Ive seen the intercooler thread from last week and read most but skimmed a lot.
Im not wanting this to turn into another "heated" debate about intercooler theory. (get it?....crickets chirping...... ok, moving on) I am curious about the very rudimentary basics of how a intercooler is rigged into the cars plumbing.
It sounds like the effectiveness of an intercooler comes from the fact that compression of air causes heat and that an intercooler is a heat exchanger that offsets the physics of this heat that is created by compression of the air after the turbo.
So if I understand it right the heat exchanger would need to be between the Turbo and the cylinder.
All the pics of kits I have seen don't involve any sort of spacer or exchanger tubes between the turbo and the rest of the intake. Does this mean that all the folks that retrofit an intercooler on their gassers go through the big TIG fabricating the intake process that Brandon went through.
I have stared at the pics of Brandon's and I still dont understand how it works.
I understand how the right hand tube of the intercooler attaches to a point after the turbo on the intake. From the pics of Brandons system I dont understand the position of the tube on the left side of the pic. Is this tube attached into the body of the turbo after the intake fins? Is this what makes the circulation of the air?
My mind is trying to picture a closed loop after the turbo that exchanges heat. I cant wrap my noggin around how air would circulate inside this closed loop and where the left hand tube is connected.

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84 300SD 274K
38K miles on flatplate heat exchanger and various diesel/veg blends. prior to that 4K miles on unheated veggie blends with kero and DinoD.

You have the theory correct. The cooler is installed between the outlet of the turbo and the intake manifold to remove the heat that is added to the air by compression. Colder air is more dense (more mass of air per cubic foot). In the photo, the left hose runs from the outlet of the turbo to the cooler. The right hose goes from the cooler to the intake manifold. In the photo, the turbo inlet hose (the black plastic elbow) isn't connected to anything (it should be connected to the air filter).

Is this how circulation is created or by another mechanical or electrical method?

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84 300SD 274K
38K miles on flatplate heat exchanger and various diesel/veg blends. prior to that 4K miles on unheated veggie blends with kero and DinoD.

Air is sucked in from the airfilter and into the center of the turbo (the black elbow in the pic) - the air is compressed by the impeller and expelled into the hose on the left which leads into the intercooler, which reduces the thermal heat, and the air is shoved into the intake via the tube on the right...

So to your question - the air expelled from the turbo has enough velocity and pressure to shove air throught the intercooler and into the car intake.

If you have a mechanical component, it's the turbo itself (whose impeller is being driven by the exhaust gases from the engine).

The intercooler gives better horsepower as it cools the air charge (more dense, more air able to get in per cylinder stroke)

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~shell
As of 2/2010:
2001 CLK55 0o\=*=/o0
13.6 @ 106mph
10K mi
1984 300SD
260K mi and going and going...
97 S600
46K miles
1991 Sentra SE-R (extremely dorked with)
www.se-r.net

Heh you could have asked me...

Btw that picture is really old...I have since changed over to metal tubes and have another adjustment planned


If you take a look at some of the newer pictures you can see the flow better.

In order to make the intercooler work effectively, alot of air has to pass through the cooling fins, on the outside from front to back. The compressed air from the turbo will be cooled more and better.

My old Volvo 740 Turbo had the intercooler in front of the radiator and behind the A/C condenser.

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Regards

Warren

Currently 1965 220Sb, 2002 FORD Crown Vic Police Interceptor

Had 1965 220SEb, 1967 230S, 280SE 4.5, 300SE (W126), 420SEL

ENTER > = (HP RPN)

Not part of the in-crowd since 1952.

Unless you have an water/air intercooler...then its a whole 'nother bag of beans

Others have clarified the flow characteristics, as for making the fittings there are really three routes you can follow:

1. Use hard wall tubing such as metal pipe with flexible rubber connectors, those blue hose connectors used on many turbo cars.

2. Use soft wall tubes, you can buy the expensive turbo pressure hose and do the whole thing or you can use radiator hose based on your needs. Rad hose will work well up to a certain pressure limit but for 14-16psi on your MB, the rad hose should work really well, plus it's cheap and easy to replace

3 Finally a combo of both hard and soft materials. I use mainly hard materials in mine but there are a few hose pieces. My set-up was done with all off the shelf parts and cost less than $75 for the plumbing.

Hope that helps,

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Stable Mates:
1987 300TD 310K mi (Hans)
2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee OM642 165k mi (Benzrokee)

I understand the theory and principles. My question was more specific about how the routing and flow work.
bodyart27 replied to what I was asking. If I understand the reply correctly the original air path from the turbo to the intake manifold is not blocked off but all of the air will flow into the intake through the left hose and though the intercooler.

Let me ask the question again another way.
Would the air not take the path of least resistance and still go into the intake manifold through the original intake path?
Or, is the original intake path blocked such that all the air must go through the intercooler?

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84 300SD 274K
38K miles on flatplate heat exchanger and various diesel/veg blends. prior to that 4K miles on unheated veggie blends with kero and DinoD.

The original path no longer exists. 100% of the turbo outlet is now routed through the cooler.

Haha cmon guys...ask me...I am the one that built that modified intake manifold

Yes the "stock path" no longer exists...it all flows from the "reclocked" turbo outlet on the left, through the intercooler, and into the air intake manifold

Im pretty sure that the blue connectors you speak of are silicone, not rubber.