Intercooler, Aftercooler what is the big difference?

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IIRC, intercooler cools the incoming air BEFORE the supercharger/turbo whereas aftercooler cools AFTER the supercharger/turbo. Both have influence in how dense your incoming air charge is, but I think the intercooler plays a role in keeping temps in your supercharger/turbo down (???).
 
Intercooler is an aviation term for inlet charge cooling BETWEEN multiple stages of superchargers, turbos, or turbo / supercharger combinations used in high performance, high altitude, aircraft powerplants (piston engines). Almost all production cars have aftercoolers. You usually see true intercoolers only on very special, extremely high output engines, or engines used at very high altitude.
 
calgarycobra said:
IIRC, intercooler cools the incoming air BEFORE the supercharger/turbo whereas aftercooler cools AFTER the supercharger/turbo. Both have influence in how dense your incoming air charge is, but I think the intercooler plays a role in keeping temps in your supercharger/turbo down (???).


I thought that the intercooler was installed after the turbo/sc? I may be wrong but isnt the intercooler in between the SC or TURBO and the Intake Manifold? It cant be before because there is no application for the outside air coming straight into an intercooler, the air has to be pressurized first correct? I am still very unclear about all this. I have been looking at definitions, how stuff works and other sites, and I just cant put it all togethor.. Maybe someone has some way they can put it to make me understand.
 
calgarycobra said:
IIRC, intercooler cools the incoming air BEFORE the supercharger/turbo whereas aftercooler cools AFTER the supercharger/turbo. Both have influence in how dense your incoming air charge is, but I think the intercooler plays a role in keeping temps in your supercharger/turbo down (???).
Um...no...

Like midlifecrisis said, there's really no difference between an intercooler or an aftercooler as far as what's on a car...There's only really one company that uses an aftercooler and that's Vortech...everything else the pretty much call an intercooler...
 
you do have more pipes with an intercooler, have to mount it, run pipes everywhere, vs an aftercooler, sits between the blower, and tb I think, and you just have to mount a water tank some where. I still want a d1sc, or kb, which are too different stories in them selves. basically your incoming air, has to pass through a huge radiator, and then to your blower, which takes up the whole front end of your car. I was just looking at someones awesome mach 1 with a d1sc, pipes everywhere.
 
DoHcHoLlIdAy01 said:
They do the exact same thing. The only difference is that an intercooler cools the air before it gets to the head unit of the blower, whereas the aftercooler cools the air after it comes out of the blower instead.
Not even close...Why would you cool the air before the blower? The blower is just going to heat it back up...Both cool the air after the outlet of the blower...
 
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There is virtually no difference between an inter cooler and an after cooler, it is the location of the cooler in the system the changes its name. If you have 20 turbos in series, you can put an inter cooler in between each one. Then you will put an after cooler after the last turbo before the air goes into the engine. Inter coolers, between 2 stages of air compression. After coolers, after the last stage of compression.
 
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There is virtually no difference between an inter cooler and an after cooler, it is the location of the cooler in the system the changes its name. If you have 20 turbos in series, you can put an inter cooler in between each one. Then you will put an after cooler after the last turbo before the air goes into the engine. Inter coolers, between 2 stages of air compression. After coolers, after the last stage of compression.
Seven year old thread...
 
There is virtually no difference between an inter cooler and an after cooler, it is the location of the cooler in the system the changes its name. If you have 20 turbos in series, you can put an inter cooler in between each one. Then you will put an after cooler after the last turbo before the air goes into the engine. Inter coolers, between 2 stages of air compression. After coolers, after the last stage of compression.
View attachment 147938
 
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