Full of hot air!

[More Power]

OK, we've all seen the various names for what we call an "intercooler". According the Garrett, here's the official definition for the three terms we've heard here at The Diesel Page.

Charge Air Cooler - The CAC term applies to a cooler located between a turbocharger and a diesel (compression ignition) engine's intake system.

Aftercooler - This term applies to a cooler placed inline "after" an air compressor.

Intercooler - This term applies to a cooler placed between a turbocharger or supercharger and the intake system on a gasoline (spark ignition) engine.

Jim

[gmctd]

Hmmmm..........many years ago, I learned that 'charge-air cooler' could apply to all the -coolers, but specifically to a heat-exchanger placed between a turbo- or super-charger and an engine.

Inter-cooler was placed between stages of a two-to-multiple stage air compressor, or between stages of turbo- or super-charging.

After-cooler was the final heat-exchanger placed between final stage of compressor and the tank, or the final stage of -charging and the engine.

The 'streets' do have a way of changing the language...................

[More Power]

It'll be tough not using the term "intercooler" here at TDP.... GM has used CAC in their Duramax related literature pretty much exclusively - at least for the last few years.

Jim

[murphyslaw]

In the industrail and marine intustry it was always


intercooler= charge cooler after turbo, before intake

aftercooler= cooled intake or charge cooler between intake and head.


as far as i see they ar all charge coolers in defenition

[gmctd]

For engines, an intake air compressor is called a turbocharger or supercharger - thus, the term 'charge-air cooler'

The original term 'inter-stage air cooler' was shortened to intercooler, then adopted by motorheads experimenting with turbochargers off the P-51 Mustang and the GMC series of X-71 superchargers from Detroit Diesel engined buses and trucks, some of which had water-to-air heat exchangers between the 6-71 blower and the engine.

Then came the factory-charged Studebaker Avanti and other American marques, but the English Blower-Bentley, the Germans with Audi iirc, the American Cord, and others were trying and offering 'charging back in the 30's-40's, all without benefit of 'cooling because the pressures were low.

I suspect those early intercoolers really were intercoolers, ripped off some scrapped air compressor system, to be put to much better use.

Such is American ingenuity - or engine-uity, if you will............