intercooler question?
intercooler question?
06-30-03, 12:26 AM
#4
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The top mount cooler for the most part HEATS the air going into the intake becuase it sits over the engine. The cooler isn't really effective until the car is at about 50MPH. I suspect this is because you are drawing air in through the radiator at a higher flow rate than you are capable of 'scooping' through the stock hood inlet. The pressure differential turns out to be positive to the ouside of the bay and therefore prevents any significant airflow through the hood until you get a good ram effect at higher vehicle speeds. Obviously this also increases the flow into the radiator, so I bet the flow is still pretty poor at even high speed.
It gets worse if you dirve a lot in traffic, as you will store heat in the intercooler which you must shed before the incoming air can lower the charge temps. I drive my car in stop/go traffic a lot and typically see a 30~50 degree gain across the cooler from outside air temp in these summer months (monitoring the temp at the AFM vs. the stock sensor in the elbow between the butterflies and the cooler)!
It's also important to consider that higher boost levels on the stock compressor are very inefficient. This means the air is heated much faster, and the little 'cooler' over the top of the engine hasn't a chance to do any good as it has difficulty rejecting a large amount of heat for the afore mentioned reasons.
The only way to get that thing to do you some good is to wet it down with a spray of water when you are in boost. I've always thought that perhaps turning it into a water-to-air cooler would be a great solution for the street, but no one likes to run these types of systems on a daily driver. I also personally feel that the stock cooler is probably very restrictive at boost levels twice that of stock so it wouldn't be worth the effort.
Some day I'll have a front-mount cooler
It gets worse if you dirve a lot in traffic, as you will store heat in the intercooler which you must shed before the incoming air can lower the charge temps. I drive my car in stop/go traffic a lot and typically see a 30~50 degree gain across the cooler from outside air temp in these summer months (monitoring the temp at the AFM vs. the stock sensor in the elbow between the butterflies and the cooler)!
It's also important to consider that higher boost levels on the stock compressor are very inefficient. This means the air is heated much faster, and the little 'cooler' over the top of the engine hasn't a chance to do any good as it has difficulty rejecting a large amount of heat for the afore mentioned reasons.
The only way to get that thing to do you some good is to wet it down with a spray of water when you are in boost. I've always thought that perhaps turning it into a water-to-air cooler would be a great solution for the street, but no one likes to run these types of systems on a daily driver. I also personally feel that the stock cooler is probably very restrictive at boost levels twice that of stock so it wouldn't be worth the effort.
Some day I'll have a front-mount cooler
06-30-03, 04:37 AM
#7
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There are quite a few people running Starion intercoolers mounted up front. Those aren't that big...
There are also a lotta people running NPR intercoolers up front. Those are slightly taller (wider also?)...
Those aren't too expensive to find neither... But you would need to make your own intercooler piping.
There are also a lotta people running NPR intercoolers up front. Those are slightly taller (wider also?)...
Those aren't too expensive to find neither... But you would need to make your own intercooler piping.
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06-30-03, 11:51 AM
#8
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If you run two intercoolers in series like this you will double the pressure drop.
----[===]----[===]----
This is a very bad thing. Putting three or more in series is even worse.
Placing the intercoolers parallel like this is much better, but will require much more plumbing.
----[===]----
----[===]----
More plumbing and more bends in the plumbing will also incur a pressure drop. It probably isn't worth the pressure drop to place a small stock intercooler in the front of the car. A friend of mine has a Starion intercooler, and it does work better than the stock TMIC. However, a taller intercooler would be better.
----[===]----[===]----
This is a very bad thing. Putting three or more in series is even worse.
Placing the intercoolers parallel like this is much better, but will require much more plumbing.
----[===]----
----[===]----
More plumbing and more bends in the plumbing will also incur a pressure drop. It probably isn't worth the pressure drop to place a small stock intercooler in the front of the car. A friend of mine has a Starion intercooler, and it does work better than the stock TMIC. However, a taller intercooler would be better.
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