Just found this supercooler link (http://www.supercars.net/cars/2003@$Ford@$Lightning%20SVT%20Conceptg.html)
Anyone seen anything like this before, ive often wondered about using the air conditioning in this way but thought as I\'ve never seen it thought it wouldnt work, but now i have :D
Do ya reckon theres some way to get it on a rex?
Oh, one thing, it talks about intercoolers having coolant run through them, but I thought it was charge coolers that used coolant, thought intercoolers just relied on air
some of the Zakspeed Capri\'s used to run Freon intercoolers and they used to run silly bhp with 1.3 litre engines, so it can\'t be all pub talk and bulsh1t ;)
Mike
Intercoolers are usually air to air heat transfer whereas the charge cooler (originally developed by Lotus I think) is air to water heat transfer (like your radiator but in reverse!!)
Ta, thats what I thought, but they keep referring to coolant running through the intercooler which is confusing me! thought i might be missing something.
Silly bhp with 1.3 litre engines, thats what i like to hear ;)
I suppose there is no reason why you couldn\'t improve the cooling effeciency by using some form of active cooling matrix around the core in addition to just relying upon air to air heat transfer. I guess the principle is no different to the water sprays you get on some cars that help to cool down the actual intercooler to improve effeciency.
I know of someone on here who is doing away with their fmic in favour of one of these... I\'m sure he\'ll post the results when it\'s up and running.
Iain
don\'t forget one of the most basic fundamentals of physics though, energy cannot be destroyed, only changed into a different form. So if you are using a \'supercooler\' you are going to need somthing to disipate the larger amount of energy from the refridgerant. Will the extra weight be worth the results ? It might be alright for drag racing where heat soak won\'t be a problem and you can probably get away with cutting a few corners.
My ST-205 GT-Four (four round headlights) had an air/water intercooler, they have these as standard. This would give you more bhp than the previous ST-185 model which ran air/air, as does the MR2 GTS Turbo, all on the same 3S-GTE engine.
Saying that though many GT-Four owners upgrade to FMICs when they start to increase power.
Have a look and ask the owners about them this weekend.
Mart.
I suspect, as Mike has basically said, that there is no simple solution to the problem!
I would guess a large FMIC is very effecient at high speed because you have a lot of air passing through it and hence transfering heat away from your intake air. Conversly, less so at lower speeds and will suffer heat soak.
A high performance charge cooler should run very effeciently all the time but requires additional plumbing, coolant reservoir, pump and it\'s own radiator (albeit usually quite small). This I suspect adds up to more weight (and complexity).
I think Geoff has a PWR charge cooler in his re:worx car.
Here\'s a picture of one in a Aus focus drag car:
http://www.vortechsuperchargers.com/images/nevarro_3.gif
The other side to the heat transfer equation is the differential between the two points. The bigger the differential the greater the actual amount of heat exchanged. If the hot side of the charge cooler were much hotter than the hot side of the intercooler then it would transfer more heat away... not sure if it would be though.
I know the GT4 moved from air-air to water-air intercooling in the later models which improved efficiency and reliability. Different from charge cooling but possibly it may be better but more expensive than the standard cooling.
If charge temps were significantly lower than a big fmic could produce you would have greater power for a given boost. I guess this would mean safer running. So 0.8 bar instead of 1.1 which would increace engine life somewhat and \'pay\' for the extra weight.
Hopefully there will be some posts soon from people trying out this method...
Iain
It probably only allows you a 10 second burst at that power level, then needs 10 minutes to cool it all down again.
All depends what you want. No use for track work or sustained cruising on boost.