I don't know how much improvement it would provide but it made sense when I thought about it. Most intercooler pipes are aluminum which does a good job a conducting heat. So why not make a few semi circular low profile heatsinks and strap them onto the piping both before and after the intercooler so that you can start cooling the air before it gets to the intercooler and keep cooling it after it comes out of the intercooler?

Add a small air deflector to blow air past the heat sinks and they can draw a lot of heat from the pipes.

If the heatsinks can cool the air even a little bit, then the intercooler will cool it even more.

Bryan

 

i was thinking about the same thing but since i dont have an intercooler on my turbo setup it would help to cool. I was also thinking of heat wrapping my intake so that engine bay temp wont heat up the air prior to the turbo, but then thought that might only save a degree or 2.

The other idea still is playing in my head of adding fins to the piping.

 

Slight problem though. In order for heatsinks to work, you need cooler air than what you're trying to cool pass over them. I don't know if you've ever felt the engine bay when the car is warm, but it's a freakin inferno in there. If anything, I think you'd want to insulate the intercooler piping, from the heat inside the engine and let the Intercooler (a bunch of heatsinks anyways) do the job of cooling.

 

I don't think there's any benefit to be seen. The extra metal will retain heat as well and simply hold it close to the piping. The pipes don't get too hot anyhow. I'd say the best bet would be to maybe heat wrap the I/C exit pipes to the TB, that'd be about it.

Some insulated piping would be the best bet, but there's not really enough room to deal with that extra .5" of wall thickness you'd need.