RB Racing Intercoolers

Charge Cooling

RB Racing has been turbocharging vehicles since 1979 but is only since 1985 that we have employed charge air cooling, or is more commonly referred to as "intercooling", as prior to 1985 most of our applications involved draw through carburetion which precluded the use of intercoolers. For those of you who are new to intercooling you do not blow an air/fuel mixture through an intercooler because; (a) It's not safe to have an explosive mixture in an enclosed vessel and; (b) Intercoolers were meant to flow dry, not wet mixtures.

Intercoolers are manufactured in one of two ways: Stacked Plate or Tube construction. All RB Racing intercoolers are of the Stacked Plate style of construction. To simplify this choice: (a) Stacked Plate designs are more efficient, heavier, sturdier; (b) Tube designs are less efficient, lighter, less sturdy. As they say "two out of three ain't bad" so we go with the stacked plate design.

Design considerations: Airflow needs to be considered in the construction of the intercooler inlet and outlets. Keep distances short. Minimize bends. Taper the hats downward from point of entry i.e. if you blow into one edge of the core taper the hat down to the other end and if you blow into the center taper it to both ends.

Don't construct hats so some passages are partially blocked because there aren't that many of them.