why not make a upper intake manifold an intercooler?



twin screw superchargers do it all the time



any downfalls with doing this with a turbocharger?

 

Manifold type intercooler is not very efficient. They are very prone to heat soak and on most cars there just is not much cool air flow to make them efficient.



Twin screw superchargers do this pretty much because they have no other choice. If you are going to use a twin screw supercharger then go through the trouble of piping it to a front mount you might as well of used an accessory type supercharger or a turbo.

 

You could do it with a water-to-air setup, would work pretty well, but would be a bit more complex than a front-mount air-to-air, and a fair bit heavier as well. The only real advantage would be for drag racing where you could put ice-water in the system and have your intake charge cooled below ambient.



J