carrera style badge panel

[TTM]

It seems to be working fine for me, but again it depends on a myriad of parameters such as engine size, turbine + compressor efficiency, the engine tune, spark power (etc), as the goal of it is just to avoid engine knock, which can be offset with timing, boost, etc.

As far as I have learned I would say that choosing an intercooler would be a bit like choosing a turbo - if there was a ratio similar to "turbine A/R" for intercoolers, then a "small A/R" IC would make for low IAT but limited flow, while a "high A/R" IC would make for high flow but a lesser cooling capacity.
To this day I have not been able to find intercooler nomenclature comparable to that of Garrett turbos, but maybe I have just not looked hard enough?

 

[Indi9xx]

The second step was to add an horizontal sheet of aluminium between the intercooler core and the radiator so that the air flow coming from above would not interfere with the airflow coming out behind the intercooler to the radiator and possibly reduce the intercooler's performance.

I think this answers my question in a kind of way.

I was concerned that the SFR intercooler might pick up heat radiated and convected from the coolant radiator, but an aluminium sheet between the two, to shield the intercooler from radiator heat, while still allowing flow through the intercooler is probably important especially when the car is stationary.

I do need to get hold of one of these and have a play with it with lots of datalogging gear attached.

 

[TTM]

I mounted the sheet horizontally, between the upper edge of the IC core, to about halfway up through the height of the radiator, so that the air coming from the upper opening of the bumper would not make its way behind the IC core, and be forced only through the upper section of the radiator. Consequently, the lower section of the radiator will be fed only from the air having flown through the intercooler.

It was not meant as heat shielding, but now that you mention it we could argue that the heat radiating from the upper section of the radiator will not reach the IC core when running at a standstill...

Anyway, regardless of any heat shielding, the air inside the intake manifold gets bloody hot when the throttle is hardly open, and opening the throttle wide shows a brisk dip in IAT, even if the engine has been sitting idling for a while or driven slowly.

If you look at the log below I'm pootling around at 40kph, with the throttle hardly open, while IAT shows an impressive 49°C.
Then I open the throttle wide (TPS 100%) and IAT dives to 38°C at its lowest point, suggesting the IC core has a good reserve of fresh air that is suddenly released into the intake pipe. There-on, compressed air builds pressure and either the IC gets heat soaked or the temperature of air coming out of the compressor rises sharply - or most certainly a bit of both, ending with a peak IAT of 55°C shortly after I close the throttle at the end of 4th gear. This log was done during a very hot day last Summer with outer temp slightly above 30°C.

 

[Indi9xx]

Ohh. very interesting data.

And a lot of different ways to interpret it. I will do some studying of it later.

What was the ambient temperature that day?

Would be really interesting to see your underbonnet temperatures, pre intercooler charge temperature and air pressure before and after the intercooler.

Really interesting.