can someone explain to me what one does??

 

it cools the forced air before its enters the manifold...

Intercoolers
When air is compressed, it heats up; and when air heats up, it expands. So some of the pressure increase from a turbocharger is the result of heating the air before it goes into the engine. In order to increase the power of the engine, the goal is to get more air molecules into the cylinder, not necessarily more air pressure.

An intercooler or charge air cooler is an additional component that looks something like a radiator, except air passes through the inside as well as the outside of the intercooler. The intake air passes through sealed passageways inside the cooler, while cooler air from outside is blown across fins by the engine cooling fan.

The intercooler further increases the power of the engine by cooling the pressurized air coming out of the compressor before it goes into the engine. This means that if the turbocharger is operating at a boost of 7 psi, the intercooled system will put in 7 psi of cooler air, which is denser and contains more air molecules than warmer air.

 

EDIT: damn StangMang jump in there while i was typing and beat me to it.

its basically a radiator for the air coming into the car. when you have a turbo or a sc, it makes a lot of heat when it compresses the air. you put an intercooler inbetween the sc/tubo and the tb. cold air flows through it from the front of the car and cools the air that is going into your engine. the more boost you are running, the more hp an intercooler will add. if you run too much boost without an intercooler, you could have pre-detonation problems and ruin the engine

 

yep what they said ^^^^^

 

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