Technical DIY water to air inter cooler

I have questions. Kant find any info in this forum and hope the subject has not previously been covered. Apologies if so, with a request for guidance to the thread(s).
Has anyone built their own water to air intercooler? repeat,... "WATER TO AIR"
Has anyone considered it, or in the process of?
I am considering that move for an Eaton blown 270 in. V8. Why not a heater core in a box below the blower to exchange heat to an outside radiator?
This is my start.

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I will do***ent my build if I proceed on this path and if there is interest.

 

A blown poly,I'll fallow.

 

Ditto
I don't have any answers for you, but a blown poly is a cool thing

Bobby

 

Never built one, but nothing says it won't work. I would take a look at an oil cooler instead of a heater core, mostly because it seems more rigid - a heater core never really needs to take any abuse and hardly sees any pressure, inside or outside.

The book "forced induction performance tuning" by A. Graham Bell has a section about water-to-air intercooling. Worth reading.

 

Tx for that tip. I'll try to find the book.
Looked at oil coolers but gut feel was not "open" enough. I'm thinking 5-6 lbs boost and seems a heater core should handle that. Heater or oil cooler seems like a no brainer but can't find anyone whose tried it.

 

Banshee supercharger tried out a heater core while developing their kit and weren't happy with the results. That doesn't mean it won't work for you. The main thing I'd be worried about is it springing a leak and water getting into the cylinders.

 

Then he'd have a little free water injection to control detonation.

 

i don't know what these cost but look heavy duty.
i googled heat exchangers. the heat exchanger i use for my out door boiler is VERY tough and would take a beating.
http://www.lytron.com/Heat-Exchangers/Standard/Heat-Exchangers-Tube-Fin/Stainless-Steel

 

I see I wrote the wrong name on the book. Anyway, here's a direct link,hopefully without mistakes: http://www.amazon.com/Induction-Per...859606911/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

 

Don't quote me totally, but something in my memory has to do with A/C condensors...?

 

Tx all. Lotsa food for thought.

Checked it out. Tx Bit pricey for me but they have one a perfect size. It's on my "wish list"

 

The under blower inter coolers are thick and dense. Way thicker than a heater core, You can't hardly see thru them. I'd guess a heater core would drop charge temps much like ******* in the ocean changes the amount of water. It has to and does but doesn't amount to much.
They usually add a few inches in overall blower height.
Here's some late model junk you might get an idea or too from.
They work a lot better with ice cold water swapped out every p***.
.

 

Water in the cylinders isn't bad as long as it is just a mist. But hydro-locking is always a problem if it is a bunch.

Most guys that want to fool with cooling a charge use water or methanol injection, we have even been known to use it on Turbos tat are easy to build intercoolers for. I have helped on a roots blown motor that uses an AC unit for intercooling. That may be feasible.

 

thats the intercooler that goes with the supercharger he has . many salvage yards have them on the shelves . , Gale banks is the company you should give a call too on advice . or try a racing board like yellowbullet or turbobullet .com and ask for suggestions as they can tell you all the aftermarket sources

 

the ones we use on the turbo'd detroit diesel tugs are like a HD heater core and will drop the charge temps a fair ammount ( almost 100*) they are 4" thick ( made by harrison ) ,

 

Decided to bite the bullet and order parts. I'll be building a box to contain a trans cooler that has about the same footprint as the bottom of the blower. It may not be optimum but it will be a fun project and will lower the charge temps some. One of the biggest challenges so far has been to figger how to make the water connections through the inter-cooler box.
I'll post progress pics when I have something to show.
Here's where I am today,.........

 

The cooler should mount rigid inside a cooler box, water connections weld to the side of the box and hoses connect outside the box. Cooler box would seal top and bottom to the blower, manifold. Sandwich it in. You could set it up to run with or without,if you use same bolt patterns, and have 2 belt lengths.

Be interesting to test with and without, or take it out if you're just driving on low pressure pulley.

 

I understand wanting to keep the compressed air charge temps as low as you can for a more dense charge, but will this really be boosting that much? Intercoolers, also called CAC's (cold air charge) in my experience are used more in turbo applications where boost pressure get to 30+ psi as compared to mechanical blower boosts of half of that or less. The higher the boost the higher the air temp gets. I do not know what the Eaton unit cranks out but supercharging appears to be lower but quicker responding without have to build up rpm's/boost pressures. Unless you unit does a lot higher boost than say a 6-71 which usually done have inter coolers. Plus most turbo inter coolers are air to air which will have the cooling "fluid" of air at most 110 degrees or so where the water ones will have the 180-210 degree cooling fluid. The key is the temp differential and I do not know if a water cooled charge on a lower boost application would be enough to make a difference on a lower tech vintage engine. But hey, this is hot ridding and to each his own. I thought I'd share a few thoughts and wish you luck. It's gotta be fun trying it.

 

The IC uses it's own water system, pump and radiator, you do NOT run boiling hot engine coolant through it. For "limited use"cars, such as dragrace, you can ignore the radiator completely, and just run a water tank, possibly partly filled with ice for the extra low temperature. Sure, prolonged driving would be a problem without cooling, but during a ten second race the water hasn't even circulated one time through the system = no need for cooling, you handle that between races. The system is designed to fit the intended use, sometimes you need big cooling capacity all the time, other times you just need to handle a short burst and have 20 minutes to do the actual cooling.

As for the need for intercooling, you rarely need it, but you always can benefit from it.

 

I was unaware about it having its own coolant system. One learns something old every day. Now that means to me more items to package as well as more potential leak joints. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

 

If you have a p***-thru carb so fuel is part of the intake charge you don't need intercooler - depending on the amount of alcohol you can have a frosting problem.

 

I have a pair of ***mins inter coolers. Follow the link in my signature and there are photos. These bolt onto the intake of a 5.9L. I was going to bolt then together back to back to create a remote mount after cooler, but I have since purchased some marine after coolers.

I think you could cut away the exterior housing and use the core instead of a heater core or trans cooler. If the 6bt coolers are too long, you can also find these for 4 cylinder motors.

 

The inter cooler moves the point of diminished returns from heating up the air. The air to water system is more compact ( has to be) than a Air to air. The effect and benefits of cooling the charge remains the same but the way it's cooled for the manifold mounted roots blower is different. ( needs to be).
A bigger blower that delivers more cfm per revolution doesn't heat the charge as much for the same boost but sometimes doesn't fit within the package, however a compact water to air cooler will.

Leaks can be a problem, so what? You deal with them and design towards quality and leak protection / prevention. Any Liquid transfer or storage means possible leaks, yet it happens flawlessly every day.

 

I wouldn't use a trans cooler. That's just tubing with foils around it. You want something more like a radiator. Thin cores and thick foils as someone else mentioned.

 

Here is the oil cooler that is en route from Summit. The core footprint almost matches the bottom side of the blower. The mounting tabs maybe be an issue but that's why I'm mocking it up before a hard commitment.
Some have questioned why,.....how much will the benefit be? Is it worth the effort? If I lived my life where every decision was based on ***umed logic or ROI,... what would be the fun? After-all, does modifying or playing with cars make any sense anyway!

 

Well ****! Just wanted to show ya'll I got this far before I called a friend to confirm how clever I was. He's a lot smarter than me. Question to him, since he's done a number of these packages, was,....."why not an inter-cooler using an oil cooler?" Simple answer was, ya don't wanna do that with a draw through carburetor system. Ya cool the charge. The fuel drops outta suspension. Likely fireworks!!!!. My response,...."doah!"
At least I saved the Summit boxes.

 

That problem would most likely only be noticable during slow driving. You could put a throttle switch on it, only activating the electric water pump when you go over say 50-75% throttle. Only run water through it when the blower is creating alot of heat. Or you could convert to fuel injection, or modify your setup to a blow-through system where the blower and IC sits before the carburettor(s).

Problems are meant to be solved!

 

http://www.frozenboost.com
Will teach you all you need to know and has all the pieces of the puzzle.

Not quite sure how traditional all this would be though

 

Well ****, again!!!! A good friend hated to see me toss in the towel so he sent me pics of roots blowers with carbs on top and intercoolers below.
I'm rethinking.
Any comment(s)?

 

Tx, had originally thought of water circulating only during boost. FI is not in the cards because of cost and complexity re injectors in the ports and pressurized fuel system. Blowing thru the carb is a rethink and kinda defeats my view of the solution.