as far as i can tell (from looking at pictures) the compressed (non cooled) air is getting blown through fins inside the intercooler(throughout the entirity of the intercooler) but if this is so how can air pass through the intercooler with letting air escape. Im sure this is a dumb question but i have just been thinking about it and its been bothering me, is there routed piping in the intercooler and if anyone has a disected intercooler pic that woulf be awesome

 

It works the same as a radiator, except there is compressed intake air where the coolant would be.

 

There are two different types of intercoolers (more correctly called "aftercoolers").

In the air-to-water type, a closed loop coolant is pumped through finned tubes inside the intercooler. The finned tubes pick up the heat from the hot compressed air, passin over the outside of the finned tubes. The heat is rejected from the coolant in a separate radiator. In "race only" applications, the closed loop coolant sytem will often by ice/water mixture, good for one pass.

In the air-to-air intercooler, the hot compressed air passes through the finned tubes, and cool atmospheric air passes around the outside of the tubes, to remove the heat.

 

The air flows through a bunch of sealed TUBES that go from one side to the other. The fins are only on the outside of the tubes to give a larger surface area for the heat to be exchanged into the air (or coolant) flowing around/through the outside of the intercooler.