Causes of pressure drop through an intercooler

I know that larger intercoolers tend to have a higher perssure drop than smaller ones, but the bigger ones cool better, is the drop in pressure, due to the volume of the larger intercooler, the drag that the air encounters going through all the heat exchanging rods/vent/whatever you wnat to call them, or is it the direct result of the loss of heat itself? Is it a combonation of all of he above, if so what factor affects it most?

it's a combination of all of the above but mostly of the volume of the intercooler. think of it, there's all of this extra volume for the turbo/supercharger to pressurise as opposed to a small tube. this make some increased turbo lag, but the overall pressure remains the same (i believe, correct me if im wrong).

The restrictin inside the intake does make some decrease in flow but i don't think it makes much of a pressure drop. And the cooling effect does drop some of the pressure but i don't think it's noticeable.

this make some increased turbo lag, but the overall pressure remains the same (i believe, correct me if im wrong).


The pressure before and after the intercooler will be different.

Bends in the piping is also a big factor as well.

What about a low volume high surface area intercooler? if you had a thin but tall and long intercooler would it have a much lower pressuer drop with more cooling? Could you build a multi-layer intercooler that inducted air through the multiple layers, this would have a low volume and much more surface area. If so why has there not been one built? And is aluminum the best thing to make intercoolers out of? I don't think that it has the highest heat exchange with the air. At highway speed about how much would a high quality intercooler cool say 400 degree compressed air before it got to the engine?

The pressure before and after the intercooler will be different.

Bends in the piping is also a big factor as well.

Would larger diamiter piping make a considerable difference since the air is not having to travel so fast?

when you increase the diameter of piping it will take longer to reach the required pressure, also you can only flow as much as your smallest part so increasing the size of one part might not make as much of a difference as if you increased the size of the ports or whatever might be restrictive.

the diamater of the tubing won't make a huge difference I heard that at 8psi even a large racing intercooler will fill up in less than a 1/10th of a second I am sure that 3in piping would not take any longer than that. How much would that reduce my pressure drop on say a 500hp at 20psi applacation vs say 2in piping?