Charge coolers! oppinions?

[POPEYE]

Never encase an air to air intercooler to make a water to air, unless you want to hydrolock the engine at some stage.

Nev

good comment Nev, i did think about what would happen if the fins got a leak, i only intended encasing the finned area tho not the whole thing, wouldn't ya get the same concerns on a "proper" charge-cooler unit tho?

[Karma Supra]

This reminds me there was a guy in Australia who make his own "Dry ice" charge cooler...

His intake temps were -27 and his corolla estate ran 9s


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uBvYS72Tzc

That was on a 1G engine with stock internals!!!

Nice guy, Total lunatic, he made me some lovely vernier can gears for my 1G supra

[POPEYE]

My truck go's like that already, wasting my time with this charge thing then

i did some looking and read some guys add ice to the supply tank but you have to keep replenshing it, a small refridgeration unit would be handy, not run off the engine belts tho

[dieselboy]

Hmm here's a tough one. Have some fun tinkering with an intercooler setup for smallish gains but low cost or spend money and hours labour messing about with precise diffs. Ian even if the gains are small there will be gains. It wont be a complete waste of time. Plus you wont need to take the truck off the road if anything goes wrong or you decide to modify any designs. You're not trying to make a race car out of a Surf just trying to improve on what you have. Plus if you're really going to swap out diffs then you should be replacing seals etc as well. I would say that was way more faff than simply modifying an IC or WI setup.

By the way, did I mention water injection?

[Rustinho]

If you fancy having a play with something to cool your intake air why not try LPG injection?

I looked into the possibility a few months ago cos a mate of mine has just trained as an LPG conversion fitter.

The website he gave me for buying the gear from was this one:

http://www.tinleytech.co.uk/acatalog...sion_Kits.html

My mate reckoned it would cost about £1500 to do it.

As far as I know it works like this:

1. LPG injected into intake air just before it goes into the engine.
2. The LPG turning from liquid to gas cools the intake air.
3. The mixture of very cold air and propane gas give a very clean burn of fuel.

If you read all the gubbins around it you will see the claims that you get improved emissions as well as extra power/better mpg (although probably not both - & remember that you're using LPG plus diesel - typically you will see +20% power, +10% mpg claimed give or take a bit).

I decided against it cos I just can't afford it at the mo, and when I can I reckon I'd be better off putting the money towards a Lexus conversion!

[dieselboy]

I've come across LPG injection as well but not really looked into it. I read that it was mainly used for emissions reasons on big trucks but there are performance benefits too. I couldn't afford £1500 for something like that though. An WI setup would cost between £100 and £300 depending on if you made the kit yourself or bought a kit. The injector nossles are £2 or so each. The main component is the pump as you need to presurise the water to around 200psi. You can buy a cheaper lower psi pump but the water "atomises" better at much higher psi.

[POPEYE]

As Dieselboy says, it comes down to money, there no end to the amounts you could spend, i couldn't afford or justfy a grand and a half on LPG, the water mist thing looks more "doable" tho, however all i wanted to do was have a fiddle and use the stuff i already have, maybe fork out on a water pump, and at a push another larger rad to use as cooling rad for the chargecooler,
but as Nev said, if the intercooler rad springs a leak waters gonna get dragged into the engine, i assume the proper charge coolers are basicly a rad within a rad? if so the same concerns would apply,
anyway i'll probably just stick the intercooler back on as it was and sod it

Just read some of that "fridge in a surf" thread, there ya go, fridge in the back, pipe to the chargecooler (instead of water) fan and a pipe back to the fridge, sorted

[NiftyNev]

i assume the proper charge coolers are basicly a rad within a rad?

Not quite. They are more a rad within a housing. They do not have the fins in coolant, but work just like a radiator with coolant channels and fins. Air passes over the fins which are linked to the tubes, just like a radiator, but instead of the fins cooling the coolant through the passages the fins cool the air. Multiple coolant passages conneced to a large amount of fins allow good airflow and fast cooling.

Nev

[POPEYE]

Not quite. They are more a rad within a housing. They do not have the fins in coolant, but work just like a radiator with coolant channels and fins. Air passes over the fins which are linked to the tubes, just like a radiator, but instead of the fins cooling the coolant through the passages the fins cool the air. Multiple coolant passages conneced to a large amount of fins allow good airflow and fast cooling.

Nev

Righto Nev, got what you mean, IF i did what i was intending it would actually work the opposite, air passing through the finned tubes while water surrounded them, either way i guess any leak would enter the intake, my method may or may not be as effecient as a proper unit, i dont know, however the pricipal's the same, water cooling the bits the air passes through, any worries about leaks aside, my only problem (or expence) is a cooling rad big enough and sited where it'll get the best airflow, and a pump man enough to circulate the water (or mix, as i only use distilled water anyway in my coolant, tap water round here is very hard, too much calcium)
i was thinking distilled water with a touch of glycol or what the other guy said,
so lots to think about, cheer's everyone