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Intercooler pump wiring question

suitercrew

suitercrew

New member
Hey for those of you that have an intercooler I was wondering what size your power wire is. I'm just curious my pump seems to flow ok but I bought the kit used and the guy included the relay harness but the fused power wire is really small either 18 or 20 gauge. I was wondering if that was big enough or if I should run a 12 gauge or something instead?

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Not sure what wire you are talking about, but 20ga wire isn't going to drive an intercooler pump. Our windshield wiper fluid pump has bigger wire.

But if you are talking about the wire that triggers the relay, that can be pretty small because it's basically only a signal wire, like an amp remote wire.
 
industrialfish said:
Not sure what wire you are talking about, but 20ga wire isn't going to drive an intercooler pump. Our windshield wiper fluid pump has bigger wire.

But if you are talking about the wire that triggers the relay, that can be pretty small because it's basically only a signal wire, like an amp remote wire.
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Ya I'm talking about the actual power wire. I thought it looked just way to small.

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suitercrew said:
Ya I'm talking about the actual power wire. I thought it looked just way to small.

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Well good news. If it's a Bosch pump, it only draws 2.5A continuous. Low pressure, high flow. 20ga isn't rated but would work if it's not a long run. 18ga would be fine.
 
Look on the wire, all wire is labeled. You want 14awg as a minimum. Remember the fuse protects the wire, if wire is that small, any issue and the wire will burn up and open the circuit, then no pump! If you're going to use the smaller wire, then make sure the fuse is smaller as well.
 
industrialfish said:
Well good news. If it's a Bosch pump, it only draws 2.5A continuous. Low pressure, high flow. 20ga isn't rated but would work if it's not a long run. 18ga would be fine.
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It is a bosch pump. I would have really thought it drew more power then that though.

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the guy that makes the phenolic intercoolers uses a voltage booster to increase coolant flow while in boost. I don't know at what point diminishing returns becomes a factor or how much is too much, but obviously more voltage is a good thing for the intercooler pump.
 
Well I just did some research and sure enough it seems the bosch pump tested at only drawing 3amps of current. So I already bought a new fused 12 gauge wire so I will put it in anyway but it looks like its probably unnecessary.

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suitercrew said:
Well I just did some research and sure enough it seems the bosch pump tested at only drawing 3amps of current. So I already bought a new fused 12 gauge wire so I will put it in anyway but it looks like its probably unnecessary.

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It's believe it's that low because it's not producing a lot of pressure, it's not working "hard" . I would have still suggested upgrading the wire anyway. Just make sure you use only like a 5amp fuse so the fuse blows before the pump catches fire in case of a problem.
 
I would be really surprised if the intercooler systems actually were low pressure. If these systems really were "low" pressure, we could used 50 dollar "Rule" pumps that flow huge amounts of fluid, but they are medium or high pressure, so the pump needs more voltage.
 
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