turbo could see discharge temps of 200* or more.
6. Yes, there is math for everything. It's what makes the world turn.

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Wow, I derped on question 5... :doh:

However, now it leads me to more questions! :lol: Ok, so the turbo sucks in air from the intake, which has 2 routings from the exterior leading directly to the contact point and a heatshield to block off under the hood heat. The turbo sorts out its magic and then blows the hot air to the y-pipe of the intercooler? Now, the heat coming from the turbo going into the y-pipe, which has 2 splits, gets put through the intercooler. Does the air coming in through the hoodscoop blow through the fins to cool down the already hot air from the turbo? Also, this leads to once last question: How does this correlate to the intake manifold since the TMIC is attached to it as well? :doh:

Alin said:

My intercooler: JNA Performance Big TMIC.... Or so that's what the guy said it was when I bought it back in 2012.... Now that I actually do some researching, the sale thread that I commented on nasioc is the ONLY thing about this TMIC... So, now we have an issue. I have a mystery TMIC... :doh:

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I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure it's fine. It's worked thus far, right?

Spamby said:

I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure it's fine. It's worked thus far, right?

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Apparently the TMIC alongside all of my other mods have been working flawlessly in tandem during the tuning process... George says whatever I have going on somehow just ended up being perfect! :lol: No reason to question it, right? :tup:

Alin said:

Ok, ok, ok... Too many questions in my head now. :lol:

1) There is air movement through the intercooler at idle?
2) What temperatures are optimum for the intercooler? (Obviously cooler is better, but there has to be a threshold...)
3) At what temperature is the intercooler useless?
4) Can the intercooler overheat past heatsoak? (Not sure if this makes sense, but whatever)
5) The turbo sucks in the air from the intercooler and depending on how hard it is pushed, throws out hotter air, correct?
5) Is there a formula to see the temperature increase for the temperature going in and then being pushed out through the turbo? (Any correlation whatsoever?)

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1) Yes. Not much. Negligible.
2) Ambient. Or lower with sprayers of various kinds. But you're always shooting for ambient.
3) When its the same temperature as the compressed air from the turbo. Math to follow: PV=nRT. so if you're more than doubling the pressure (1 bar to say 2.3 bar) the temperature more than doubles (from lets say 294 kelvin to 588 Kelvin = 598 Fahrenheit). But thats ideal gas with an adiabatic, reversible process...but you're definitely creating tons of extra heat through frictional losses etc. So, basically, really effing hot. 1000F? Anything under that and its still rejecting *some* heat.
4) See above.
5) No. Turbo sucks from intake, which (when OEM) gets mostly ambient air from the snorkel. The turbo is basically a big water-wheel, on the same shaft as another big water wheel. One water wheel is being spun by the exhaust gasses moving really really fast. So since the two wheels are connected, it spins the intake air really really fast. Thats way over-simplified, but theres not much magic going on in there. But in the mean time, the previously ambient intake air is now reallllllly hot (see question #3 ). So it all goes into the IC where theres lots of surface area with the Intercooler, and hopefully it cools off a bit before going directly into the intake manifold.
6) See question #3