Is intercooling only for Turbo'd cars? or can you intercool anything?

I plan to run a Supercharger and heard that Intercoolers added horsepower and reliability as well as longer engine-life w/ boosted power plants.

Thanks!

 

an intercooler doesn't work with an s/c because the boosted
air is fed directly into the engine, where turbos boost than
are intercooled mainly because of the heat the turbo
generates, then cooled back to an acceptable temp. You
would see better performance from an aftercooler designed
for an s/c, or a methanol injection system, and possibly from
a cryo2 system freezing the intake air, prior to induction.


P.S. I have only seen aftercoolers on belt driven s/c's.. aka belt driven turbos

 

you can intercool a centrifugal s/c but not really easily with a screw/roots style

 

Now this statment is not entirely true.. You are correct that you cant put an intercooler on a Roots style Supercharger ( Greddy or Blitz) because it sits right on top of the intake mani and feeds into the engine directly..

Now you can put an intercooler on a Centrifugal Supercharger ( PE or Scion tC SC).. Because they do not force the air directly into the intake mani, they send it thru the TB first.. So you could in theory extend the piping to an intercooler.. The reason that most people dont put an intercooler on a Centrifugal is because the extra piping and intercooler drop the PSI down to much to make it worth cooling the air down and lossing boost. Now if you got a Centrifugal SC to push 12 plus pounds of boost then you could proably sucessfully use an intercooler with out dropping to much boost.

 

I have only owned one car on boost, 1988 turbo technology at that. So, as in highschool, i'm happy with a "C", thanks for the input proshop.

 

Good information. I'm getting a Greddy SC for my 03 Echo. It fits the Scions xA and xB , we all share the same engine. My mechanic-friend says it's a go.

I want some way to ensure my engine stays cool under the extra pressure. ( even though it's not alot of extra pressure ). I don't mind spending a little extra money to get some extra power too.

I picked a SC over a Turbo simply because it's not such a major jump in power. Very decent however. My car is plenty light and torquy as it is.

Thank you sincerely for the input, the Scion community has always been a great source of advice for my project. You guys do some crazy stuff w/ your rides too