I don't see why you cant place an intercooler into the bay at all. It's true that there isn't alot of room, however, removing the air box is the cheapest and first mod that one should do to their vehicle. With the 50 buck KN filter placed on and the throttlebody left free you should get a noticable change in HP, Torque, and Engine Sound. Until you can uprgade to a cold intake kit.

Supercharging doesn't always require an intercooler. Turbos do. The way a turbo works is using exhaust gasses to turn a tubrbine that compresses air and injects that air into the engine. A supercharger uses the engine to turn the turbine. Turbos will replace the headers with an exhaust manifold, while superchargers will leave the headers in place.

Having a 3 inch exhaust makes sense only if you are runnin high boost off of a turbo. The reason is because the turbo requires the gasses to spin the compressor blade. The more free flowing gasses the less lag the tubo experiences. Because of the turbo using exhaust gasses, the air spinning the compressor blade is hot, this heats the turbo and heats the air that the turbo is compressing to shoot it into the engine. This is when the intercooler comes in. Because the air goes in cold now (colder then the internals of the engine) the air is more dense. When the air is now being compressed in the turbop it is easier to keep higher psi because the of the denser application.

In superchargers the engine is used to turn that funky corkscrew set up or get those rods going, because of the engine being used you dont have the lag but you do have parasitic value that comes with the SC. The engine now has to work harder for your demands and the demands of the SC. You could lose HP and Tourqe if you aren't carefull. (i.e. putting a large SC on) Becuase the compressor blades (or rods) orent being spooled by the exhaust gasses the air is colder then the internals of the engine. It's not cold enough to touch but you get what I mean. This should get you a good air compression and you should be able to go 12-13 psi with out ever over heating.

Also BOVs are only needed in turbos, and BOVs ahouldn't emit to the atmosphere. THe air needs to go back into the intake manifold where it belongs.

I hope that clears some stuff up for people and I hope that you guys find this usefull. Sorry it was kinda long but if you read all of it you will have a better understanding of how forced air induction works. And sorry about the sp mistakes.
Happy boostin!

 

Not all turbo'ed cars require intercoolers. It's dependent on engine design and boost also.

 

OK, this post contains a bunch of misinformation:

It's not the exhaust gasses that heat the incoming air in a turbocharged system, it's the compression of the air, just like an air compressor makes hot air. A small amount of heat is transfered through the turbo housings but not much, if exhaust gas temp reached the inlet side your turbo would seize because the bearing is in between the exhaust and inlet housings.

Many turbos run very well without intercoolers.

Intercoolers and BOVs are OFTEN used and required on supercharged engine systems. It's all about controling boost and temps.

Superchargers do heat the incoming air a great deal, that's what compressing air does-it's just physics....

I could go on but I won't. Just don't believe all you read on the internet, get educated from the real experts. I've been modifying cars for over 30 years and I learn new things every day.

ken

 

No offense, but this should be removed before someone follows it and gets ticked.

First bigger exhaust is always better in a boosted situation. reguardless of the ammount of boost.
A BOV can vent where ever you want. High boost blow-off will case a temporary rich condition (at blow-off) but it hurts nothing. Most aftermarket BOVs vent to the atmosphere. What good does it do to vent the pressure back where it came from?

An intercooler is always a good idea, but not always necessary. It depends on the application. 10lbs of cold air is better than 20lbs of hot.

I will agree that the source of boost needs to match the car, but that being said, do your research BEFORE installing or purchasing. I personally would not recommend joe scion owner getting a T25 turbo and running 12-15 lbs of boost on an every day basis. The compression of the xB is already at 10.5:1. Boost is going to raise the compression as the psi's increase. This means changing ignition timing/maps, running high octane fuel, increasing fuel supply, and possibly adding a new engine/fuel management computer. It would be very easy to shell a motor if you don't know what you're doing. I personally don't like a CR over 9:1 for boosting but that's just me.

The ability to achieve and maintain boost is going to be in the efficiency of the turbo/SC and the type and setting of the wastegate.

I know I said (wrote) this before, but.........do your research first. Mistakes with turbos and sc's can be and usually are expensive.

 

This is actualy a huge generalization as to how a turbo/sc operates.

Alot of my experinces with the runnin rich deal is because I live in Colorado Springs and here, so far above sea level, you have alot to look at when it comes to compression, psi, blah blah...

This isn't supposed to be a guide, I just posted what I know so peopel could get a better understaning, of course you should always do your own research and never just go with some said once on a thread.

As far as exhaust gasses heating the turbo and rest of the engine bay you might be right about it not effecting it, how ever this too is in reference to high performance vehicles that come stock with 2 cats. Another generalized oversight.

I said you shouldn't vent to the atmosphere because it's illegal, maybe not where you are living but around here it is.

I understand I don't know all there is to know about cars, but the ones that know a little more need to hlp out the ones that have no experience and no knowledge at all.