- Okay!
I'm wearing a cowboy hat and I'm not sure why.
But we're going to do this.
There are a few things in this world that sound as sweet
as the sweet, sweet sound of turbo whistle.
(engine revving)
Let's face it, it's just so
damn
good.
- [Man] Keep it down!
- I'm trying to make a movie here.
Having a good day,
turbo whistle's going to make you smile.
You're having a bad day,
turbo whistle, still going to make you smile.
Not sure if you're having a good day or a bad day,
but you still just want to smile,
turbo whistle.
And just like every good story, turbos also have
a partner in crime.
It's like Batman and Robin.
This aluminum radiator looking thing helps
keep your intakes temps cool and ultimately,
brings you more horsepower.
But how does an intercooler actually work?
Which ones are good and better yet,
which ones are the best if you're chasing
big horsepower numbers?
Great news is I'm Dustin with Custom Offsets.
You guys can follow me and my turbo diesel
on the Gram @dusti.co, and today,
we're diving headfirst into this one to find out
just which intercooler may be right for you.
- [Man] Who is she and why are we in her cooler?
- As we're building the boost and spinning off
the tires here, a reminder that if you need performance
parts for your truck, we have those at CustomOffsets.com.
Well, we have all sorts of things from intercoolers,
like we're talking about today to intakes and exhausts
and tuners and a whole bunch more.
We got a whole bunch of parts.
It's pretty cool.
Also, in case you've been living under a rock
the last few weeks, we announced a new giveaway
and this one is big!
And not like figuratively big, like actually big.
Like rolling on 42s and 26-16s big.
That's right, we are giving away our newest SEMA truck,
a 2017 Ford F-350 Super Duty
on a massive Kelderman air ride lift kit.
So first and foremost, what exactly is an intercooler
and how does it work?
An intercooler, by all definitions, is a mechanical device
used to cool the intake air on an engine
with either a turbo or a supercharger.
Now that sounds fancy, but it really just actually goes
a little something like this.
Turbos and superchargers work essentially
by compressing the air going into our engine.
This compression packs more air into the cylinders,
they call it boost, and it allows each cylinder to burn
more fuel per stroke, ultimately making more power.
Now when the turbo or the supercharger compresses the air,
creates friction,
friction creates heat,
this heat causes the intake air to be less dense,
limiting the amount of fuel that you can
put into the cylinder, and then overall limiting the power.
This is where an intercooler is going to come in.
Before this air enters the engine,
it's going to go through this intercooler and then
external air is going to come through the cooling channels,
which inevitably lowers the temperatures on that intake air,
making it more dense and ultimately getting after
what we all want, which is more power.
When it comes to intercoolers, there's two main types.
You have air to air
and air to water.
Most commonly, and the ones we're going to talk about
the most today or air to air intercoolers.
These intercoolers use air that you're driving through
to essentially cool your intake air, which is inside of it.
It works a lot like a radiator.
These are different than an air to water cooler,
which actually uses a coolant system to cool the air.
This would be like your actual radiator.
These are going to be more expensive, more complex,
and overall, just not as common as your
air to air counterparts.
It is important to note here that most, but not all, diesels
of today are going to come with an intercooler of some sort,
unless you're Jared, who has a dinosaur 7.3 Powerstroke
that is not intercooled.
For whatever reason, Ford just thought
it wasn't a good idea and that's probably why
he lost the tow-off, honestly.
So let's say you're looking to upgrade your intercooler.
Which intercoolers are worth talking about?
Great news here, we actually have quite a few brands
of intercoolers on the website
that you guys can take a look at.
For starters here, we're going to take a look at the
AFE intercoolers.
Known as the blade runners, not to be confused
with the 1982 sci-fi movie, Blade Runner.
These intercoolers pack a punch when it comes
to performance for your money.
They're going to be thicker,
they're going to be beefier,
and they're going to be larger.
These intercoolers have proven to lower intake temps
up to 200 degrees, which is a whole lot
when you live in a place where the air hurts your face
like it does here in the good old Wisconsin.
At least we don't have hurricanes
or fire ants
or tornadoes really,
or anything else that wants to kill you like alligators.
The all aluminum design and TIG weld on the AFE
are going to make this one a really great product
for the money.
Now changing up here a little bit,
if you're looking for something a little bit nicer,
Mishimoto may be the brand for you.
These intercoolers, again, are going to be TIG welded.
They're going to be available in all sorts of colors,
including blacks, so you know, Banker can be happy
because he wants everything in black.
And overall, they're just a really super solid
quality product.
These are all stock fit intercoolers,
meaning that they're going to bolt
right into the stock location,
which ultimately means that you won't have to
cut the (beep) out of your radiator support
to make them fit or fabricate some brackets
to get it up in there.
It's just going to bolt right in.
Mishimoto has been in the industry a long time,
So you know when you're buying a product from those guys
that you're getting years of testing and product knowledge.
They've been around since I was just a little kid
and they continue to make really solid products.
And of course, we couldn't talk about intercoolers
without talking about the one and only Banks Power.
Now listen,
there's a lot of companies out there that talk the talk,
but there are a few that walk the walk
as much as banks Power does.
Not only does Banks spend a ton of time
on product engineering, but they also actually flow test
every one of their products against
every other manufacturer on the market.
And they will not release a product
unless it outperforms the competition.
That's a fact.
So what this ultimately means is that when you're buying
Banks Power, you know you're getting the best of the best
and it's going to perform.
When it comes to intercoolers and boost gains,
Banks has test data that says that their intercooler
increased boost over 45% more than stock,
it gave them 12% more dense air than stock,
and gave them a whopping 96% more efficient cooling flow
than the stock intercooler.
All this is cool.
See what I did there?
- [Man] Oh my god.
- But the long an short of it.
But the long and- (man shouting)
But the long and short of it is that the Banks intercooler
is going to give you more proven, tested performance
time over time.
With all of that being said though,
you guys will have to let me know,
have you ever swapped an intercooler in your truck,
either gas or diesel?
How was the result and how was the process of doing so?
Let us know down in the comments section below.
And as always, if you're looking for an intercooler,
you can check us out at CustomOffsets.com.
With that, I'm Dustin with Custom Offsets.
Make sure you like, share, and subscribe
so we can keep making videos like this.
And we'll see you guys on the next one.
(upbeat music)