Frederic's radiator cooled intercooler.

[DemonTSi at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/20/99 10:40:59 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
ryddler at cu-online.com writes:

<< I am in desperate need of an intercooler.  An air/air unit won't work for
 me.  An air/freon unit (using a A/C evaporator) sounds quite slick, but I
 don't know enough about A/C systems yet to know how well this would work.
 An air/water unit is the best solution, but has the complexity of a 2nd heat
 exchanger, pump, coolant tank, etc.  I had thought (briefly) about using
 radiator fluid instead but dismissed it without much thought (afterall, 
 radiator fluid is hot right?). >>

Wouldn't it be a bad idea to use coolant to cool your intercooler, even if 
it's temp is less than that of the charge air? The last thing you want to do 
is heat up the ic to any degree, so I think it'd be more benefitial to run an 
air-air unit, and try to either situate it somewhere it can receive plenty of 
flowing air (front of car, or under it with a scoop), or you can build a 
ram-air type fixture for it. I can understand how this coolant-cooled ic 
setup may work (marginally) as long as your coolant temps are lower than your 
intake charge temps, but even when the coolant is at the 110degrees or so 
that someone mentioned, wouldn't running cool air to the ic be better than 
surrounding it's fins with 110+degrees of liquid?

On this subject, I've been toying with the idea of cooling intake air using 
chilled methanol...and threw together some sketches here:
http://members.xoom.com/VanAble/Crx/ic.gif
This first one is for an inline-type ic that doesn't use a typical core to 
impede air flow. The "fins" are perforated metal disks welded to the intake 
tube. The whole works is enclosed by a larger cylinder welded shut with end 
caps (this is very similar in design to a straight-flow muffler). There'll be 
a fill cap and drain valve, of course...and you could use something other 
than methanol.
The other idea is for a whole intake manifold that can be seen here:
http://members.xoom.com/VanAble/Crx/intake.gif
Here, the intake plenum, and a section of fuel rail is surrounded by an 
enclosure filled with methanol. Bear in mind these ideas are for a strictly, 
drag race-only car. But can you guys see these things working or.....??

Van