Before getting into new areas of
supercharging no one discusses on the Internet, I've been pushing the beat-to-death
blower subjects off the table. Yesterday it was fuel injection vs
carburetors -- both do the job, and switching from a carburetor to F.I.
is mindless. The second most common scam pumped across the Internet
are intercoolers. Yes, they benefit race car applications like cars
running Daytona or Sebring where the turbos glow in the dark hour
after hour, and serious drag racers that run high boosts on big
engines, and some other conditions. But in order to work there must be
heat to be removed.
Much has been written over the years about
buying and installing intercoolers and its been generally
conceded that you must have at least 10 psi of boost to justify the
cost and hassle. In recent years the Internet merchants have moved the
bar down to literally zero boost -- "every supercharger or
turbocharger must now have an intercooler" -- even thousands
of Paxton superchargers I assume. Then there's the used junk tech crowd
that tells you that you can buy an intercooler at a local junkyard,
slap it on in an hour's work, and gain gobs of horsepower
for "a few bucks".
INTER"HEATERS": The best
information on installing intercoolers that I know of can be found in
Corky Bell's "Maximum Boost" where he points out the
pitfalls of poor intercooler installations (which are common) like the
fact that intercooler installations can actually heat the charge
instead of cooling it (thus his word "Interheater") --
and/or restrict the flow.
Of course there are well engineered and
built intercoolers for sale on the Internet for a $1000 plus
(discounted price). You can go to the HKS Intercooler site, first on
the list in my search, and surely one of the largest sources. Its the
only site I found listing a wide range of kits for Japanese imports.
Prices range from $1335 to $2100 (list). One thing for certain -- this
is surely the most expensive horsepower gain you can buy.
Again, as with adding fuel injection,
installing an intercooler on the typical supercharged or turbocharged
engine fall in the area of Christmas tree decorations -- its simply
for show, not go. There's something totally ignored here on the
Internet which I'll go into tomorrow, but I want to leave you with a
positive approach to high performance that's extremely hard to find in
the media today.
If you have read over my 21st Century
Turbo Book, you surely noticed the mention of the JBA Headers 5 liter
Blown Ford Engine in several places. This is surely one of the more
remarkable engines of our time because it violates every rule the
Internet crowd has gone to great lengths to set up....
1) The JBA Ford is "only" 5
liters -- not a big block V-8.
2) It uses a "right-out-of-box "
1250 cfm Holley HP Dominator carb, not fuel
injection.
3) It uses a draw-thru system -- no
carburetor sealing or carb box.
4) It does NOT use an Intercooler.
The simplest, and lowest cost setup I
remember on a modern V-8. And the results...
911 horsepower at 7200 rpm, and 696 ft.lbs
of torque at 6600 rpm from 30 pounds boost.
Boost makes real power -- not media
promoted tech junk. And boost is cheap. We'll take this a step
further tomorrow. Dick