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Old 02-12-2008, 09:29 AM   #47
Kirk
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Texarkana, Texas
Posts: 959
Intercooler Cooling

Hey Gary, my mailbox is getting pretty full, so I'll post a suggestion here in regards to intercooler cooling issues. Others may want to use this.

I know you have some concerns with your intercooler mounted under the transmission. The concensus has pretty much been that it's not the most ideal location for cooling, but with space constraints it's the best that can be done. This weekend I was reading an old article in Sport Compact Car about nitrous and got to thinking about how you were considering using nitrous to cool your intercooler. That makes a lot of sense considering the location of your intercooler.

Have you ever considered a water spray though? If you look at some of the Subaru WRX forums you'll see that putting a water spray on their intercoolers is quite common. Although it might not be as good as the super cooling power of nitrous, it's a LOT cheaper to make and to keep running.

I did a home-made water spray system on my WRX, but unfortunately it went with the car when I sold it. This is what I did though and I think it would work GREAT for you, especially considering the location of your intercooler:

For the water supply you can simply use a windshield washer tank. You can pick one up on the cheap at a salvage yard. Make sure it has a small pump mounted in the bottom and a good seal so it doesn't leak. I would mount it in the rear trunk and simply fill it with water. You could use distilled water if you're worried about hardness, which wouldn't be a bad idea. I'd then simply run a hose from the pump to just above the intercooler. I'd use a T-connection to split the hose and run it to two misting spray nozzles. The nozzles I used came from Arizona Mist. These nozzles give out a very, very fine mist designed specifically for evaporative cooling. Their website link to nozzle specifics isn't working right now though:

http://www.arizonamist.com/products/Maintenance%20and%20Accessories/04/

I had called the company and ordered the misting nozzles as replacement parts for like $4 each or something. I've still got one in the package at home, so I can check the exact part number for you later, if you like.

To control the pump I used an intermittent windshield wiper controller. I picked it up at an auto parts store for like $20. It's a cheap, black box that you can hook up to your windshield wiper motor if your car did not come with an intermittent control. This works beautifully for controlling the misting pump. On a hot day or when you're pushing the car hard you just turn the knob on the controller to turn it on and you can adjust then how frequently the pump will work. Basically the pump will then work in bursts to spray down the intercooler and cool the air going into the intercooler. The control knob adjusts how frequently it will spray. The pressure from the small pump is more than sufficient for the misting nozzles.

Just a thought.... I'm kicking around the idea of adding a some of these misting nozzles to my front bumper. Maybe have one or two nozzles spray in front of each radiator. It gets up to 114 F where I live in the summer sometimes. It might not be a bad idea then and I could easily mount the water tank in the front trunk. Especially with the dry heat we have, spraying a fine mist into the airflow that goes into the front radiators would have a good cooling effect. It's probably not necessary, but would be nice if you wanted to do some spirited driving in the heat.
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