Intercooling Thread

[Chewy]

So, after meeting everybody at chilly get together and having a few inspirational conversations regarding intercooling, I figured I would open a thread for thoughts and ideas to be shared, bounced around, corrected and so on.

[mararmeisto]

Oooh, sounds like a project for the new year.

As somewhat agreed at the chilly-meet, I think we should standardise the intercooler for starters, try to mount it in the same spot, and thereby standardise the piping required. There were three of us talking about this, but I think there could be more interest if we came up with a blow-by-blow install for others to review.

We should also get points from garyo: how's he liking his install? what would he do different? what doesn't he like about the install (if anything)?

[loki]

A/C powered intercooler!!

[mararmeisto]

A/C powered intercooler!!

"Air craft" or "air conditioned" or "alternating current"? Either way, could you explain?

[Chewy]

Good call Paul, From his thread, Gary seemed to be really liking his setup, but some long term results/ ideas about what he may have done differently would be cool.

I've been doing research into the most efficient intercooler designs and ducting, since we have limited space to work with.


This is the most efficient design I've come across, having more lengths of short rows and streamlined endtanks, reducing pressure drop and heat soak, 99 bucks from ssautochrome.


The ducting should be fairly straight forward, and I've learned a couple things about it

On the right we have what I thought would be a better idea, but in practice a fair amount of air still gets around the IC, with the left example, the ducting doesn't allow the air to escape quite so easily, and drag is reduced (every little bit counts).


Note: the correct ducting(left) should be no smaller than 1/4 the diameter of the IC core at the opening.

More to come.

[jessef]

A/C powered intercooler!!

"Air craft" or "air conditioned" or "alternating current"? Either way, could you explain?

Thinking of using my A/C as an onboard air compressor for tires and power tools.

While we had the nice stuff from Japan inside it extracted, we tested the pressure. It rivals my buddies shop compressor.

Downside = loose A/C.

[Muzzy]

Thinking of using my A/C as an onboard air compressor for tires and power tools.

While we had the nice stuff from Japan inside it extracted, we tested the pressure. It rivals my buddies shop compressor.

How would you go about doing this? Very interested to hear about it...

[Jaz]

The other thing to keep in mind/think about is a WAIC - water to air intercooler. Yes, they have a couple more working parts, but it also keeps the air path very short, and also if you rupture the heat exchanger (radiator) for the water, then you can still drive, whereas if you rupture the air to air intercooler in front there, then you're going to have some serious duct taping to do in order to get home.

I had a bit of a look into it at one stage, and figured that this WAIC would be a good way to go.

Yes, it may cost a little more than a second hand air to air, but it will be much easier to route the water pipes to the front radiator. This kit is way big enough for most people.

The subaru I used to play with actually came from the factory with a WAIC, and some of the guys used to see below ambient temperatures on their intake.

It's the black thing at the back there, and it just had 3/4 inch hoses going to a front mounted radiator. The turbo is just to the left below that square metal thing with mesh on top - that's the chimney to vent heat off and through the scoop, or take cold air and push it onto the turbo.

Air would come up through a 4" tube to the bottom of the WAIC, through that, then directly into the throttle body at the front of the WAIC there - it's a bit hidden in this shot. This particular WAIC is good up to about 230 hp, or 170kw.

[jessef]

Thinking of using my A/C as an onboard air compressor for tires and power tools.

While we had the nice stuff from Japan inside it extracted, we tested the pressure. It rivals my buddies shop compressor.

How would you go about doing this? Very interested to hear about it...

[loki]

A/C powered intercooler!!

"Air craft" or "air conditioned" or "alternating current"? Either way, could you explain?

It was more a joke than anything but I was referring to air conditioning. I believe Ford did it for their lightning pickup truck, there was a second a/c compressor that was used to cool coolant to like 0C or so and that was pumped through the water/air intercooler. I think it might be a little over complicated though.

I do like the water to air for the short air path though. I think I would want to look that that option but have done very little research as I wont have any money for a long time.

[Chewy]

air to water would be, for lack of a better expression, really cool. Despite my curiousity and inherent like for all toys automotive, my wallet says no since I cannot fab most of these things myself without a high frequency welder

[lrp374]

I found this on Ebay. Is it really for a Delica. They are available from Quebec.

[delica 304]

Oooh, shiny!

Glen (CC Autos) and I were talking a while back about intercooling, he mentionned soemthing about using a Pajero IP pump becuase it has some manner of oxygen sensor that the Delica IP pump doesn't have.

[jessef]

I found this on Ebay. Is it really for a Delica. They are available from Quebec.

$500 for some pipes and that puny intercooler ?

[Chewy]

looks like a universal kit too, good luck fitting that puppy anywhere functional without making your deli look like it has been modded in Guangzhou(shoddy).

and I think Glen was referring to the Pajero pump having an air temp sensor(afaik).