Have yo… of course you’ve asked yourself what goes on inside your car’s various systems and parts. And, until shrinking pills come to the real world, YouTube has a little answer for you, coming from a Toyota Supra owner whose latest adventure involves building a see-through intercooler.
YouTuber Warped Perception had joined the social media platform in 2016, but I first came across his work back in 2020, after he placed a GoPro inside a car tire and took the thing out for a drive in a Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG—you’ll find the trippy clip at the bottom of the story.
However, he also happens to own the icon that is the Mk IV Supra. As with most examples out there, the machine has been seriously modded. The goal was to create a daily driver that could be driven in a civilized manner while making 1,000 hp. And since the 2JZ 3.0-liter straight-six of the JDM has basically built the reputation of the whole car based on its tuning-friendly nature, there was no problem with hitting that mark.
However, once the machine was completed, the vlogger started experimenting with the thing—it seems he’s a fan of questions like the one mentioned in the intro.
And, having already pulled his famous little-camera-in-unusual spot trick when filming from inside the intake manifold, the man went a step further for the stunt we have here. To be more precise, the YouTuber built a see-through intercooler to bring us a bit closer to the boost we so ardently crave.
Building a see-through intercooler like it’s nothing
Starting with a Garrett air-to-air intercooler, the enthusiasts fabricated transparent side “towers” that were added to the structure, with the process being highlighted in the beginning of the first clip below.
Having already worked on his mechanical skills, removing the actual intercooler of the Supra, along with other front-end bits, to make room for the custom part was a piece of cake. However, the size of the see-through unit, as well as its very purpose, means this was placed in front of the car, giving the Toyota a bit of a post-apocalyptic look.
The man took the Japanese machine for a drive around town and, thanks to keeping the boost low, all seemed fine until the said position of the intercooler saw this scraping against his driveway exit.
For Episode II (you guessed it, it’s the second vid below), Warped Perception reinforced the transparent bits with aluminum parts and took the Toyota to the dyno for a proper demonstration.
Of course, with YouTube being YouTube, things would turn out in the vlogger’s favor regardless of the mechanical outcome: “I hope this thing works, but if it doesn’t work and it fails, it’s going to be quite a show,“
Moaaar boost!
The Supra was strapped to a hub dyno, which led to less movement compared to rolling road-type hardware and therefore limited the risk of once again breaking the piece.
The driver gradually increased the boost, with his DIY intercooler keeping up until around 20 psi (1.35 bar), which is a serious value—past that value, the inevitable happened, with the shattering parts putting on a bit of a show.
However, in the said journey, the aficionado also fed fog into the system (that’s one part glycerin and three parts water), so we can literally see the boost, which makes for the most interesting part of the whole adventure.
In addition, the man fitted temperature probes to the hot and the cold sides of the intercooler. The result? The air compressed by the turbo got quite hot at 204.6 degrees F (95.8 degrees C), with the intercooler, which only used the car’s fans (i.e.,no extra dyno room fan) bringing that down to 73.6 degrees F (23.1 degrees C).
As we’ve seen earlier today when discussing Holley’s ridiculous 30-inch-high Sky-Ram air intake 3D-printed prank being used on actress/vlogger Emelia Hartford’s 240SX drift car, breaking or setting stuff on fire seems to be a reasonable price to pay for teaching everybody how internal combustion engines work.
