Hi
I was just curious as to what research and experimenting has been done with stock placed water intercoolers? If any?
Obviously, a better solution would be a V-mount, but that is not an option i can consider yet,as i want to keep the car "close to" stock in look. Both outside, and under the hood.
SMICs have a bad rep, and im not sure if they can successfully manage to cool a set of BNR twins with a power goal of 370 WHP, even if i built a custom made one and got a smaller battery. (and added water injection)

So then i thought about water cooled setups, mostly when looking at the 4 rotor build, but also some other builds use these. And i think it would be easier to route lines for another radiator in front, than a FMIC.

Anyone hade done any thinking or this, or am i just spinning unrealistic fantasies?

 

A good properly ducted stock mount can do a great job cooling a car. No problems there.

Air-water intercoolers can be cool but you add a lot of weight and extra plumbing to make that happen. They make huge sense for drag racing since you can ice down the tank and have ultra-cold IC temps for a short run. But for a street car an air-air setup can run cooler/be more efficient in the long run.

I would do a decent, properly ducted stock mount and a good water injection system. That will get you the best of both worlds.

Dale

 

 

Australians seem to think its ****, and from what i have heard they know a bit about rotaries.
But i guess then ill see if i can engineer up a solution to the problem with air-air. There should be some room to make some positive changes, and also since i see people successfully running much smaller batteries there is hope
Are there any builds out there with SMIC and BNRs in the 350+ range?

 

 

I've always thought it would be cool to use a BMW M4 water to air intercooler. They're really compact and each turbo has its own inlet.

It's probably not practical plumbing wise, although the M4 has six heat exchangers in the nose to keep the various fluids cool. (Seven if you count the air conditioning condenser) quite a rats nest of coolant hoses!

 

It was something along those lines i was thinking about, and if it is enough for the M4, then it should handle the FD as well.
Plumbing and such should also be doable, paired with and EWP.

But since there seem to be a difference in opinion on the suckyness of SMICs ill try a regular one first, and put some hours in making a proper duct

 

 

I too think the Pettit CWIII (is that what they're on now?) is the best bang for buck SMIC on the market. I am also a big fan of Knightsport / Blitz / GReddy style for OEM look.

I'm going to try and run a Knightsport SMIC & AutoExe Airbox with a Turblown 7670 kit... and Meth. Whatever the SMIC lacks in size (not much) should be made up for with ducting and methanol.

 

I want pictures of this, i want that to, but also need it to look 99% OEM to peace my OCD

 

First problem is dyno figures, Au and US ≠ in most cases, depends on what's in Norway whether you'll be disappointed or happy!

Typical BNR figure here might be around 230kw at 1 bar on a Dyno Dynamics, extend port, upgraded SMIC, best I've heard is around 260kw at same boost, bridgeport, ethanol, vmic, yada, yada. The Proctologist who is flogging his Bathurst ones, I've seen the graph on a dyno I'd trust where temperatures haven't been diddled, it's better again with the bigger compressor, but not several thousand $ better. Upping the boost to get the power figure, results in solenoids giving hissy fits with sticking or slow release, plus a lot of heat stress with back pressure of the restrictive manifolding, bad enough stock to my mind.

I'm not sure the rep of smics is bad here.....although I recall someone over there did say the Pettit one they got was rubbish quality a few years back, there is also a dislike for the overhype of dual pass ones. There is the undoubted better intake temps with larger and less restrictive cores in the non-smic types, which is seen the first time you check a log, if everything is properly ducted.

 

Damn! That pretty much guarantees the car being a 'total loss' in the event of even a minor front-end collision!

 

Ever since a friend of mine had a Lightning, I've been enamored of its Freon-chilled intercooler. Pretty sweet setup. Wonder how difficult it would be to do something similar for the FD?

 

To me its just pita, a v mount is good enough to cool the the air for the engine. I thought about it back in 2011, but i didnt have nor i do have access to a machine shop for fab tubing.

 

 

I have BNR's currently at 15 psi. I use the Pettit SMIC cool charge 3. Temps are cool, even boosting in the summer. Not using any AI on 93 pump, no knock issues at all. I am about to turn the boost up 4 to 5lbs higher (using race gas) and I am confident the intercooler will still keep things cool enough.

We will be monitoring manifold pressure and see where the efficiency drops off here in a few weeks when tuning on the dyno.

 

I think this SMIC is the same as one tested extensively in Sport Compact Car by Dave Coleman, who currently works for Mazda. They tested a medium & large (M1 & M2), and both dropped charge temps to near ambient with little if any pressure drop. Test was done on a road course. That fan prevents any heat soak in traffic.

I'll look up test results if asked.

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