While pressure does tend to equalize, the intake tract of an engine is not a sealed system. It has a turbo compressor forcing air in at one end, a number of parts of varying degrees of restriction in the middle, and an engine eating air at the other end. In other words, there is a bunch of air rushing through the system, and the result is different pressures at various points along the path.



-Max

Think about how a venturi works guys. There is reduced air pressure at the venturi throat, which also causes a tempurature decrease. Typical carb setup. Bernoulli's principle: as the velocity of air increases, its internal pressure decreases.

That's not physics buddy. You need to read a few books...

you get what you pay for.

um just out of curiousity what is it? thermodynamics? algebra?

aerodynamics



and physics is involved in that

Aerodynamics is basically physics though now that i think of it although it's not typical physics. Damn, I wish I was a little more thorough. ******* short attention span...

What everyone in this thread has said is right in their own context.



Pressure in a closed system at 10 psi is 10 psi everywhere. Correct if we are talking about steady state situations. If you were to pressurize the system at 10 psi and hold this pressure for an X amount of time the pressure on measured at the compressor and throttle body would be 10 psi.



It is when the system is dynamic of in it's inital state that is when you see a closed system having different pressures at different locations. Upon initial pressurization in a system with a restriction the location prior to the restriction will experience a higher pressure then on the other side.



This is not really physics, it is introductory to fluid dynamics.



Now the questino is does this intercooler cause that big of a restriction.

pressure drops cuz of lack of flow, engine is sucking the compressed air faster than the intercooler would let through.