I recently ran some intercooler temp readings that showed that the ICs do cool to Outside Air Temperature after significant driving. The heat sink effect is residual in nature, meaning that a fully cooled intercooler will continue to cool air for a short period, also inferring that a hot intercooler needs time to cool down.

If your goal is to cool the charge prior to a drag blast, or during a Dyno run, it would be of some benefit. Blasting an IC with CO2 will cool an intercooler , but not immediately. Time is required to extract heat. How much time is something that needs to be considered.

The HP improvement may be substantial, but you will also be incurring weight, plumbing, installation, recharging, and expense.

Also, blasting an intercooler that may be next to the air filter may draw in an abnormal amount of CO2 that will displace Oxygen during combustion, another unknown variable in loss of power.

 

Co2 setups on an air/air intercooler will see gains, but not as much as compared to an air/water (spray it on the mini-radiator). There are gains to be had by kicking the intake temps down so little as 20 degrees.

If you have the Co2 start to spray the intercooler right as you hit positive pressure in the intake manifold, you will have some higher temps before the co2 can chill the surface - but think about it - this is often aluminum with a lot of surface area. We're talking a very short amount of time here to cool the IC and thusly the intake charge. If you realize how many CFM are going through your intercooler and at what velocity exactly through those fins - you'll realize these long time delays are fractions of a second. And if the IC is already heat soaked - it'll cool very fast with the Co2 - at idle, at stop, or on the highway. Today's intercoolers are more efficient and can cool the charge faster - which means they dissapate heat much faster.

I'm not sure 100% about that intercoolers will drop to ambient temp. Maybe on a turbo setup - but on a decent supercharger that's putting any volume out more then it's putting in, it is heating the air charge at idle. And your intercooler is mounted to your car, which is warm metal. Close? Sure. But again - even 10 degrees of inlet temp when pushing the envelope could be the difference between a shattered ring land and maximum power.

Expense of parts: $400
Expense of time: We dont count those here...
Added weight: 25lb
Cost to full a 10lb bottle - under $20.
Possible HP to gain: 20
10lb bottle I think should last between 60-120 seconds depending on setup
equals:

$22/hp for intial install and fill
causes the effect of 2.5hp lost due to weight

There are better mods out there - but to think you could use a smaller intercooler, or gain a few hp on a larger one, and also help prevent knock - seems like a reasonable idea to me.

Not to mention it's mounted in the back, and weight over the rear tires is a good thing - and if you get a purge for it, you add a lot to the car's *bling bling* factor