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PRL Motorsports

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11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! IC Render 1

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! IC Render 2

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! IC Render 3

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! IC Render 4

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! 210089693_4112035028874021_8182615749343701357_n

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! 218290071_379495940266085_3169485664380379360_n


PRL ARMY BLOG POST

Like most any modern turbocharged vehicle, intercooler heat-soak quickly becomes a major limiting factor in regards to power delivery and engine. Honda’s engineers did a fantastic job in developing a well-performing, cost-effective, fuel-efficient vehicle for the general public. Unfortunately for niche spirited drivers, power-hungry enthusiasts and customers living in hot climates, the factory intercooler leaves much to be desired. Charge intake air temperatures rapidly rise as turbocharger boost pressure, ambient air temperatures and/or repeated spirited driving times increase. Intake air temperatures play a major role in the ECU’s power delivery – high IATs will cause the ECU to dial back timing and boost, among other parameters, and can be dangerous when ignored. Though an intercooler upgrade isn’t necessarily intended to be a power-adder, the factory intercooler should be thought of as a power-limiter. An intercooler upgrade is one of the best modifications that can be purchased for your vehicle.

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! 211307027_543415086850981_4872564637204508855_n

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! 215551946_4133120693401889_5631034073893802729_n

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! 219394323_833749990587163_7073399448485285088_n


Our focus is to develop an intercooler upgrade that fits like factory, but looks and performs like a premium product customers want to be proud to showoff. The 11th Gen Civic’s facelift forced our engineers to draw up a complete redesign, but the engine’s characteristics are still remnant of the previous 10th Gen 1.5L Turbo platform (more-so the 10th Gen 1.5T Accord, actually). While Honda’s new engine bay and front end actually increased space notably (possibly for increased airflow/cooling?), the Civic’s new front bumper actually provided us with spacing constraints. Going off of data we have collected from previous platforms, we have drawn up a proposed intercooler core that offers similar internal airflow volume as our intercooler upgrade for the previous generation Civic. Maintaining this internal airflow volume (and fin pitch design) was important to us, because we have seen the negative affects of increasing internal volume too much with Honda’s 1.5L Turbo platform in the past. These proposed core dimensions are suited perfectly for the 1.5L engine displacement, factory turbocharger and most any aftermarket turbocharger size that will be offered for this car. Though this new design will be a bit shorter than the 10th Gens, it will still offer a significant increase in frontal surface area and utilize a dense fin pitch for desired cooling, all without hindering airflow to the radiator. No cutting or modification are required and factory bumper air guides are retained. As always, no tuning required!

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! 214686384_906364039918825_1668742022616794719_n

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! 212789305_208580864399616_2368247817543811667_n


As per usual PRL fashion, we will be using billet 6061 aluminum end tanks in our intercooler assembly. Viewers may notice a two-piece end tank design on the driver side – this two-piece design allows us to fit the end mills on our CNC machines into the end tanks for machining. Our end tanks will feature a smooth internal profile to avoid turbulence and a modular design for compatibility with both factory and future PRL charge pipe upgrade.

We expect to have a prototype intercooler sample, designed to spec, in-hand within the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned for final dimensions, testing data and more information!
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PRL Motorsports

PRL Motorsports

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In order to continue improving our intercooler designs, we equipped our 2022 Honda Civic 1.5L Turbo Touring model test mule with some additional sensing equipment. We are using one type-j thermocouple and one 50psi MAP sensor at the intercooler inlet, and one of each at the outlet. These are interfaced through an AEM CD-5 Digital dash, where we can monitor and log change in temperature and change in pressure across our intercooler cores. Having access to this data during R&D allows us to fine tune important aspects of our intercoolers such as fin density, fin pitch, core dimensions and end tank design in order to squeeze every ounce of horsepower out of our products. The dyno session was started by taking a completely stock baseline run at an average temperature of 59°F and an elevation of 1160ft. We saw some very interesting trends as far as the performance of the stock intercooler, but more on that later. After our baseline testing, we went ahead and swapped the stock intercooler for our upgraded intercooler and resumed testing. Here’s what we found:

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! PRL vs Stock IC.PNG


We saw a maximum recorded power of 171WHP and an average of 146WHP with the stock intercooler, and a maximum recorded power of 176WHP and an average of 149WHP with our intercooler. However, we saw as much as a 9WHP increase in the mid-range. After completing the power runs, we went ahead and performed an intercooler performance test on each intercooler. This consisted of doing a pull in the car from 20MPH to 110MPH, allowing a 26-second interval (approximate time of pull plus 15 seconds), then repeating that procedure multiple times until each intercooler reached heat soak. Heat soak was determined when we were no longer seeing a significant increase in the outlet temperature of the intercooler.

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! Heat Soak Test.PNG


During the heat soak test, it can be seen that the intercooler inlet temperatures remained consistent with each other, with slight deviation, however, the outlet temperatures were significantly different. With the stock intercooler, we were seeing temperature spikes as high as 220°F after a few pulls. Furthermore, the peak outlet temperature of the initial pull was 162°F where the PRL intercooler was 78°F. The PRL intercooler reached heat soak at around 112°F compared to the stock 220°F.

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! IC Test.PNG


Zooming in on one of the runs, we can really see the stark contrast in the performance of both intercoolers. Just to make sure this was not due to changing air temperatures, we logged the ambient air temperature entering the intercooler using another type-j thermocouple hung in front of the core for both runs. It can be seen on the graph, that the ambient air temperature was very consistent between runs.

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! Effectiveness.PNG


Having access to this specific temperature data also allowed us to calculate the effectiveness of each intercooler. The effectiveness of a heat exchanger can be approximated by dividing the actual change in temperature by the maximum theoretical change in temperature possible. ? = ∆???????/∆???? = (??? − ????)/(??? − ????????) For example, in the equation shown above, ??? would be the temperature at the intercooler inlet, ???? would be the intercooler outlet and ???????? would be the ambient temperature flowing into the intercooler. It can be determined, by looking at the graph, that the PRL intercooler is much more effective at exchanging heat than the stock intercooler. We were seeing a maximum effectiveness of the PRL intercooler of 93% compared to a maximum of 67.5% with the stock intercooler during this run. At the peak of the RPM range, where heat being produced as at a maximum, the effectiveness of the PRL intercooler tapers down to 87% where the stock intercooler nosedives all the way down to 47%. The last parameter we wanted to test was pressure drop across the intercooler. This gives us a good point of reference to nail down fin density. As the fin density through the core increases, we should see a pressure head loss, which would result in a greater pressure drop. After curating the data from the stock intercooler and the PRL intercooler, the is what we experienced:

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! Pressure Drop.PNG


The stock intercooler had an average pressure drop across the core of 1.5psi tapering up to 1.75psi average at the end of the pull. The PRL intercooler showed an average of 1.05psi, which stayed consistent throughout the pull. While this difference may not seem significant, it tells us a few important things. First of all, our fin design is not only more efficient at exchanging heat than the factory design, but it is also less restrictive. It also tells us, more importantly, that the PRL intercooler provides more headroom for boost. As we discussed in our 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development Part 1 blog post, this intercooler uses a similar core design and the same fin pitch density (both internal and external) as our previous intercooler upgrades. It's also important to note that the gains of an intercooler upgrade will continue to increase exponentially as more power and boost is added.

Pre-orders are now live for the intercooler upgrade ONLY! For those looking to purchase our Charge Pipe Upgrade kit or purchase our Intercooler & Charge Pipe Combo Kit, pre-orders will be available within the next few weeks.

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PRL Motorsports

PRL Motorsports

Premium Performance Products
Elite Sponsor
Joined
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Vehicle(s)
2017 Civic Si, 2016 Civic EX-T, 2018 Type R
Pre-Orders for the PRL Motorsports Charge Pipe Upgrade Kit and High Volume Intercooler & Charge Pipe Combo Kit for the 2022+ Honda Civic 1.5T 11th Gen are now live!

Customers can purchase our High Volume Intercooler & Charge Pipe Upgrade Combo Kit together for optimal performance & savings, or all kits can be purchased separately.

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! FMIC_ChargePipeKit_700x

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! 2022-honda-civic-15t-intercooler-charge-pipe-upgrade-kit-953684_700x

11th Gen Honda Civic 11th Gen Civic 1.5T Intercooler Upgrade Development & Release! 2022-honda-civic-15t-intercooler-charge-pipe-upgrade-kit-866435_700x
 

HondaFan777

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Cant wait for my FMIC to show up :)
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