Alternate Intercooler Piping

[Coxie]

Hi, was just looking at my front mount intercooler the other day and wondered if there was any other possibilities of how I could mount it to make piping alot shorter & less bends etc as I just have the common cooler kit piping.

My idea was (with front mount cooler) was to flip it upside down, so the inlet and outlet are closer to the top of the cooler, and route your piping from the turbo straight forward to the area by the back of the headlight/beside the radiator, then one 90 degree bend into the cooler, then another 90 degree out of the cooler back into the engine bay (same as other side) then into the plenum. This cuts out around 4 x 90 degree bends + whatever length of pipework.

Just an idea I was looking at, haven't givin it much thought though, just wanted to know if anyones ever tried a similar setup, obviously there would need to be a bit of butchery and fabricating involved but i'm fine with that.

Just throw your thoughts at me

[2LV8ETR]

The problem I see with it is that if you cut into your bodywork, you'll be inviting Mr Plod to slap a canary on your windscreen as well as justifying the hassles of conforming back to ADR requirements.

Secondly, the amount of IC capacity you'll be saving will only equate to a couple of litres of volume, so in essence you won't really be making a major difference with lag/spool time.

It's your choice as to whether you do it or not, but I couldn't justify the hassle vs potential gain ratio.

You'd be better off buying a forward facing plenum if you really want to save length.

Good idea though.

[Coxie]

Our laws in NZ aren't as harsh as yours, I wouldn't be worried about doing some cutting here and there, had to cut holes to install the kit in the 1st place and I still pass a warrent of fitness no problem, this is also with a catless exhaust, uncertified adjustables etc etc. And I wouldn't just go hacking holes here and there i'd make it look respectable. Yeah I didn't think it would cut out too much pipework but people are always saying bends are bad and that would get rid of quite afew of them. I remember seeing a picture of an r34 drift car in a magazine ages ago with no headlights and you could see the silicon elbows where each headlight would've been, and it was obviously for cooler piping.

Thanks for you input though, anyone else's thoughts...?

[STYLN]

do it, the shorter the better. Less piping means not only some saving in capacity but also reduces the amount of piping that can and will absorb heat. In my other project car i have such short piping due to the flipped cooler method you spoke of that my intake pipe stays cool to touch even on long drives. The turbo side only reaches luke warm so i assure you the intake temps will thank you which will equate to a worthy gain. As said above though a forward facing plennum is a must.

[Adriano]

If the turbo side only gets luke warm, then th e cooler doesn't have anything to do?

[lineskee 33]

My mate is currently doing the same thing on his s13. he has actually managed to mount the coolerwhere the radiator is located up where the radiator support is, and made custom brackets to push the radiator back a little and now running a thermo fan. If you had a front facing plenum with this setup, it would be quite good. I wouldnt mind trying it on my car.

Another possible way to go is to use a liquid to air intercooler made by PWR. Im interested to see the results of this too. http://www.pwr.com.au/#/view=products/s=is/

[lachlanw]

yeah my mates with a 180sx and a 13 with s14 sr20det have both done the "push the radiator back and put cooler upsidedown" it works bloody awesome . the pipe from the turbo to the cooler is like a foot long an elbow on either end . the other pipe is way short . one elbow off intercooler and part of the existing frontmount piping . since doing it there is like 5 foot of ic pipe lyin on the floor . and it worked usin all the bits we had lyin round . yeah with out front facing plenum there is only so much you can do

[juggernaut1]

Wonder whether heatsoak due to the close proximity to the radiator would turn into an "interheater"

[STATUS]

Just did that to the S13. Cooler still to be cut and all a bit rough.... work in progress.

Edited June 16, 2009 by URAS

[Coxie]

I also wondered about heatsoak from the radiator but I guess if you did mount the radiator back further and use a thermo fan you would have a bit of room to play around with to mount the cooler. Sounds like more people have attempted it than I thought.

[STATUS]

I also wondered about heatsoak from the radiator but I guess if you did mount the radiator back further and use a thermo fan you would have a bit of room to play around with to mount the cooler. Sounds like more people have attempted it than I thought.

forget thermos, the best cooling solution is the std clutch fan.

The massive amount of work done on this s13 was to revert back to the clutch fan.

[Coxie]

ok, yeah I was considering swapping to a thermo fan but after reading all the debates on here I had second thoughts. Looking at my car if I was to remove the centre vertical part of the body that the bonnet latch is on there would be plenty of room to mount a cooler and would avoid heatsoak from radiator, but would have to install bonnet pins if I ditched the latch mechanism.

[Beer Baron]

yeah the factory fan is a bastard for power sucking (and noise!) but it cools miles better than 99% of thermo set-ups I've seen on RB powered cars. almost without fail every guy I've seen switch over to a thermo or thermo's has had problems.

[TRB-001]

for a street car, there is little point.

the difference to a 150-300kw setup would be minimal at best....

would be better off custom fitting a bigger side mount cooler with carfully selected piping

alternatively if u were going to stick to ur method..... look into getting a radiator that is thicker but not as wide... so ull have room for some cooler pipes either side.... as apposed to cutting

[mad082]

heat soak from the radiator shouldn't be too much of an issue for a few reasons, but mainly because of the fact that air is being drawn through the cooler, then through the radiator. using thermos would probably actually make the problem worse if they are hooked up like on some cars where they will turn off completely. clutch fans will always draw some air no matter the temp or engine speed.

as for the piping, short is always better. it isn't just so the air has to travel a shorter distance, it is also less volume that has to be filled when opening the throttle. heat soak through the actual piping isn't really an issue as the air is travelling at a reasonable speed.

a mate of mine had extremely short piping on his sr20 in his sigma. had a 450mm wide radiator between the headlights with the outlets at the top and the pipe basically went straight from the turbo to the cooler and straight from the cooler to the manifold. probably only 50cm of pipe each side. it was very short, much shorter than on most skylines. but on the sigma it was much easier to have a setup like that than on a skyline

[mad082]

yeah the factory fan is a bastard for power sucking (and noise!) but it cools miles better than 99% of thermo set-ups I've seen on RB powered cars. almost without fail every guy I've seen switch over to a thermo or thermo's has had problems.

if i was ever to do a swap to themos i would use factory ones of a car that runs them rather than aftermarket ones. atleast then you know they have had some R&D into the design.

[Coxie]

I think most people have problems with thermos as they don't shroud the fans well enough or at all, if I was to use a thermo i'd use a single 16" fan inside the existing shroud. Thats a good idea about getting a radiator that isn't as wide, would make things alot easier.

mad082 - what were the results of your mates short piping on the sigma? any noticable gains?

[STATUS]

I think most people have problems with thermos as they don't shroud the fans well enough or at all, if I was to use a thermo i'd use a single 16" fan inside the existing shroud. Thats a good idea about getting a radiator that isn't as wide, would make things alot easier.

mad082 - what were the results of your mates short piping on the sigma? any noticable gains?

16" in a shroud wont do jack all unfortunatley.... unless you just put around, any spirited driving sends temp gauge out of control.

Edited June 17, 2009 by URAS

[mad082]

I think most people have problems with thermos as they don't shroud the fans well enough or at all, if I was to use a thermo i'd use a single 16" fan inside the existing shroud. Thats a good idea about getting a radiator that isn't as wide, would make things alot easier.

mad082 - what were the results of your mates short piping on the sigma? any noticable gains?

don't know what the difference was as he set it up like that when he did the conversion

[juggernaut1]

if i was ever to do a swap to themos i would use factory ones of a car that runs them rather than aftermarket ones. atleast then you know they have had some R&D into the design.

Your on the right track.

I run falcon AU thermos (2 x 12 inch fans) complete with shoud on my SR with 290 rwk's no drama's - temps are typically stable between 80 and 85 with stock t-stat - most i've seen is 90 with aircon on in 40+ degree heat. I spent a bit of time sealing gaps with rubber and foam to ensure the air got pulled through the rad. Also run stock undertray. I also wired the fans to run separate low and high temp settings which is controlled by the Autronic.

My brother's VZ LS2 with twin turbos, 100mm thick intercooler and 380 rwk's, air con, etc runs factory thermo's and no drama's either.

The thing with the factory thermo's is that the shrouds cover the entire rad so the fans pull air through the entire core.......unlike plonking 2 x 12 or 1 x 16 inch Davies Craig fans, or smilar, on the core which only pull air through part of the core.

Also checkout this article which further supports my views http://autospeed.com/cms/A_111234/article.html