im f-ing retarded

what is an intercooler?
what is a blow off valve?
what is a CAI
basically how does a turbo work



im just starting to relaize that those little cars can be really fast when done right so i got to know what people are talking about sorry.

www.howstuffworks.com

good place to start...they have diagrams and pie charts, and animations :thumbsup:

then go to the forced induction forum. those guys are amazing at giving good explanations.

thanks sort of well i went to howstuffworks and i couldnt find anything on bov cai or the intercooler and i looked for the forum but like i said im f-ing retarded and couldnt find it so i thought that this would be the next logical but im retarded so its probally not

so if you know how a turbocharger works then you know it compresses air to allow the engine to burn more fuel. if you need more clarification on this let me know.

when you compress air it gets hotter, simple physics, and since the turbo uses the exhaust some of the heat from the exhaust gets transfered to the intake (not sure how much though, i've heard different things about the significance of this heat exchange)

when the engine compresses the fuel and air mix, it gets hot. if it gets too hot then the fuel could ignite before it's supposed to, this is called detonation, knocking, or pinging. detonation is bad because it can damage pistons, heads, valves, piston rings, con rods, pretty much anything. the purpose of the intercooler is to cool the hot air coming out of the turbocharger so that you can run more boost without detonating.

there are two types of intercoolers: air to air, and air to water. air to water intercoolers are more efficient because water is better at transfering heat than air is but the water tends to heat up and it is no longer effective after one or two runs down the drag strip, so it is not commonly used in other forms of racing.

air to air intercoolers are more common because they don't require changing fluids and they remain effective over a much longer period of time. you pretty much have outside air passing through fins to cool down the intake charge, just like a radiator.

so, a BOV (blow-off valve) is a valve that lets out the pressure in the intake when you let off the gas. if you've got a turbocharger compressing air and you quickly shut the throttle plate, it sends a shockwave back to the compressor and can cause some serious damage. a BOV will also decrease turbo lag because the turbocharger can spin more freely when the throttle plate is closed and it doesn't have that shockwave blasting it.

a CAI (cold air intake) is just an intake that grabs its air from a cold place. most cars these days come equiped with a cold air intake, if you look in a honda civic engine bay you'll see that the intake is routed to right behind the headlight (or close to there) because it's colder there than right beside the engine. the purpose of getting colder air is that cold air is denser than hot air and thus you can burn more fuel and get more power.

the reason people install aftermarket cold air intakes for more power is because the factory intake, although it grabs its air from someplace cold, tends to be quite restrictive with sound deadening devices and bends. an aftermarket one will usually have a polished material (inside, the exterior doesn't matter, although they still tend to be all shiny for looks) to help flow, they won't have a resonator (i forget the name of the one in the intake, someone help me out) and will usually have a better flowing filter. it might also be placed in a better spot where you'll suck in colder air. all these factors help in making more power. although many companies claim their intakes are the best, it really won't make much of a difference, you can get a cheaper intake and get the same results (or you might be 1 horsepower lower, nothing significant).

if there's anything i missed or if i made a mistake correct me, my brain's fried from class today.