Let's Talk Intercoolers

[82fordtruck]

I agree 110%

 

[towcat]

Firstly,
don't take what the Banks tech person wrote as gospel. Key reason, they don't have a product for sale therefore they won't have anything nice to say about it. but like he pointed out there are good and bad of putting in a IC. I'll start with the bad. More plumbing means more stuff to take apart and/or work around. If your IC is too big, you will have a pressure drop signifigantly higher than 2-3psi. now the good part. First your EGT's will be more controllable. Second, you now can dial in more feul and boost due to the cooler air charge. Third, outside of the maintence issues, an IC is a passive HP improver. Outside of checking the connector hoses durring PM, there is nothing else that needs to be done.
Here's my point about Bank's "engineering" amongst the chebby 6.2/6.5 guys, the turbo sold be Banks is a joke. Ironically, the wastegated turbo Banks sells for the IH IDI is a superior product due to higher CFM's and spoolup time. has Banks changed their kit? Nope. if their engineering dept. is paying any attention to what's really going on out in the streets, they would have done something by now. Btw, while you are doing your research, email ATS and Hypermax and ask THEM about their IC kits. They've done their homework and will have something salient to say about IC's.

 

[6point9diesel]

Before I got involved with Oilburners or tds I called banks and talked to a fellow in the tech dept. He said there were a ton of people putting IC's on there old IDI rigs. He said it didn't make a huge difference, but it does give you improvement. Then he went on to basically say the things that Towcat mentioned above. He did mention that he did not recommend adjusting the wastegate actuator. I think that was a little cya on his part.

Paul

 

[NapaBavarian]

Bringing this one back from the dead!

I didn't see much about air to water intercoolers like this one...

Ebay air to water IC

I measured under the hood of my truck and figured that this IC would be hard to mount, but might be possible, or perhaps it is oversized and a smaller unit could be located...

The advantages of this are too numerous, first off it requires much less air piping if it can be mounted near the turbo and plentum inlet housing, less lag, less air to compress before the engine sees a boosted charge, secondly the long pipes will hold water and be much smaller and easier to route, they could easily be sent under the cab to a small raidiator with a switched electric fan that comes on at a certian temp, this would also allow for a large reservoir, prehaps 5 gallons, to stabalize temps on moderate bursts of high power driving, when you hit that 8% grade your liquid coolant will maintain a lower temp longer, run the hot coolant from the IC to the IC raidiator, possibly under the cab, then the reservoir.

More later, I gotta go to work now...

Edit- Please ignore spelling, I'll work on that later!

 

[EvergreenRanch]

very intriguing idea....reminds me of my fraternity days, running liqour through about 100' (yes feet) of copper 1/4" coiled pipe in a cooler full of ice...Jack Daniels came out the otherside damn near frozen.....interesting idea to do that with an air to water intercooler on circulation. get that air real cold

 

[NapaBavarian]

Another find, complete kit, but not cheap...

kit

 

[NapaBavarian]

Sizing again...

All the liquid-air ICs I have found are rated in HP capacity, so now I am confused, it seems that the diesel will use more air per HP than gasoline due to the nature of it, and it seems that the good name brand units run arround $900-1000 while the flebay knockoff costs $300... but I don't think I'd trust my engine to a $300 knockoff of the real thing, if the core blew out at 3000RPM...bye bye engine!

 

[EvergreenRanch]

i guess my biggest question is, how would the core blow?

 

[towcat]

i guess my biggest question is, how would the core blow?

changes in pressurization and fatigue of the aluminum. not a immeadiate issue on new stuff but when it hits a few years old and there is a presence of corrosion it could be a problem. When the motor is running, it is not much of an issue since the air pressure is higher than the coolant pressure.....but when you shut down coolant may leak into the air section. A small amount of liquid in our motors is catastrophic.

 

[EvergreenRanch]

ah yes....hydrolock and rods thrown.

 

[NapaBavarian]

I don't trust chinese manufacturing... It is dirt cheap for a reason, if the core has a flaw then it could leak, if a weld is bad then same thing.

I may build a kit like the one I showed a couple posts back, using that same IC, however for the same money I can get 2 large oil coolers and an electric 20gpm pump from summit racing, mount the radiators under the bed in front of the rear wheels, one on each side, and the IC over the engine, the turbo out is 2.25", so I'd need to step up to 3" for the IC, that IC is rated for 920cfm. Instead of necking back down to 2.25" pipe going out I might just run 3" to a custom intake bell.

 

[towcat]

Here's a suggestion....
back when I was running a '87 Buick GN, I had a water IC setup. I used the AC evap as my chiller. I mounted a honda heater core downstream of the evap to chill the water. Worked good for a modded 3.8 but not enough for a highly modded 4.1

 

[NapaBavarian]

TC- did you have effective AC in the car still? I can't stand to lose that ;p

 

[towcat]

I wouldn't call it really cold, but back then AC was not a major issue for me. The only reason why it even stayed was that the car had a serpentine belt setup. Hate to say it but now that I am older, I like my AC too.

 

[NapaBavarian]

I had actually thought of building an IC using the AC evap in a sealed box, but it would only be for a racer, I want my truck comfy with 2 large copper radiators I think I'll be fine, but just for good measure I may install water sprayers AKA windshield washer nozels upwind of the radiators :Sly for a bit oof evaproative cooling and find a place to stick 10-15 gallons of water under the truck

On another front, the barrel idea just got round filed well over 1 PSI of pressure loss VS .10-.18 in the Spearco units, or arround 10% of the barrel unit.