Intercoolers

Intercoolers help to cool down the hot air from your vehicle’s turbocharger or supercharger so it can provide your engine with cooler, denser air that contains more oxygen. This results in more power and performance, plus it helps to prevent your engine from overheating too. 

Turbochargers and superchargers compress air to increase the density of it to try and force more air into your engine’s cylinders. In turn, this process heats up the air and unfortunately works against the turbocharger or supercharger’s aim, because hotter air is less dense. 

Intercoolers help to counteract this process, cooling down the compressed air and providing your engine with more oxygen which helps to improve the combustion process in each cylinder.

So by installing an intercooler alongside your supercharger or turbocharger, they can work together to squeeze more air into each of your engine’s cylinders.

Upgraded intercoolers give improved efficiency over the factory fitted unit. This is usually achieved by increasing its surface area, using a more efficient, but usually more expensive core design or a combination of the two. 

Factory intercoolers are built to be as affordable as possible while controlling the intake temperatures found in a stock vehicle's intake system. When tuning vehicles these intercoolers can quickly become insufficient and that is where an aftermarket upgrade is required.

You technically can install an intercooler on a vehicle with no turbocharger or supercharger installed, but it wouldn’t improve performance and in fact could well hinder it. 

Intercoolers cool the temperature of air from turbochargers and superchargers down to an ambient temperature and since there’s nothing now heating the air to a higher than ambient level, the intercooler wouldn’t do anything, other than add weight to your car and likely hinder speed and power. 

Cleaning your intercooler may not actually be required and may only have a small impact on performance if any. Cleaning your intercooler won’t improve airflow unless it’s really filthy, however it may help to improve heat transfer efficiency, which can have a positive effect during hard acceleration on a warm day. However this is often only the case if your car also contains a stock chip. 

However, if you’d like to clean your intercooler to try and gain extra performance out of your car, here’s the steps to take.

Step 1: Removal

1. Access The Intercooler - To do this, you often have to remove the front bumper, grill and in some cases your headlights to reach the intercooler. This of course differs per car type.
2. Disconnect Hoses - Be sure to carefully unbolt the intercooler and take note of the positions of all hoses and pipes before disconnecting them.
3. Protect Seals - Make sure you remove any rubber seals or grommets that might be damaged by any chemicals used. 

Step 2: Internal Cleaning

1. Choose A Solvent - You can use either brake cleaner, kerosene, acetone or even unleaded petrol to cut through any oily residue. 
2. Fill & Soak - The next step is to pour your chosen solvent into one of the inlets and let it sit there for 15 minutes or longer. This will allow it to soften the dirt and grime. 
3. Tilt & Shake - After 15 minutes, tilt and shake your intercooler to dislodge the oil and drain it into a container to dispose of later. 
4. Repeat & Rinse - Repeat this process until the solvent you use drains out clear. Once this is the case, you can even rinse the intercooler with a fast evaporating spirit such as methylated spirits to remove any solvent traces. 

Step 3: Externally Cleaning The Intercooler

1. Apply Degreaser - Grab your automotive degreaser and spray the exterior fins.
2. Gently Rinse - Either use a low-pressure water hose or power wash to wash the fins from a distance to ensure you don’t accidentally bend any fins.
3. Use A Brush & Vacuum - Grab a soft brush and a vacuum cleaner to gently clean and remove debris between the fins. For any stubborn debris, grab a pair of tweezers to try to dislodge them. 

Step 4: Drying & Re-Installation

1. Dry - Make sure you ensure the intercooler is fully dry before reinstalling it. Be sure to leave the intercooler to dry for several hours or use compressed air to ensure it’s bone dry before re-fitting.
2. Reinstall - Fit your intercooler back into your vehicle, ensuring that all the pipes and hoses are back in the same place as before. 

Whilst radiators and intercoolers are both heat exchangers, they aren’t the same thing and serve different purposes in your vehicle’s engine. Plus, radiators are present in any vehicle that has an internal combustion engine, but intercoolers are only found (or needed) on vehicles that have turbocharged or supercharged engines. 

Whilst both intercoolers and radiators are designed to keep engines cool and run more efficiently, the way in which they achieve this is different. 

Intercoolers cool compressed air from a turbocharger or supercharger to improve efficiency and power by providing the engine with cooler, denser air that contains more oxygen. 

Radiators keep the coolant in the engine cool by diverting it to its many fins which help to dissipate the heat when air currents flow over them as the vehicle moves. 

Not all intercoolers are universal, however there are universal intercoolers that could be described as a ‘one size fits all’ product. These are a useful option for vehicles that don’t have a model specific intercooler available. Whether that’s because your vehicle’s intercoolers have been discontinued or potentially your local motorshop doesn’t stock one. 

However if you can opt for a model specific intercooler we’d certainly recommend doing so. They provide the most benefits and have been built specifically for that model. 

You certainly can paint your intercooler a different colour or create a cool design by using a stencil, however you have to be careful with what paint you use and the amount of paint you use. Plus, it’s very important to be very careful as the intercooler fins are very delicate. 

You must use a very light coat of radiator safe paint to avoid reducing the intercoolers cooling efficiency by too much (the extra layer of paint is likely to minimise its performance, but it’s likely to be by a negligible amount). 

It may be a better idea to try and purchase an intercooler that’s already in the colour you’d prefer rather than adding another layer of paint which will minimally reduce the intercooler's effectiveness. 

Another option is to have your intercooler professionally ceramic coated which can improve the intercoolers efficiency without restricting the air flow through the unit, however if the intercooler is already coated this is usually not possible or it’s very difficult to remove the original coating.