theroitical intercooler question

[Northstarninja]

Its like 4:47am, and I was wondering, often people will use co2, or perhaps nos sprayers to chill the intercooler. Would it be practical to have an intercooler with an A/c evaperator core built internally into it? It could definitely cool the air significantly, and I wonder if the power gains would be able to make up for the few lost HP to spin the A/c compressor. Would it also help with cylinder temps/detonation as the incoming air is cooled significantly?

 

 

Say the setup were installed inside the cabin in place of the heater core system- instead of running the air conditioning, simply draw fresh cold air from the outside to cool the intercooler and use the warm air to heat the cabin. The only way I could see that not working well is if the heat energy generated by the compressed air of the turbos isnt really that significant... If the intercooler were in the cabin, having the intercooler insulated from heat soak from the engine would be benificial as well, correct?

 

Sorry if this is a bit on the incoherent side, its a bit late and I think too much...

[johnc]

Its like 4:47am, and I was wondering, often people will use co2, or perhaps nos sprayers to chill the intercooler. Would it be practical to have an intercooler with an A/c evaperator core built internally into it? It could definitely cool the air significantly, and I wonder if the power gains would be able to make up for the few lost HP to spin the A/c compressor. Would it also help with cylinder temps/detonation as the incoming air is cooled significantly?

 

 

Say the setup were installed inside the cabin in place of the heater core system- instead of running the air conditioning, simply draw fresh cold air from the outside to cool the intercooler and use the warm air to heat the cabin. The only way I could see that not working well is if the heat energy generated by the compressed air of the turbos isnt really that significant... If the intercooler were in the cabin, having the intercooler insulated from heat soak from the engine would be benificial as well, correct?

 

Sorry if this is a bit on the incoherent side, its a bit late and I think too much...

 

Build it, test it, and let us know the results.

[Northstarninja]

Build it, test it, and let us know the results.

 

Wow now that I'm some what awake, I'm impressed my first post made any sense at all...

After thinking about it a little more, I'd have to find out if an a/c compressor can withstand being run on a 100% duty cycle... If not, it may only be practical to use for a short period of time, similar to using actual NO2, and its applications would be limited to say a 1/4 mile run, or perhaps a hot lap or two for time attack...

[Mikez31ss]

Would it be practical to have an intercooler with an A/c evaperator core built internally into it?

Practical? I think you answered that

I've seen this question asked before. Nobody has ever followed through on doing it.

[proxlamus©]

i think it sounds like a great idea.

[Tony D]

There's no real reason to follow through on it, it works, it's been done. Mid-Late 70's at Dominguez Hills College in L.A./Long Beach.

 

The key is sizing the capacity of the thermal rejection and accumulator so you can actually cycle the compressor. Running '100% Duty Cycle' is not something you will be doing with a turbo car on the street.

 

But you can easily chill the incoming mass flow to a set temperature above 35F consistently enough for reasonable acceleration bursts (say a minute or two.)

 

The HP you will use compressing the refrigerant may or may not be offset by the power gained by the air density increase. But again, the key is accumulator sizing. The larger accumulator you have, and the more time between applications to charge it to a high enough level, the smaller a compressor you can get away with in the system.

 

This is for a system to go to 35F. If you want a higher temperature, of course then the job becomes easier. And if you ALREADY have an air/air intercooler to get it within, say, 9F of ambient temperature already, using a conventional condensor core in a 'Vortech Style' cooler to trim extra heat off the inlet charge for 'perfect' intercooling and consistent density into the engine becomes even easier.

 

Ease, being a 'relative' term in this case...

[Northstarninja]

There's no real reason to follow through on it, it works, it's been done. Mid-Late 70's at Dominguez Hills College in L.A./Long Beach.

 

The key is sizing the capacity of the thermal rejection and accumulator so you can actually cycle the compressor. Running '100% Duty Cycle' is not something you will be doing with a turbo car on the street.

 

But you can easily chill the incoming mass flow to a set temperature above 35F consistently enough for reasonable acceleration bursts (say a minute or two.)

 

The HP you will use compressing the refrigerant may or may not be offset by the power gained by the air density increase. But again, the key is accumulator sizing. The larger accumulator you have, and the more time between applications to charge it to a high enough level, the smaller a compressor you can get away with in the system.

 

This is for a system to go to 35F. If you want a higher temperature, of course then the job becomes easier. And if you ALREADY have an air/air intercooler to get it within, say, 9F of ambient temperature already, using a conventional condensor core in a 'Vortech Style' cooler to trim extra heat off the inlet charge for 'perfect' intercooling and consistent density into the engine becomes even easier.

 

Ease, being a 'relative' term in this case...

 

Thanks for the info! While my current focus is removing rust and getting the chassis to an acceptable condition, I often randomly come up with "will this work?" ideas. Its pretty cool that someone already did this, as I have no intention of trying to reinvent the wheel... (unless they haven't come out with carbon fiber wheels for cars)

 

Nevermind... http://www.carbonfibergear.com/weds-sport-full-carbon-fiber-wheel/