Pressure drop across intercooler

I pulley'd "down" to 7/2.75 with an UltraGrip today that seems to have at least helped my belt slip.

I checked the pressure before my intercooler, where I see 11psi. At the intake I see only 7psi. The intercooler is the ATI Corvette LT1 air-air, which isn't very big.

I know some pressure drop is normal from the increased density, but that seems like a lot to me.

Thoughts?

- Dave

Check out this website:

http://www.turboford.org/faq/ta.shtml

1.6 psi for an Air/air and 0.03 psi for a Vortech Water/air.

Mike

Can that be right? They show the air dropping from 288F to 64F with 0.03psi of pressure drop. I'm no engineer, but how can you cool the air that much with no loss of pressure?

Is it just that the compressor keeps replacing the air that condenses so that even though pressure equalizes on both side of the IC, you have a much larges -mass- of air after the IC than if you had the same pressure at the original temp?

Either way, my aftercooler must go!

Ripped out the intercooler this afternoon, now seeing a full 11.5psi

I now have detonation from the higher boost, but some alcohol injection will fix that!

I pulley'd "down" to 7/2.75 with an UltraGrip today that seems to have at least helped my belt slip.

I checked the pressure before my intercooler, where I see 11psi. At the intake I see only 7psi. The intercooler is the ATI Corvette LT1 air-air, which isn't very big.

I know some pressure drop is normal from the increased density, but that seems like a lot to me.

Thoughts?

- Dave

4 psi is way too much loss. Pressure loss should be right around 10% max from charger outlet to intake manifold. So in your application, just over 1 psi would be the max acceptable real world loss.

Can that be right? They show the air dropping from 288F to 64F with 0.03psi of pressure drop. I'm no engineer, but how can you cool the air that much with no loss of pressure?

Is it just that the compressor keeps replacing the air that condenses so that even though pressure equalizes on both side of the IC, you have a much larges -mass- of air after the IC than if you had the same pressure at the original temp?

Either way, my aftercooler must go!

The way an intercooler works is that it lowers the temperature, which lowers the pressure. But, if the core has a low pressure drop, then the pressure drops upstream of the cooler also. So, the compressor discharge is at lower pressure which allows the compressor to flow more (see a compressor map).

Mike