Air to Water Intercooler

[jaluhn83]

Finally got the water side hooked up last week. Haven't gotten a chance to run it under load to see if I can tell the difference but it's got to be good for something.....

The system is based on the frozen boost '600 hp' kit with a type 3 intercooler (12x12.25x4.5", 3" inlet/outlet), a 24x12x1" radiator and I got the Bosch pump for reliability and ease of mounting. All piping is 2 1/2" aluminum fabbed from mandrel bend pieces and using a 2 1/2" to 3" silicone adapter to connect to both sides of the intercooler. The radiator is mounted upside down to make it fit better with a remote filler cap on the top hose. One hose routes over the fan shroud with the filler cap at the center secured to the fan shroud with zip ties, then down and around the driver's side under the radiator support. The other hose routes from the lower radiator port to the pump mounted on the front bumper and then under the passenger side under the radiator support frame to the bottom of the intercooler.

The pump is mounted with the frozen boost mount and band - this works well and there is no issue with noise transmission. I was originally worried that the pump would be noisy without sound isolation but it is in fact very quiet. On a stock rig mounting might be more challenging without the nice winch bumper, but I'd imagine it wouldn't be hard to find a spot on or around the radiator support frame.

The radiator is mounted to the top of the radiator support frame with 2 small tabs welded to the top tank as seen. It sits flush with the front of the top rail and butted up against the bottom of the this rail. I welded a piece of square tube to one side which bears on the lower section of the radiator frame for stability - this is not actually bolted to the radiator frame but provides enough stability to not need to be with the tabs bolted at the top. Originally it was supposed to be bolted, however the location is difficult to access and in retrospect it may be unwise to bolt it to allow flexing of the radiator support with the frame. The stock AC condenser as also replaced with a parallel flow unit (not sure on the size - I can't find the invoice) which is bolted directly to the flange on the radiator (aluminum aftermarket unit). With this setup, there is no modification to the grill required for the intercooler, though I did have to trim about 3/8" in a small area to clear the electric fan. With a stock AC condenser & radiator it might be more difficult to fit.

The actual intercooler sits on the frame rail and up against the battery tray frame. I welded a small plate (~1/4x1") onto the bottom tank which acts as a tab fitting in the gap between the battery tray frame and main frame and secures the bottom of the intercooler. It is not otherwise secured, but is held in place well by the piping. I will eventually fit a bolt or clamp of some sort to secure the top but haven't gotten there yet. The vacuum pump on the rig has been deleted but everything else is stock.

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[79jasper]

Interested to see how it works out.
Do you have any way to gauge intake air temp? On the charge side.
I've heard of heat soak issues. But obviously once you hit the highway again.....

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[jaluhn83]

I've got a plan to measure air in & out temps as well as water in & out and run it to a digital display setup. I've heard of heat soak issues as well, and one of the things I'm hoping to find is where it's actually heat soaking - if it's the radiator side it wouldn't be too hard to add another 12 x 12 radiator to the system to help.

For now though I don't have anything other than the knowledge that it's got to be better than nothing.

I also don't have any controller for the pump / fan yet - eventually the hope it to have it controlled off intercooler outlet temp, though that's also down the road. For now it's just wired to an on/off switch.

 

[79jasper]

Definitely better than nothing.
Looks like you don't have ac, so that won't add to the heat either.

If a controller were wired up to run after shutdown (well with the engine on also) I bet it would make a good difference.
Even better with electric engine fans. Just on a low speed, so it won't drain the batteries.

Off topic, but how well do you like those duralast gold batteries?

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[jaluhn83]

I do have AC - it's behind the intercooler radiator. Parallel flow unit, not stock.

Not sure what you're getting at running after shutdown - I don't see where the intercooler would do anyone any good after shut down, and really any time other than moderate to high boost. Electric fan might, but not enough to really matter. The electric fan is there cause it came with the kit - not really cause I figure on it doing much. I think it'll help a bit with AC at idle, but not much for real cooling.

They're ok. Just replaced them, the last set was 09 so I got about 4 years on them. I tend to get ~3 years out of a set. I'm running them cause that's what was in my first idi and I've had decent luck getting them warranted when they fail, at least up till recently.... now it seems they're more difficult to deal with. IDK, they work ok for me.

I'm also running group 27s - again that's what the first truck had and it's worked out ok. Can't remember what the stock size is but I'm pretty sure it's something else.

 

[79jasper]

By after shut down, that's when most people talk about heat soak.

I've had 2 or 3 of the gold just up and quit. I think I have a bad one now. They're good when they're new, just don't seem to last long, and also don't seem to give any warning signs of failure.

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[TWeatherford]

Looks like it would work great to me.

 

[Brad S.]

Most of the intercoolers are added for HP sake, but if a person could keep your right foot from being to heavy on the throttle, do intercoolers help with mpg's...????

 

[79jasper]

Yes. Anytime the engine is running more efficient, you use less fuel to do the same or more work.

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[jaluhn83]

I think there's some confusion regarding the term ' heat soak' here....

In the intercooler context it refers to a condition where you're not able to get rid of the heat as quickly as it enters the system so the overall temp goes up decreasing it's effectiveness as a cooler. Especially with a water to air system, this can easily happen when the amount of heat entering the intercooler coolant (separate from the engine coolant) exceeds the amount that can be rejected to the atmosphere through the radiator - the net effect is that the temp of the intercooler and the intercooler coolant goes up which makes it less effective cooling the engine intake air.

What's more commonly used is 'heat soak' talking about what happens after you shut off the engine when the heat stored in the engine, exhaust system, etc causes the temp of the engine and engine compartment to increase since you lose the engine coolant and oil flow that was absorbing this heat when you shut the engine down.

 

[jaluhn83]

Brad,

In theory yes, but in reality it would depend a lot on how you were driving and I doubt it would be meaningful.

The purpose of the intercooler is to lower intake air temps - when you compress air it gets hotter, and the more you compress it the hotter it gets. So, when running down the highway at 1-2 psi of boost the turbo exhaust temp is likely not much more than ambient, whereas at 20 psi it may be 250-300*. This hot air has 2 detrimental effects - first it's extra heat put into the engine which does nothing but increase temps. Additionally, the hotter air is less dense, so you get less effective volume in the cylinder - you may have 20 psi of boost, but being hot it's actually the same mass (which is what really matters) of air as 15 psi of boost with the air at room temp....

By adding the intercooler we remove some of this heat and drop the intake temps back down to something closer to ambient. The higher the boost though, the more this is going to have an effect - at 3 psi of boost you might be lowering intake temps from say 120* to 100* - not really much, whereas at max boost it might be a matter of lowering temps from 300 to 150, which would have an effect.

Now, as Jasper said, any improvement in efficiency does help with fuel economy, but the question becomes how much of an improvement is there? Having cooler denser air will help get more air in the chamber which should help some with combustion efficiency, though again not much when running at a very lean mixture, ie low fuel rate/low throttle. More air increases efficiency by making it more likely there will be complete effective combustion quickly since there's more oxygen molecules. If you've already got a large surplus of oxygen molecules, adding a few more woln't do much, whereas if it's closer to even it will matter. Because of this, the added charge density from a lower intake temp isn't going to matter much at low to mid load. In fact, it may actually decrease efficiency slightly due to lower combustion temps.

The main benefit of an intercooler then, it at mid to high loads. It helps keep the engine cool and reduces stress and allow the use of slightly higher fuel rates due to the denser air charge. If you are towing or running a lot with a heavy load, then I expect an intercooler would show some increase in fuel economy if you maintained the same fuel rate. If you're using the truck as a daily driver on the freeway though I doubt you'd see any effect.

 

[jaluhn83]

Got a chance to run with a load finally, and the intercooler does seem to make a difference. EGTs are down about 150* at full load and it seems to help some with coolant temps too. May have more power, hard to tell for sure. Previously she would hit 1200* egt on a long pull and I'd have to watch to make sure they didn't creep any higher. Now 1050* seems to be about the max. No sign of heat soaking that I've been able to see, but without monitoring intercooler water temp / air temps it's hard to say for sure. Haven't done any pulling in really high ambient temps either - been around 70 on all my trips so far.