How bad is turbo without intercooler?
 

First off, I know that you get less power without an intercooler and why.
My question is, if you want to keep the installation simple and clean and don't need stupid amounts of power but just want to wake the car up more than basic bolt-ons and a tune will do, would running without an intercooler work okay?
In the early days of turbocharging, intercoolers were pretty much unheard of, so turbos can be run safely without them. The question is: how much boost are you likely to be limited to and what kind of power could you reliably make?

The actual power loss is going to depend on a lot of variables that differ from kit to kit.

Here's an interesting read: http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/e...lers_worth_it/

I totally agree with you on this idea. I could see even vortech SC just pluging right to the intake without IC.
I believe 5psi is the max recommended to run on your car without IC there are some toyota pick trucks that run like this in other countries.
Smart for two turbo kit also run like this.

It's bad. Like crossing the streams.

Interesting article, thank you.
It appears that for people running mild boost levels, an intercooler is superfluous.
Budget installation is getting easier on the budget all the time.

I forgot to say I ran my Jetta without an intercooler for years!
it was also an ebay kit. I come from one of those 3rd world countries where stuff is done ghetto style.

no IC or tunning baby! lol

What country is that?

How bad ? Very Bad.

1/ Turbo Works by using the Wasted Exhaust Hot Air to spin the Wheel, which is connected to the Turbine by the Shaft, which then turn the Turbine wheel, which will suck air in for you.

2/ Compressed air, or anything compressed will be Heated up, together with the Hot Air from the other side which heat it up faster = Recipe for Pre-ignition or Knocks....

3/ Your engine goes BOOM! in time

Although reliability comes into play here, chemical intercooling is always an option. You can set up meth injection with a water/meth mix to combat higher iats associated with forced induction.

Downsides are potential system failures (pump malfunction, line break, nozzle clog, etc) and the fact that its now a consumable that has to be refilled.

I would like to add one of the important downside of Meth too...it is Corrosive....

You can do it, you just have to keep the boost down, maybe 5-6psi? At boost goes up, so do intake temps, and as intake temps go up you lose power and increase the risk of detonation. you'd be limited by not having one, but it would work.

Don't forget, those engines with no intercooler aren't running 12.5 cr. We don't have as much room to play with. I'm not going to tell you it shouldn't be done, but I personally don't think its worth the extra risk.

Toyota uses non intercooled turbo engines outside the US. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I actually beileve it was a diesel engine though so I'm not sure if that makes a big difference.

Yeah, 12.5 is a little steep for a turbo application to begin with. Food for thought, that is.

Next consideration is that with the boost limited to about 5 and the correlating lesser hp gains, are the stock injectors now sufficient to handle the load?