ok, before any one laughs, i have had this idea in my head, what if you were to run a intercooler, using a air to water set up to try and cool the intake temps on your truck. For example set it up how vortech does, just no blower. Regardless of cost, would this work? seems to work in theory!

was looking at there kits:

http://www.frozenboost.com/index.php...3c9be037e200d7


Any idea, opinions?

 

and i was in on this little brainstorm i think it might actually work

 

I think for every 10 degrees in IAT drop, you gain an additional horse, probably not worth the gains. I would like to believe otherwise however, there is definitely a more than 5hp gain in the morning when its chilly.

 

I am not sure of the physics of it but I don't think it would be possible to cool the air intake lower than (or much lower than) the ambient air temperature using a system like that. The reason it works on a SC is that the air charge is super heated because its being compressed...then it can be cooled closer to ambient temp by the intercooler thus making it effective. But since a NA engine is basicaly drawing in air at ambient temp I dont see how it could benifit from it. I know ford was thinking of adding a "super cooler" at one point but it was going to use the AC system to cool the water in the intercooler...that would work but still probably not make much difference for the cost.

Basicaly what I am saying is for the intercooler to work the way your thinking it would...the water would have to be cooler than the air. Without some type of refrigerent its not possible...the fan can only cool the water down to ambient temperature.

 

its has to be more then that cus when its 60 my truck hauls ***, well more then it does when its 80 lol

 

i think an air to water would be able to cool more then ambient and especially with an ice box for times when you need a little more power like at the track

 

or on the streets. lol to beat that chevy..lol

 

Certainly with the ice it would be cooler...but not with the just the air to water. How could it? The radiator works by disipating heat into the air...its impossible to get it cooler than the air...there for the water in the intercooler will not be colder than the ambient air around it (well possibly a degree or two with the air flow...but not much). Like I said it works great cooling heated compressed air but wont be able to cool NA air lower than the outside air temp...it can't.

 

what about methanol in the tank

yeah i agree with ice i would imagine 20hp without maybe 10

 

http://www.snowperformance.net/product.php?pk=9

 

The only way any thing like that would cool better than water is if it were able to evaporate. In a sealed system it just can not get cooler than ambient air temp. If you could why would you have to have a compressor and refrigerent to cool the air in AC? Think of all your AC has to do to drop the air coming into the cab to 60 degrees...and thats just a small percentage of air compared to whats going into the engine.

 

true forgot about the evaporating well you could have a breather on the tank and just top it off every once in a while

 

not to mention now the truck would have to suck air thru that and the intake. i think it would lose power. with a supercharger or a turbo there is something sucking the air thru there.

 

To address that, size the I/C appropriately, or just add one of those electric S/C thingies to hustle dat air through LOL!

Physics: if you spray finely misted water on the face of the intercooler, you can get the temps lower than ambient, due to the latent heat of evaporation. Water reservoir, a pump and a nozzle.

Think 'wind chill' - same effect ... well, at least for us poor SOB's in cooler climates lol!

 

Even if you spray finely misted air onto the front of the intercooler, you still will not be able to cool the air lower than ambient unless the water you are spraying on the intercooler is cooler than ambient. Then it comes back to the ice box theory, or some type of active cooling system like Ford's supercooling concept on the 2004 Lightning concept where they were using active cooling from the air conditioner to cool the intake air for short periods of time. As long as I'm moving, my intake air runs at 1 degree higher than ambient with my K&N system as measured by my Edge. I really can't improve on that unless I had some type of active cooling such as ice water or compressed refrigerant.

Oh, and wind chill only applies to humans. That is just a measurement of how the air temperature supposedly "feels" when factoring in wind speed and moisture content. And remember, our bodies are warmer than ambient air (unless the temps are above 98), so air is always cooling us, and if the air speed increases the cooling effect increases.