I'm not asking if it's a bad idea to run the engine too cold, I already kno it has a set operating temp by the thermostat. My question is.. can the intake temps be too cold. if you could somehow get it down to -60 degrees F lets just say. Would having that cold of an intake temp be a bad thing? could you have such a cold intake temparature that it cools down the engine to below its normal operating temp?

There is a second part to my question that i need this answered first. before i ask it

 

What, water to air intercooler with alcohol and dry ice? lol

 

Well I think the sensors have a certain range they operate at so I would say yes, to cold can be to cold.

Lets be a little realistic here though. 30* F air temps work great for me. These colder months show me what my N/a is really capable of on stock ports

 

once you get so cold you start to run into problems with fuel atimozation. but in general colder is better

 

I've got a feeling theres going to be some alky-hol involved in this thread somewhere

 

Yes. From a patent I read, if the intake charge drops below the dew point, and the EGR is hooked up, the NOx and other crap basically turns into acid rain inside your engine.

... lemme just quote the patent.

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...S=PN/7,007,680

And there you go, a solution to a problem that I didn't know existed... but does make sense.

 

Well close. The water/air intercooler but not with dry ice and alcohol. Freon pumping through the water part of the intercooler... they say it takes more power to run the compressor than power gained by the cold air the system would create. But wouldn't this setup reduce all heat spikes by the turbo? Just like a normal water/air setup. This would do it even more effectively...well maybe even virtually eliminate the heat spikes. That and I don't see how it would draw more power than having the air conditioning on cruising down the highway on a hot summer day.

In physics class I read that an engine is a heat engine and the colder you can make the intake charge the more efficient the engine will be. So instead of using the a/c system to cool yourself down in the cabin why don't you just under drive the compressor some and set it up to cool the intake charge maybe even getting an increase in gas mileage and horsepower. Even if gas mileage and horsepower did not increase wouldn't you be less prone pre ignition and maybe detonation? Just for a record hypothetically speaking this all applies to a daily driver/weekend racer

 

heh heh its funny you mention using the AC to cool in intake charge...
im positive there is a production truck or car (american) who have the ability to route the AC onto the intercooler or SC to cool the intake charge...
ARGH i cant remember which one it was... some one wana help me out?

 

Know what you mean, sure its a Ford not sure which one, advertise it as a supercooler for short bursts of cool air, then takes a while to recharge

 

Lightning

lol look at my post count

 

yeah i thought it was the lightning as well but i couldnt find any where on the internet where it says it has that option... and i didnt want to look stupid posting it up if i was wrong

 

the lightning had a system where the ac would cool air in a chamber really cold, then once it was full you could release it and it was supposed to be worth 50 HP. it was sorta like nitrous but just cold air. it only lasted so long, and took a minute or so to charge back up.

 

the lightning is a diffrent setup in other words. i wouldnt want to have to wait any amount of time to "recharge" the system like that

 

you would need to run the numbers to be sure but the problem is the cooling capacity of the A/C system. your car runs what 900 CFM to the engine, (depends on the size of turbo)that is CFM at atmospheric pressure. That would require an A/C system capable of cooling a 1 bedroom apartment now take into consideration the heat difference between a house and compressed air in a turbo engine setup and now you need a MUCH larger A/C system lets also keep in mind that an A/C system only drops temps by 20-22 degrees and the coil surface needed to accomplish this for a 900 CFM system is 80 cubic inches give or take so all this said I ran the numbers myself several times many years ago and determined that it would be less efficient than a regular IC setup.

HOWEVER if you create a setup as a PRE cooler that cools outside air prior to entering the turbo you could get a 20 degree ambient intake temp drop but this would be best accomplished with a seperate A/C system that would require an accumulator to store the refrigerant in quantities and be set up to release on full throttle only for a 12 second burst for 1/4 mile use only. It WOULD require recharging it would not be continuous use.

All this said your way better off (cheaper less engineering and more efficient) just using a compressed gas with a spray setup to spray your current IC. I reccomend nitrogen as it is street legal (nitrous usually is not) and nitrogen is cheaper than nitrous. I am not sure of the specific temperature release of a 3000 PSI nitrogen shot versus a nitrous release but I assume they would be similar. I do know that it will freeze your skin cuasing a cold burn, so it is very cold. You may want to check nitrogen versus CO2 temperature differences at different pressures. For clarification this is for spraying on an IC not into the engine. Changing the temp of the air charge can change the density of the air to such a degree that tuning or adding fuel may be neccsary to prevent detonation (this is of course the desired effect but I dont want any idiots bitching that this mod blew their engine) And for gods sake if you are thinking of doing this I assume that you have already isolated your intake air to a cold air box of some type with a fresh air supply from outside (you dont want to add an inert gas to your combustion chamber, it just takes up space)

To further increase the rate of heat transfer you can spray a mist of water or ,even better, alcohol onto the IC. The faster the evaporation rate of the liquid the better but again remeber that what you spray will end up under the hood and possibly on the bottom of the car if it is liquid so think before you select a liquid.

 

alrite thanx for answerin my questions guys