Say I stick with a 12mm pump, and we say the 12mm can supply enough fuel to make 450hp (just to have a number to work with)

And if one has enough turbo to supply more air than needed, eg twins.

Would you actually make more power with an intercooler or just make that power with less boost?

As I understand it an intercooler makes more power by having denser air in the combustion chamber. So wouldn't running higher boost without an intercooler put the same amount of air into the engine, just at a higher temp?

Am I missing something here?

 

Your pretty much got it. The guy with the world record highest hp VE pumped 1st gen is running non intercooled.

 

Remember: "Boost" is nothing more than a measure of resistance to air flow, through the engine.

We're interested in the volume of air through the engine. Cooler air is in fact denser than hot air. A higher volume, of denser air, will always make more power, given the correct amount of fuel (heat).

Big boost numbers aren't everything.


There was a time when all the big-dawgs were running the stock intake feed-horn.

Now days folks cut the entire intake manifold off (for porting access), and replace it with a fancy high-flowing manifold. And they're making often well over twice the hp of the former.

 

But air under higher pressure is denser too, thus can you not make up for the lost density due to heat with more pressure?

 

Perhaps.

But considering we're taking a relatively cool medium (the charge-air), and forcing it to expand (with heat from the burning fuel) thus pushing the piston, the overall expansion ratio would be higher with the cooler charge-air.

Keep in mind, most of the top-dawg puller and such running triple and four-stage turbos use water injection between the turbo stages as a chemical inter-cooler. The effect is the same: a denser charge-air.

There's no getting around the fact that a lot of power can be made without an IC, but, you can typically make even more power from that same engine with an IC.



(I don't claim to be a rocket scientist, the above is just the voices in my head. ).

 

I agree more power can be made, but you need more fuel to do it. If you are at the limit of the pump and no more fuel is available, can you still make more power?

 

If you are in fact over-fueled at that point, then yes, more power can be made by adding more air.

That last part brings us back to your original question doesn't it?

A cooler/denser charge will do it better.

 

Ok, so let's just lay out my whole train of thought:

My 91 is not intercooled
I'd like to take it to the limits of the 12mm pump
To get there I need more air, and I want minimal smoke, so I'm thinking twins
Twins sized right can flow more air than the 12mm can fuel

So... If I've got more air than fuel, do I gain power with an intercooler?

 

Untill the smoke is completely gone u can always benefit from more air and until u have some hideous injectors that are worth as much as a stock engine Ur pump can supply more fuel. I realize I may be talking about unreasonable extremes but your pistons may begin to feel the extremes r unreasonable if u keep feeding them air that hot. Just because it might on a good day be able to make as much power w/out a cooler doesn't mean it will do u any good if your engine is melting it's self on a long pull.

 

If your pushing enough air to keep egts under control is there a danger of damaging the engine? I don't do any towing right now, but who knows what the future will bring, with the amount of work I'm putting in to this thing I plan to keep it for a long time.