Hot temp.

[Guest Anonymous]

My friend was telling me that when it gets higher the around 80 degrees outside, turbos have to work much, much harder and just don't do as well because of how hot the air is going into the turbo. He has a 91 Talon TSi, that has a intercooler, and he said that even with the intercooler it still doesn't do as well as it would with cooler temps. Is there anything you can do about that???

[Guest Cusp]

Adding a legitimate cold air intake will help alot. Not just a filter relocating tube, like alot of these Honda guys use, but a cold air intake grabbing the coolest air available, from in front of the radiator. Air is also much denser up there when at driving speed.

 

Also, having a front mount intercooler is important. I'm not sure how your friend'd IC is mounted, but some imports don't mount the IC in front, they just put it off to the side or even on top of the engine. One that comes to mind is the Subaru WRX, that hood scoop is grabbing air to push thru the IC. Not even that ram design IC makes up for the fact that the IC is saturated with heat from the engine.

[Guest Anonymous]

If he runs air conditioning he could look into a freon (r134 actually) based intercooler (I inquired once and Scottie-Gnz showed me a link for it) that won't care much how hot outside it is. It will run the A/C which will cost a bit of power, but consider the intercoolers temp will be pretty damn freezing the power gains WAY more than make up for it. Depends on how fast one wants to go really and how much boost you want to run, it won't be a cheap intercooler I'm pretty sure. A air to water IC might work too, I'm not sure how much heat it'll lose when the temps soar though as it'll be dumping heat into the coolant water which is already working pretty hard.

 

BTW ALL cars have the problem with the heat, not just turbo cars, all of them lose HP as the temps go up.

 

Regards,

 

Lone

[pparaska]

Guys, the OE intercooler in that car (the first and for that matter second generation DSM turbos) is WAY too inefficient even for the stock boost/power levels. My 92 Eclipse GSX (AWD turbo) runs SO much better when it's a bit cooler than say 70 degrees. The power difference between a hot summer and a cold winter day is probably a good 30 hp.

 

Too bad a good front mount is $1K+!

[Guest Anonymous]

Yeah, the intercooler on the 91 TSi is mounted in front of the right front wheel.

[Lockjaw]

That is the stock intercooler, and it sucks. Turbo cars run much better once the ambient temp drops below 70 degree's. When it is really cold, the improvements can be very dramatic.

 

The air cleaner that is where the turbo is drawing air should be in front of the radiator, Corky Bell emphasizes that in his book. It is also quieter.

 

An air to air intercooler that is sized properly can get the intake charge down fairly close to ambient, say perhaps within 15 to 20 degree's. An Air to water can do better than that for short periods IF you introduce ice to the resevior.

 

When it is really hot, nothing runs well. It is not unusual for a high performance carb'd engine to require rejetting in the summer and winter. Fuel injection make life so much nicer.

[z-ya]

With my L28ET powered EFI 240Z turbo, I do notice a little less power on hot days. It still haul ass though. It's less noticable on the highway at speed. I'm running a Spearco intercooler with 2.25" pipes, so that's probably why I don't notice much power loss. I also have the intercooler mounted infront of the radiator and oil cooler.

 

I do have a weird problem though (I'll post it on the EFI forum), when it's hot out, and the engine compartment get's really hot from idling, or from a 20 minute session on the track, my idle fuel pressure can drop as much as 25psi. It has only happened a couple times. Anyone have this happen?

 

Pete