260DET Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Here's my not very popular take on intercoolers and radiators. They should be sealed together so that any air that goes through the IC has to go through the rad. Having the IC sit 6" in front of the radiator means that the air really isn't forced to flow through it, and since the fins are a restriction to airflow they don't work in that position as well as they would if the air had to go through. The air just goes around for the most part. Ideally you would have an air box from the front of the car to the radiator opening, IC sealed to the radiator, radiator sealed to the core support. This would mean that all the air that comes in the front of the car has to go through the IC, radiator, or both. The IC on my 280ZX has a diffuser entry and exit which are sealed to it but there is a gap between the IC and radiator, I'll explain why. A clear exit path for air flowing through a IC or radiator is essential for good flow, its just as important as the entry. By sealing a IC to a radiator the IC air exit is being severely restricted by the radiator which in turn will drastically effect airflow through the IC. The ZX has a relatively small IC but so far (engine tuning is stalled due to a severe missfire) inlet air temperatures are satisfactory which of course indicates that the IC is working well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 I'm sure that works fine too, so long as the air that hits that diffuser has to go through the IC. The thing that I feel doesn't work is the most common IC installation: the IC is installed in the front of the radiator with no duct to or from it, so that it just effectively becomes a wall to the airflow. I don't know that the radiator is such a huge impedance to the exiting air either, since the air that has already been forced into the IC has hit and dealt with a fairly major restriction compared to when it entered the duct. I can't see this being a real factor in raising intake temps, but it would be easy enough to test which is better. I think the best solution would be a separate path for airflow for both the IC and radiator, but that doesn't seem to be as easy to fabricate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
260DET Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Yeh mounting the IC in front of the radiator is a compramise for sure which particularly has to affect airflow to the radiator. For that I'd leave as big a gap between the two items as possible and try to make sure that all the other aero detail is attended to. But there are other approaches for sure, depends to some degree on which of the two items needs the most favourable airflow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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