So I may have just scored an intercooler off a vovlo for my kids t-coupe, what type of performance gains can one expect putting on a stock engine with no other mods?

well you not going to see any gains from adding an intercooler, its just added "safety" for the engine. you may actually see a very slight drop in psi due to the new larger air area that has been created..but...no its IC'd you can feel better about upping the boost

okay well thats good news, now then how do you up boost on a stock car or can you?

If you intercool a non-intercooled turbo engine, you'll get more power from the same boost pressure. That is because the intercooler cools down the intake charge, making it more dense. Therefore, more air in lbs. (mass) is required to maintain the same level of boost in psi (pressure). The wastegate is controlled by pressure, not mass, so it will stay closed until the set pressure is reached. The increased amount (mass) of air brings with it more O2, which is of course what you're burning fuel with, so you'll get more power from the engine.

 

One thing that has the potential to screw this up is the turbo itself. If for some reason you're at the upper edge of its performance curve, it may not be able to efficiently push more air (weight) in, so you won't gain anything. Even if this were so, it would only be so at least initially at high rpm, so you'd still get a gain at lower rpm. If you continued to modify the engine, you'd eventually have to change out the turbo.

You could see a performance increase, then again you might not. Just depends on how much of a pressure drop occurs over the IC.

Definitely a good thing for your engine though.

You can increase boost by adding a "boost controller" to the wastegate actuator line. You should be able to find info on that with a search.

an intercooler off a vovlo

 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but, this I/C will work, but will definately take some modifying. It's the huge 240/740 Volvo one right?

 

Good luck, I'd love to see an intercooler that big in an ea82.

yea its off a 760. Doesn't look that bad of an install. Nothing a torch, welder and a cut off wheel cant take care of.

That's what I like to hear!!! Never a job too big!

 

Anyway, adding an intercooler will yield a gain in performance. It may be decent, it may be small. But usually the addition of an intercooler on a non-intercooled engine will yield some kind of powergain. Now alot of the power you gain will be directly influenced by how easily the pressurized air can flow through the intercooler's core(CFM & pressure drop), and how efficiently it cools the air. The efficiency factor should not come into play as this intercooler has a large core. The only thing that I would be worried about is how much of a restriction will be caused by this particular intercooler. Since the turbocharger flows a certain amount of air at a specified PSI, the intercooler core can reduce this amount. While the air will be cooler, there will be less of it reaching the engine. So in effect, the turbocharger has to work harder to get that same amount of air to the cylinders.

 

Turning up the boost can be done via a boost controller, whether you prefer a manual type or electronic. There are more types of manual boost controllers out there than one can count on both hands together. I know you can build a homemade boost controller using parts that you can get at Home Depot. The instructions are all over the internet. Only problem with them is that they have a bad tendency to create big spikes in boost(which can be extremely harmful to the engine) and do not normally hold constant boost pressure very well. Electronic boost controllers are quite a bit nicer, but they usually also come along with a not so nice price tag. They offer a bit more precision control over boost than the manual types.

 

Just PLEASE remember that before you start upping the boost too much, you might want to think about adding an AFR(adjustable fuel pressure regulator), RRFPR(rising rate fuel pressure regulator)(recommended), or an FMU(fuel metering unit)(ex: Vortech, Aeromotive, Blox, etc.) Don't forget about adding a high-flow fuel pump. You can also add a 5th injector(cold start injector from a VW or Saab). There is a post somewhere on the USMB that explains it. This will keep the engine from leaning out at higher boost levels and higher RPMs, which in turn will keep it alive and get you some extra ponies.

 

And when you have more air going in, you have to give it a way to escape(as I'm sure you already know). So adding a larger diameter(2-1/4" to 2-1/2") custom exhaust will increase the thermal efficiency and response of the turbocharger. This decreases spool up time and allows the hot exhaust gasses to escape the exhaust snail of the turbocharger.

 

I hope this helps out. I'm sorry it was so very long-winded. Good luck on the project.

 

Patrick

This intercooler is huge....But, very thin. I wonder how the actual surface area of this differs from that of say a WRX or STI I/C...Hmmm...

 

Being thin but, wide and tall should work out well...IIRC the end tanks are plastic which is obviously the weakest link in the equation but, since you'll probably be running less than 1 bar, you should have nothing to worry about in the long run.

 

 

Here's a pic of one on Ebay that the guy painted chrome. :-\

 

For those of you who don't know what it looks like, it'll make more sense what we are talking about.

 

Should be cool if you get it rolling...It won't even look like it has an I/C, let alone a front mount. Super sneaky!

same unit as a saab 9000 one pretty much and i dementedly towed with the idea of top mounting it and it would have fit with the stock intake.. but with a spider hell no

 

conversly i fiddled around with using the saab radiator and using the intercooler as a fmic setup but i would have had to do a bit of cutting and welding and rebracing to make it all fit

 

plus the plumbin issue would have been fun... with almost no budget

Here are some auctions from Ebay for boost controllers, both electronic and manual. You can see the big price difference in the two kinds of boost controllers.

 

Electronic:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/GREDDY-PROFEC-B-SPEC-2-II-BOOST-CONTROLLER-BLACK-NEW_W0QQitemZ8002461244QQcategoryZ33742QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

(Profec B Spec II)

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/GREDDY-PROFEC-E-01-E01-BOOST-CONTROLLER-UNIVERSAL-NEW_W0QQitemZ8002241899QQcategoryZ33742QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

(Profec E 01)

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HKS-EVC-ELECTRONIC-BOOST-CONTROLLER-GREDDY-APEXI_W0QQitemZ8002120555QQcategoryZ33742QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

(HKS EVC[electronic valve controller])

 

Manual:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Turbo-Smart-Manual-Boost-Controller-FREE-SHIPPING_W0QQitemZ8002304228QQcategoryZ33742QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

(TurboSmart MBC)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Manual-Boost-Controller-MBC-Turbo-300zx-rx7-280z_W0QQitemZ8002248963QQcategoryZ33742QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

(This is the boost controller that I have on my GL-10)(SRP MBC)

http://http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Hallman-Blue-Pro-Boost-controller-EVO-WRX-Supra-RX-7_W0QQitemZ8002180302QQcategoryZ33742QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

(Hallman MBC[new design])

plus the plumbin issue would have been fun... with almost no budget

 

See attached for low budget plumbing:

 

The intercooler you have chosen is a bit bigger. Just a tad.

I did some measuring with that one for a FMIC and decided it was too big of a fabrication bite.

 

That being said, You are not me. I say HAVE AT IT!

 

Jay

Wow...Plumbing is going to be WAY fun.

 

With a spider intake it'd be a lot easier though...Hmmm...

It's up to you, of course, but if I wanted a LITTLE more boost I'd simply tighten the wastegate control dashpot (or buy a slightly stiffer one) before I went and bought any kind of aftermarket "controller."

 

Also, to make sure you're not "losing" pressure across the intercooler, simply make sure the hose that feeds the wastegate control dashpot gets its "signal" (draws its pressure) from a point on the intake tract downstream of the new I/C. However, for the reasons I stated in my first post, you will not lose power by adding this I/C unless you're simply already at the limits of your turbo.