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Air Con Pipes Cooling Intercooler

skins

By skins,
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skins Grand Master

skins

Posted
Posted

I'm going to get the Air con pipes lengthened and have them snake backwards and forwards (like whats on the back of a fridge) across the front of my intercooler. I was told that the air con pipes get down to 10 degrees. I was also told that it wouldnt put any extra stress on my Air compresssor all i would need would be more gas in the pipework. He went on to say that it would cool the intercooler down very dramatically.

Has anyone thought of this idea or attempted it ? Any suggestions ?

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mattautolec Rookie

mattautolec

Posted
Posted

its roughly about 5hp

the problem is cooling the massive amounts of air going thru the cooler. don't get me wrong, id love to see someone try it, but i think it might be a waste of time.

have u thought about those cryO2 sprayers?

Fry_33 Proficient

Fry_33

Posted
Posted

I'm just thinking about this out loud a bit here so don't flame me if I say something silly. I'm just going to throw some ideas out there which is always good as it gets people thinking about things I feel (hopefully not thinking of different ways to call me stupid :D )

To start with what intercooler are you talking about doing this to? If it is for a standard cooler then I'd say the first thing to spend money on would be a decent FMIC. And if you are running a pod then make sure it's blocked off from the engine bay and it's being fed air from somewhere other than the engine bay.

Do you want to improve things for the street or the track.

You also need to consider what you are going to gain from the a/c heat exchanger in front of the I/C. You may reduce the temp of the air traveling entering the I/C but depending on how this heat exchanger is designed it will also be adding a flow restriction in front of it. This could reduce the heat transfer properties/efficiency of the I/C and therefore negates a plus the system can possibly produce.

If this is more for the street then you may want to try and stop heat soak more than anything as you're not going to heat the I/C up like you would on a track. The air flow at track speed would keep the I/C fairly cool anyway I'd assume, never driven at the track so I don't have experience with that. To stop heat soak you could possibly add a block of metal to an I/C end tank (or both?) and run a/c piping through those. I think this would draw heat away from the I/C like it would the air flowing through it.

Saying this though, a water spray kit may produce a similar result which would be cheaper to set up. I don't know if it would make much difference but maybe cool the water for a spray kit with an A/C heat exchanger?

You may get more benefit from having a heat exchanger in the inlet piping to cool the actual charge air rather than the air which would travel through the I/C. This would also add a flow restriction though. Maybe you can add a heat exchanger or something into an air box?

I can't recall seeing any research/ figures on any improvements that ceramic coating of intercooler, plenum, turbo, manifold and exhausts etc may produce. I guess these are also aimed at helping keep engine bay/ air temps lower.

You don't always get something for nothing as already mentioned. Your A/C compressor will no doubt need to draw slightly more power. I'm not sure if this is the same case for electric cooling fans or water pumps and you alternator?

If you want to try it though then go for it and good luck

Travis Trayhern Proficient

Travis Trayhern

Posted
Posted

why not just wrap a few coils around the intake side of the cooler? last year i did a hillclimb and it was so hot i did it with the air con on, you see at the start line up there was a wait so i sat in comfort in my air con car while everyone else was sweating like cops because i know as soon as i take off the air con wouldnt be working because of the cut out at high rpm.

so if you wrap the cooler pipe it will cool it on the wait and keep the temp down a little and when finished your run the air con will come one and start cooling again but i dont know if will make much differnce?

just go a water spray with ice/water/metho :P

skylinecouple Experienced

skylinecouple

Posted
Posted

Maybe not the intercooler but Jim Richards was using this same technique for his fuel. He mentioned there was a considerable amount of power to be made but the advantage was racing with the aircon on.

skins Grand Master

skins

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks for the info Mr Fry. I'm trying to set my car up for mainly street but also for the occasional race day. I have a FMIC (from memory which is terrible at the moment) it's a PWR but don't qoute me. I was just curious to see if using the A/C would give substantial increase because of cooler air. From what people have been saying the gain would far out way the cost. So it looks like i'll be looking for other options to cool it down. I haven't changed the pod setup as yet but I will be very shortly as it seems to be the way to go. Where would I go to get a water sprayer kit ?

Thanks heaps.

Adriano Grand Master

Adriano

Posted
Posted

If you want real gains that is street frendly, then look up mafia's water methanol setup. You will see 30rwkw gain, if tuned correctly, and can fill the 4litre resevoir up for about $4. Unfortunately the air con setup will never work.

Think about the internal volume of the car about 50 cubic feet. It takes a few minutes to cool that volume of air down 15deg. A turbo at full noise will pump out 600 cubic feet air per minute. The air con going flat out with perfect heat transfer will drop the intake temps by about .2deg.

  • 1 month later...
noisia Community Regular

noisia

Posted
Posted

mate i wouldnt bother doing this, instead theres a tutorial on putting water sprayers directed onto your intercooler, and instead of using your air-con suction line pipes for cooling just put ice blocks in your water spray reservoir

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