water/air intercooler ?

[rhkcommander]

So no matter how cold the water/air makes the air the air/air will be able to extract more heat from the air?

I also have been pondering about mounting the heat exchanger for the water/air. What i plan to do is mount it behind the passengers headlight. Then my bumper has a 4.5" hole in it with a tube that will go up through the core support and point right at the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger will have a shroud made all the way around it so the air from the bumper tube can only go through the fins of the heat exchanger. Also will have a fan behind it sucking air through it. I planned to cut a couple square strips in the plastic fender cover right behind the heat exchanger and put some expanded metal or something so the heat can escape. My fear is the heat exchanger wont work efficient enough under the hood. Any ideas on this.. Im kind talking out loud here. Wondering what peoples opinions are. Thanks

You can mount the air-water heat exchanger anywhere. ideally where airflow will be.

You can reduce heat down to near ambient but never sub-ambient without using ice or something else. If you wanted to go for that, take a bucket and drill two holes in it, one up top for incoming water and one down low for outgoing.

Then have the outgoing line go TO the pump. water pumps like to have a reservoir behind them. If you mount the reservoir in front of the pump you will sap the pumping energy greatly... Also having the lower fitting feeding the pump will help the pump output, as gravity will increase the water pressure in the bucket or whatever you use if anything as a reservoir to the pump, and the pump doesn't have to push as hard to put it back into the bucket at the top fitting. Some pumps prefer a sealed system so it also depends on the pump.

Nice thing about using the bucket is you can fit a lot of ice in it for a good dyno run or towing hard in the mountains. Using ice will allow the water-air intercooler to drop the temperatures further. Combine that with methanol injection and you've got some real cool intake temps .

There will be diminishing results that you will have to weigh: the more intercooling surface you have the cooler the charge air. But this also adds more restriction. I would test how each intercooler affects the temperature alone, and how they do together. Then you can tell if the temperature drop is worth the extra restriction of both


The speed of the water isn't too important - high or low. It needs time to pick up the heat at the IC so don't waste time going for super fast flowrates. On the heat exchanger side you can mount a small fan with a temperature switch to improve efficiency if you so desired too! I suggest temperature switch so that it doesn't run constantly - at highway speeds you probably wont need it unless loaded up.


IIRC post IC temperatures can still be 170F, more heat can be taken out. Remember you can only go as low as ambient temperature.
For example this youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuX0Ym-zgUQ
the guy is measuring in celsius. pre IC he is at ~212F. post IC 107.6F. No clue what ambient is (i dont have my sound on so IDK if he says). A second intercooler won't likely drop the temperature much more unless it is really cold out lol.

 

[rhkcommander]

I thought aftercooler and intercooler were interchangable terms.....

Yup. most people get the terms confused but they mean the same thing...

To be honest i'd run one and be done with it. But experimenting with a second isn't a bad idea if your bored and have the materials. Nice thing about water to air is you can run two small flexible lines for the cooling agent rather than two big pipes.

You can mount the heat exchanger anywhere really... I probably will stuff mine under the truck with an air scoop and fan if I go this route just so its out of the way.

 

[alienturtle]

Thanks for the help guys. I guess its just going to be a game of testing to see what happens.