 How does an intercooler work? Alright, next. No idea. Intercooler. Sucks in cold air and then releases under. How does an intercooler work in 10 of the terms? That's alright, good try. Can you explain what an intercooler is? I need a bigger one, I'll just say that. Well, I know it pulls air in, cold air, and it pushes it over through the supercharger using more power. It pulls your air from the turbo to your engine. Try to remember some of the basics of CQC. I think a lot of people interested in tuning at least know the basic purpose of an intercooler. They know that it's supposed to cool down air, but as you can see, even a lot of enthusiasts don't actually know the details of the process. External air flowing across the intercooler is key to how the process works, but this air is not actually directly cooling the hot charged air inside of the intercooler. Instead, it's cooling the metal itself that makes up the intercooler. And I think that's a detail that a lot of people miss. You might say that's just pedantic and the difference doesn't really matter, but that specific distinction is actually very important when it comes to the principles behind designing or shopping for an effective intercooler. An intercooler is a heat exchanger, which is loosely defined as two fluids or gases of different temperatures that flow in a space separated by a tube wall. They transfer heat by convection and conduction through the wall. Convection is the transfer of heat by the circulation or movement of a liquid or gas. Conduction is the transfer of heat between two solids or through a single solid caused by a temperature difference. So an intercooler is really just a whole bunch of walls and usually made out of aluminum because that material is excellent at exchanging heat. Hot air flows from the turbo and moves inside the core where heat transfers from that air into the fins and bars that comprise the core via convection, allowing the charged air to cool down. Then conduction occurs as that heat transfers across the metal fins and bars that touch each other. At the same time, ambient air at a lower temperature is flowing across the external surface of the intercooler, allowing for heat to transfer out of the metal. Mission accomplished! That is the basic function of an intercooler. But if the metal reaches a certain temperature, then heat can no longer transfer, which is known as heat soak. So it's important that air continuously flows across the metal to allow for heat exchange, then the entire process can continuously cycle. You might wonder, why not just make a big metal box with a huge flat surface? But believe it or not, that would actually reduce the overall surface area and total surface area is a big factor in designing an efficient intercooler, which is where all these fins come into play. Their implementation allows for the maximization of surface area within a limited space. If you removed all of the fins that comprise the core, then flatten them out, they would actually have far more total surface area than the original dimensions of the core itself if it was just a box with flat sides. And because external air can flow through the core and across the fins, there are significantly more opportunities for convection to occur. With that info on mind, there are a lot of factors to consider when designing an intercooler, like the design of end tanks to control the path of air flowing inside, the dimensions of the core, mounting location limitations and access to external air, even material thickness. A core with more mass will take longer to heat soak, but also takes longer to cool back down. In the case of intercoolers, bigger isn't always better. It's a juggling act of finding the right combination of efficiency and performance.