Do I need an intercooler?

[Bad Max]

I have a 07 Duramax with Bully Dog, AFE intake and no AFE exhaust yet till next week and it does run fast and hard. Just beat a Ford 6.0 diesel with Banks Six Gun with everything plus intercooler and I just beat him three times by 1.5-2 trucks everytime. He used the 4WD on the fly to take off and the rest of the way with 2 WD but I have the tranfer case shift on the floor and do not feel too comfty using 4X4 to take off, so I just used 2WD to race the Banks,Stop and go in 2WD, rolling at 20mph and his 4WD on the fly and beat him everytime. They say noone has beat the Banks Six Gun so far until I broke his winning streak. I know for a fact that when I get the AFE 4 inch exhaust, the DMax will do better and quicker.

Do I need an intercooler? To be safe????

What is it for?

Will running hard with the total package I described above be safe without an intercooler? Tech says that I do not really need it, it just cools the turbo with cooler air and that is it.

What do you suggest? Thanks

Bad Max

[More Power]

A 10 degree increase in intake air temperature causes a loss of about 1 horsepower. A hundred degree increase produces about a 10 hp hit.

So, the only way to know whether someone needs a larger or more efficient charge air cooler is to measure the intake air on the outlet side of the cooler. Higher boost pressures raise intake air temperatures. The guys running twins or large single turbos producing 2x the boost of a stock truck might benefit from a larger/more efficient cooler.

It all depends....

Jim

[Craig M]

You stock truck is allready equiped with an intercooler. As More Power states above the question is weather you need a bigger one. Banks and other vendors sell larger intercoolers.