Intercoolers

[sdminus]

i aint no expert on intercoolers but i am planning on going with the theory of the most direct ducting ( least bends as poss) on a thin intercooler. My reason for wanting a thin intercooler is based on heat soak. once a thick intercooler gets hot it is harder to get cold air through the fins ie reducing the surface temp. a thin cooler will heat up quick but will cool equaly as quick. + a little water injection or a nx ntercooler kit would not go a miss. front mount seems the way to go but are way expensive. demon tweeks do universal intercoolers for about £250 quid. i\'m thinking its gotta be worth a try. gotta do some more research though. if not they also sell cores seperatly.
cheers scott:bandit

[Schtoo]

Yes, but how long do you actually have the car \'on boost\'? By that I mean cranking in large chunks of hot air, not just having the turbo ticking over.

As a good experiment, get someone to time how long the boost is over, say, 5 psi out of a typical drive. For some folks in some conditions the percentage of over 5 psi might be 10-20%, maybe even 50% or more, but typically I doubt that during a drive to whereer that you have 5 psi for more than 5% of the time that the engine is running. Unless you are running and running fast from Joe Law...

So, while having the intercooler cool down fast is great, it will also heat up real quick, stuffing hot air into the engine, right when hot air is likely to do the most damage, high revs and high load.. A larger and heavier cooler will heat up less quickly, so when you lift, it will still be relatively cool while yer friend with the lightweight just stuffed a gut full of hot air into his engine and made it go pop (maybe?!)

Now, if you could find the happy medium where the cooler is just starting to go south when you really have to lift off and coast for a bit, bringing the intercooler temp down ready for the next fang, then it would all be very nice. Myself, I would tend to err on the side of caution. Waaay over on the side of caution.  And put a temp probe in the cooler\'s core to see what\'s going on in there...

[sdminus]

I see your point. I think i overall solution to intercoolers is down to a individuals driving style and getting it tp perform to that requirment. i wasnt thinking of making the intercooler thinner than the stock one, but longer. i have located this on the net. see what you think.
http://www.sdsefi.com/techcooler.htm
cheers scott:)

[Fish]

I a having some bits made at the moment, and speaking with the guys who are making it, they would rather go for a medium thick (circa 60-80mm) core with a bigger foot print, than a thicker smaller foot print core.

They have been making this sort of stuff from many years, for all sorts of uses, but mostly motorsport. So I think they know what they are doing and how to work out dimensions. I took my FD down to them, told them want I wanted (along with borrowing a sample setup from a very nice chap. ) and they worked out the best sizes from there.

I hope to have this fitted by Santa Pod this Sunday, but we shall wait and see as I still need to get some mapping time sorted out.

Fish

[sdminus]

nice one. if you dont mind me asking how much are they charging you.

[Fish]

Cheaper than getting it imported from Japan. Thats all I am going to say for now. I still have to sort out the samco piping and such.

It is designed for a single turbo, but with a little work and core size change, it could work with a stock setup.

Fish

[sdminus]

ok mate. sounds good stuff. its always good to take a deeper look in to things instead of just bolting on what the shop says.
r u going to the pod

[Fish]

Just found a picture of a setup that is close to what I am fitting. And yes I will be at the pod, but not sure if it will be fitted by then. :confused:

Fish