Factory Intercooler -- dyno & real world IAT test results

VitViper

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 28, 2015
Threads
43
Messages
638
Reaction score
1,992
Location
United States
Vehicle(s)
Lots
Just wanted to share some insight into actual datalog pre and post I/C charge temps (intake air temps) using the factory intercooler and increased boost pressures. I've seen some claims that post I/C temps rise rapidly in the course of a single pull by as much as 30 degrees... this is false. I have yet to see this in many hours of our own testing, and on customer cars. Here's a plot from one of my loaded Dynpack pulls -- as you can see, on our car, pre and post IAT's are fairly consistent, you'll see engine bay heat increases which causes the pre I/C IAT to climb at the end of the pull. We are running a roughly ~10 second dyno pull.

Honda Civic 10th gen Factory Intercooler -- dyno & real world IAT test results pull1


Here is what does tend to happen during repeated dyno pulls -- the intake (pre i/c iat -- "IAT") starts to heat soak a bit as overall dyno bay temps start to go up (our new shop dyno area doesn't have the same airflow as our old shop so I see this happen a lot and I'll need to pause from time to time to ventilate the area a bit). This also translates into the post i/c temps going up and heat soaking the intercooler.

Honda Civic 10th gen Factory Intercooler -- dyno & real world IAT test results pull10


What happens on street runs? Here's a birds eye view.

Honda Civic 10th gen Factory Intercooler -- dyno & real world IAT test results street_runs


In all respects, the post i/c temps actually stay fairly consistent -- very minimal climb, they are in the 45 - 55* area, I don't see a big climb during runs. You can see the intake does like to heat soak a bit, just because of where it is located -- not a big deal as long as the post I/C temps stay down.

Why isn't the heat soaking replicated or similar to our dyno testing? Airflow. The car is sitting in one spot, and although I have a 7500cfm and a 2000cfm fan on the car (smaller fan is 7500cfm aimed at i/c radiator to keep the ECT & intercooler cool, bigger 2000cfm to ventilate the bay area and keep pulling in fresh air), it basically "bakes" since you just cannot mimic real world airflow through the front of the car into the I/C opening and through the engine bay.

So no, no 30* rise in temps in one pull, not even with increased boost levels. Definitely no way at stock boost levels (11-16psi). If you guys are seeing that in a 5 second dyno pull -- time to rethink your dyno area.

So what do you think we can expect of an intercooler upgrade in the future? I've had this chat with my friends at PRL a couple times -- and maybe even at further increased boost levels of 23-26psi we'll start seeing the need for an I/C? I'm currently running 23-24psi on our car day to day and haven't seen any need to replace our I/C yet.

So I honestly don't expect the I/C to be a big power maker, although if it doesn't heat soak during an extended dyno testing, it may let us do a bit more consistent dyno testing, instead of having to let the car sit for some time before doing a "final" pull to get a more realistic before & after test (IE, if we did a baseline at 60* post i/c temps, a 90* post i/c "final" run would actually be a bit lower, which wouldn't show true power gains for that test session). For street applications, will a replacement i/c be useful? I don't know. For track applications? I don't know... if IAT's hold like they are in my datalogs, at this time I can't see an I/C being a big factor. But as the platform grows, who knows?
 

dallasjhawk

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2016
Threads
24
Messages
4,174
Reaction score
4,124
Location
Royse City, TX
Vehicle(s)
2016 Civic EX-T, 2015 Acura RDX AWD Tech
Vehicle Showcase
1
Country flag
Thanks for the write up with actual numbers charts and facts.
 

kshawn

Senior Member
First Name
Matthew
Joined
Apr 23, 2016
Threads
25
Messages
2,602
Reaction score
2,795
Location
Maine
Website
www.instagram.com
Vehicle(s)
2017 Civic SI
Country flag
aftermarket Intercooler is now available!
 


kshawn

Senior Member
First Name
Matthew
Joined
Apr 23, 2016
Threads
25
Messages
2,602
Reaction score
2,795
Location
Maine
Website
www.instagram.com
Vehicle(s)
2017 Civic SI
Country flag

Hondata

Hondata
Elite Sponsor
Joined
Nov 27, 2015
Threads
99
Messages
911
Reaction score
2,498
Location
Torrance California
Website
www.hondata.com
Vehicle(s)
23' Type R,22' Civic Si,18' Accord 2.0T,17' FK8
Vehicle Showcase
1
Country flag
Intercooler Race data.

This data was captured from two race Civic Coupes at Thunderhill December 2016. Both ran Injen cold air intakes. Car 20 has a stock and well baffled intercooler and radiator. It also has a cutout in the hood to clear the hot air from the engine bay.
Honda Civic 10th gen Factory Intercooler -- dyno & real world IAT test results 20_hairpin_exit
Honda Civic 10th gen Factory Intercooler -- dyno & real world IAT test results Thunderhill Intercoooler temps car 20


The data is from 3 minutes of track time. In the worst case, the temperature difference was 30F, but on average was closer to 20F.

Car 93 below did not have hood cooling. I am not sure how well the radiator / intercooler was baffled. You can see IAT and IAT2 are a lot higher.

Outside temperatures were in the mid to high 50s. In colder climates for street cars we have seen IAT2 20 degrees lower than IAT at full throttle.

Honda Civic 10th gen Factory Intercooler -- dyno & real world IAT test results Thunderhill Intercoooler temps car 93
 
Last edited:

Quicksipper

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2016
Threads
15
Messages
1,192
Reaction score
1,027
Location
FW Tx
Vehicle(s)
16' EX-T, 05' LX
Vehicle Showcase
1
Country flag
Intercooler Race data.

This data was captured from two race Civic Coupes at Thunderhill December 2016. Both ran Injen cold air intakes. Car 20 has a stock and well baffled intercooler and radiator. It also has a cutout in the hood to clear the hot air from the engine bay.
20_hairpin_exit.jpg
Thunderhill Intercoooler temps car 20.png


The data is from 3 minutes of track time. In the worst case, the temperature difference was 30F, but on average was closer to 20F.

Car 93 below did not have hood cooling. I am not sure how well the radiator / intercooler was baffled. You can see IAT and IAT2 are a lot higher.

Outside temperatures were in the mid to high 50s. In colder climates for street cars we have seen IAT2 20 degrees lower than IAT at full throttle.

Thunderhill Intercoooler temps car 93.png
this is a bit conflicting. @VitViper, given, your data logs. would this "3 minutes of track time" and ventilated hood be a more extreme application then your extended dyno sessions, which you would describe an IC upgrade as "not a big power maker"? just looking for some clarity, thanks.
 

SilverGhost

Ktuner tuned X2 CivicX.
First Name
Bill
Joined
Dec 10, 2016
Threads
24
Messages
888
Reaction score
748
Location
So close to hell i see sparks
Vehicle(s)
2016 EXT,2017 Sport Hatchback09 Fit
Vehicle Showcase
1
Since my car is a street car I think that VitViper results are a closer representation of my engines application.
 


Quicksipper

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2016
Threads
15
Messages
1,192
Reaction score
1,027
Location
FW Tx
Vehicle(s)
16' EX-T, 05' LX
Vehicle Showcase
1
Country flag
Since my car is a street car I think that VitViper results are a closer representation of my engines application.
here's my consensus:
stock absolutely not
higher PSI tune daily driver? no
higher PSI tune track car somewhat.
now here's my question, how about down south Texas in the middle of summer where we see 100 degrees constantly... ye or nay?
 

kshawn

Senior Member
First Name
Matthew
Joined
Apr 23, 2016
Threads
25
Messages
2,602
Reaction score
2,795
Location
Maine
Website
www.instagram.com
Vehicle(s)
2017 Civic SI
Country flag
here's my consensus:
stock absolutely not
higher PSI tune daily driver? no
higher PSI tune track car somewhat.
now here's my question, how about down south Texas in the middle of summer where we see 100 degrees constantly... ye or nay?
I live in Maine. and i can take about 3-4 hard runs till i need to pull over and let things cool down.
 

Quicksipper

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2016
Threads
15
Messages
1,192
Reaction score
1,027
Location
FW Tx
Vehicle(s)
16' EX-T, 05' LX
Vehicle Showcase
1
Country flag
I live in Maine. and i can take about 3-4 hard runs till i need to pull over and let things cool down.
what kind of temps do you have in Maine? also where are your iats 1 and 2 sitting at? wonder if a CAI would eliminate the need for an IC upgrade if the air going in is a tad cooler, buy some heat wrap to prevent too much heat soak. would you negate some of that Temp rise in iat2?
 

Quicksipper

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2016
Threads
15
Messages
1,192
Reaction score
1,027
Location
FW Tx
Vehicle(s)
16' EX-T, 05' LX
Vehicle Showcase
1
Country flag
maybe I'll reach out to YETI to make us some proper tubing ;)
 

kshawn

Senior Member
First Name
Matthew
Joined
Apr 23, 2016
Threads
25
Messages
2,602
Reaction score
2,795
Location
Maine
Website
www.instagram.com
Vehicle(s)
2017 Civic SI
Country flag
what kind of temps do you have in Maine? also where are your iats 1 and 2 sitting at? wonder if a CAI would eliminate the need for an IC upgrade if the air going in is a tad cooler, buy some heat wrap to prevent too much heat soak. would you negate some of that Temp rise in iat2?
70-80 in the summer. Right now like 20°. CAI does nothing really to reduce temps. The turbo is just a big heat monster. Heat wrapping the downpipe would help. I'd have to go through old logs to get the IAT numbers. But durring the summer it would heat soak and the engine noise would increase a good amount. The car would drop timings and raise knock control when to hot. So I would have to pull over for 30 min and let it all cool down a bit. Our engines are Millennial snowflakes when it comes to heat haha. But I was also doing WOT runs to 100+
Sponsored

 


 


Top