Is the heat-exchanger the same as thing as an Intercooler?

[boostravi]

Sup guys, I looked at a few threads of the different HE setups out there and got to thinking. Are the HE's the same as Intercoolers (or more or less aftercoolers)? Looks wise they seem the same. Just wondering why there is a different name for perhaps a different purpose.

Could someone explain the difference if there are any?

TIA,

Regards:

Ravi Mohan

 

[Jimmysidecarr]

Originally posted by boostravi
Sup guys, I looked at a few threads of the different HE setups out there and got to thinking. Are the HE's the same as Intercoolers (or more or less aftercoolers)? Looks wise they seem the same. Just wondering why there is a different name for perhaps a different purpose.

Could someone explain the difference if there are any?

TIA,

Regards:

Ravi Mohan

My understanding is..... the intercooler is directly under the blower jointly developed by Garret, and Roush engineering... has a lot of over capacity... very efficient.
The heat exchanger (out front) however was subjected to crash survival testing and is pitiful......... way too small IMHO
Jimmy:thumbsup:

 

[JKD COBRA]

We have an intercooler and a heat exchanger. Its an air/water system. That means that our intercooler system uses coolant to cool the air going into the combustion chamber. Our heatexchanger is what you see behind the front bumper, our intercooler is bolted to the underside of the supercharger.

The coolant gets pumped through the heat exchanger to be cooled (by all the air hitting the heatexchanger) then, it goes from the heatexchanger into the intercooler and cools the air coming out of the blower and into the combustion chamber. While doing this, the coolant will get hot, so thats why the coolant is continuously pumped. Once it goes through the intercooler, it goes back into the heatexchanger to be cooled down again, then into the intercooler. . .and so on and so on.

 

[Torch Red 10th]

Think of it like this, the heat exchanger is like the radiator and the intercooler is like the engine. Same idea. Coolant pumps in from the HE and heats up in the intercooler and goes back to the HE to be cooled again. Like the radiator supplies fluid to the motor to keep it cooler and heats up inside the motor and goes back to the radiator to be cooled back down.

Heat exchanger is basically a small radiator for the intercooler.

 

[boostravi]

At first that's what I thought it was--just an expensive radiator. I wondered why so many would purchase such a thing (and b/c of its looks and location) I figured it would be an intercooler. Thanks for clearing it up for me guys. I would have never figured that there would be both.

Thanks!

 

[Scotts 03 COBRA]

since I just found out my intercooler pump wasn't plugged into the harness--how would the heat exchanger to intercooler work with out the pump in the equation--I must of lost some hp also--

 

[davidmax]

You can most definatley view it as an expansion of the present intercooler.It cools the combustion charge for more power due to a cooler denser charge.The real Horsepower gains under extensive thermal testing shines here in the AZ, 115 degree days where it stops thermal overload which increases volumetric efficiency.
Many of hours went into our (Xtremes) unit and the fitment is perfect with fans or without.Hot climates will benefit with no fans but they do HELP!!!
Any questions on the Xtreme unit and we sell many weekly call Mike our leed engineer or Chad our Leed Ford tech and shop fore person(politically correct),they are super bright and more well versd in this area than most.
We run them on our cars and install many locally and on 95 degree days after a week of install people thank us.It will be specially crucial if you pullied as the Eaton red line is 16,500 and were spinning them at 21,000 rpm and it helps the blower and engine last quite a bit longer in theory.
Best of luck,Dave Smilovic/480-517-4969

 

[Neoclasiccl]

Wow nice explanation guys. My help is not needed in this thread :beer: