Intercooler or Aftercooler?

[97 horse snake]

what's the difference? is one better than the other? why? i'm going to be getting a vortech v2 sq soon and was wondering which to buy with it. there's a package for $4k that gives the vortech plus the after cooler, but i'm sure there are packages everywhere. what do you guys think?

thanks,
zac

 

[Bullitt_#1346]

They are both the same. Either way they both come after the supercharger and before the engine intake. The aftercooler that Vortech sells is a water cooler that uses water to cool the air. Most of the other types are air-to-air coolers that allow cool air to flow over the cooler which reduces the temp of the boosted air.

That is your real question. Do you want to have a water cooling system or an air cooling system? You can use ice water in the water cooling system for drag racing purposes, but a lot of people prefer the air-to-air systems. Check over on stangnet and the corral for a lot of good info.

 

[97 horse snake]

thanks man, i'll check that out.

 

[badvenm]

IMO the water is better than the air-air, because the intercooler still gets hot and on hot days with the pavement being a 100 degrees I don't see how it could cool as well. On the same note the water does get hot also but when you at the track you can drain the tank and put in ice water and a intercooler will still be hot. You could spray water on the intercooler but nothing is as cold as ice water.

 

[99Cobra Supercharged]

I don't really know which one is better. But the Air-to-Air Cooler has a much larger surface area to cool than the Air to water coolers. The Air to water coolers are more efficient and rob less boots to operate. They both have good and bad points but over all, either is a good choice. The main function Intercoolers do is control inlet temps. With that, a much better tune can be done on the car. badvenm, I’m not sure about your hot pavement theory. Same could be said about that hot engine next to you Air to water cooler.

 

[97 horse snake]

i'm actually working on a different project now, but thanks for all the help guys.

 

[GR8WHITE]

The amount of boost pressure lost in the air to air type intercooler can be reduced by not going to large on the internal plumbing. I've seen some really nice Spearco intercoolers used that only robbed 1 PSI at most. They sometimes do increase boost lag a touch.This is easy to augment with a pulley in both cases. It is also easier to run more boost since the air charge temperature is being lowered by the intercooler. You could easily add an intercooler and increase the boost by 2 PSI and not have to alter your tune, provided it was a good tune to begin with. ;-)

 

[99Cobra Supercharged]

Still a retune is the better way to go.

 

[GR8WHITE]

Originally posted by 99CobraSupercharged
Still a retune is the better way to go.

It isn't a necessity if the boost is raised in moderation and the tune was conservative to begin with. Hence the reason so many 2003 Cobra owners are getting the L pulley swap and not having to tune. It isn't a huge boost increase, and the car was way conservative from the factory.