I intercoolers needed/useful for anything in non turbo engines. I know they are on cars with turbos, but would there be any reason to have one if you have no turbo.

 

No

 

cool. I was just curious

 

To add some education to that answer - turbos need intercoolers because when you're compressing air, you're storing energy, which causes heat. When you pass the air through the intercooler, the idea is to bring that air temp down closer to the outside air temp. With a N/A vehicle, the air going in is already the same (or close) as the outdoor temp (assuming you have a CAI), so you'd be unable to use that outside air to cool it further.

 

thats a good easy to understand explanation. I was thinking that the intercooler made the air coolor than the outside air somehow, making it cooler than a CAI could. This is where I thought some benefit might be, but in that cause I feel like a tard

 

Don't. Its all good man. Sorry, I should've elaborated. Good explaination though, if questions were never asked no one would ever learn. Take care.

 

It's been explained. But i'll add. Turbos compress air, compressing a gas=HEAT. Hot air is less dense than cool air (so less fuel can be mixed with the air). The turbo takes in air, compresses it, it goes into the intercooler which is like a radiator, the hot, compressed air loses heat to the outside air and then goes into the engine as a denser, cooler air. An intercooler would not work on a non-turbo car for one clear reason, the intercooler can only cool air to the temperature of the outside air. With a non-turbo car, the air it is pulling in is already at outside air temperature, so an intercooler wouldn't remove any more heat from it.

 

Thanks for adding that, I forgot to explain why cooler air is better.