I have read alot of the old threadds but really could not find the answers I am looking for.

1) What if any gains are seen from using 2 spal intercooler fans behind the H.E.??

2) Also would it be of any benefit to have these running when driving everyday.
I imagine it gets enough air going highway speeds where the fans could not pull more air than is being forced from your speed??? I know the fans pull 330 cfm each .

So when would it be beneficial if at all to run these fans. Trying to see if I want to get them.

 

Good question, but it can't be answered. Under what conditions? Gains where?

Start the engine up cold, stage, and run a 1/4 with and without. I would be shocked if there were any gain at all.

But the story might be different if you were hotlapping. Or road racing. Or racing on a 120 degree day.

Might be a good assumption for the bare fans, but not a good assumption for those same fans in a shroud. Do a search for "interchiller" and review. You should find some more info to chew on.

 

Thanks Tim for the response.
I will look at those articles tomorrow. Until then how exactly would a shroud help more.. by drawing in the air to a centralized location?

I assumed the highway thing because I have heard of people not running their e-fan on the highway because they say it gets enough air just by the speed. Is there anyevidence of that?

 

I know that SVC Motorsports has done some testing on a hot Lightning, while on the dyno and running the fans between pulls and monitoring the I/C fluid temps. They saw some advantage to running them to help cool it down. If you were to call and talk to Dean I am sure he would give you the full details.

I personally saw the gains of running a larger I/C box with cooler fluids during dyno pulls.

 

I've been doing some testing lately.

I added a temp sensor to the inlet side of the IC. (going to the motor) Pics here: http://www.lightningrodder.com/forum...p?topic=1453.0

I saw an average drop of 8 degrees at speeds less than 20mph with the fans running. Only about 2-3 degrees at 35ish mph. and Zero at higher speeds.

Some other interesting stuff:
During a 1/4 run the IC fluid temps rose on avg 20 degrees (fans off)
The IC fluid seemed to run 15ish degrees higher than ambient. And the IAT2 temps seemed to run 15-20 degrees higher than the IC fluid. (non boost driving)

It's not an answer.. but it's a piece of the puzzle

Rich

 

From that info it looks like it would be a LITTLE benefit Only in the staging lanes.
I don't think it would be any benefit to daily driving or street playing.

Let me know any more info you have on the temps and relating data please
Thanks,
Rick

 

Rick, My impression is that it would not benifiet a street driven truck. I also think it's not a very good way to pull heat out of the motor in the pits too.

IMO the effectiveness of it would shine the most *after* a heat soak. When parked and completely shut off. My IC temps would go up to about 100 (low 80s ambient) w/o the fans on the temps really would'nt drop much til I was moving 25+ mph. And at that it took a good mile for them to start dropping.

With the fans on I could drop the fluid temps a good 10 degrees just going from the pits to the staging lanes.

My next little project is going to be a ice/heat exchanger. (later in the summer though)

Rich

 

The naked fans may be the reason. A shrouded setup seems to work much better. From a previous F150online post:

"Well about that restriction. I did my own testing without the system installed. Cruising on the freeway for 25 miles at 80mph in drive (3rd gear) turning about 3600 rpm. Intake temp on the 2nd IAT sensor (the one in the intake manifold), I had a constant temp of 135 degrees. Then I put the InterChiller system on and did the same run with the fans off. Constant temp of 138 degrees. Then with the fans on, constant temp of 110 degrees. What do you think about your restriction now? Wouldn't you have the same issues with the engine radiator also. It has a shroud too, does it restrict the air flow? No. The fans will spin as the air rushes by them. The best part of this system is the shroud. Because it pulls the air through the whole intercooler, not just where the fans are mounted."

 

Tim, you have to look at the actual usage though. The only people who are concerned about increased efficiency at high speeds are you 1%ers. And it's my initial thought that you'd be better served by ducting *to* the IC instead of ducting after it with fans. (use the energy that's already been burned )

Most gen 2 guys are interested in drag racing or short bursts. Meaning that they spend the majority of the time at slow speeds or even parked. They/I want the fluids average system temp to be as low as is possible right before the run. For me, increasing the efficiency at 100 mph won't even be a measureable improvement. We also don't want to run our battery down when in the pits either... IMO A shroud in those situations will act as a heat retaining shield *unless* the fans are on all the time.

Rich

 

Thanks for the responses guys. It really looks like it is a minimal gain if any mostly for the 1/4 it seems. I was just thinking about lower intake temps during the day also since it is already in the 90's with high humidity. I guess not sooo
either of you guys have a suggestion? Efan, H.E.?
Again thanks for all the insight and help.

 

At lighting rodder I made a post as to which fans I did and why. Check it out.

At this point in my findings I think fans are a decent "mod" if your into drag racing. After all the end goal is to lower the inlet charge temp.. and they indirectly do just that.

I'll be adding a ice/heat exchanger later this summer and these fans will help me to not consume so much ice during those times. To me it's a "win-win" for how I use the truck.

btw: A larger HE will help. But IMO having some fans on the stock HE has to be somewhere near 90% as effective as a larger one with fans. Although I'm not in the deep south and I've not tested them back to back either.. So take my opinion for what it's worth.

Rich

 

so then the question is this?

Money on the bigger heat exchanger or the fans?

Has anyone tested this?


Also, we did some very amature testing of this last year, but check this out.

At the track, we drained the i/c fluid and filled it with ice water right before a run and cut a tenth off 2 consecutive passes. Put the regular antifreeze/water fluid in doing the same thing and the pass went back up a tenth. Short time was actually a little better on that pass too.

Like I said..........VERY NON SCIENTIFIC, but the proof was in the pudding.

There's a guy with a cobra that told me he was running 12.0xxx. Every time he went up he'd be running the same. He drained the i/c and filled it with ice water and water wetter before a pass and was running 11.9xxx with worse 60's then the 12.00 runs. Did it back to back. Cooling down for a good 1/2 hour in between all the passes. That's what made me try it. We were trying to get the truck in the 12.00's so we were trying everything.


I think the next mod someone should work on is using the a/c charge to cool the i/c fluid like what was supposed to be on the GEN3 Proto type.

That would be a GREAT mod. The biggest thing would be finding a way to do it effeciently without obviously trying to run your truck in the lanes with water dripping..........or going down the track with the a/c on.

 

The A/C powered Intercooler IS a great mod. I had one on my Typhoon back in 1998. As for the A/C being on going down the 1/4 mile:
1) The A/C clutch disengages at WOT so you wouldn't be getting any cold charge at that point, nor would you get any parasitic drag from running the compressor.
2) The way my designer built it was to "charge up" the IC. I had a manual switch in the cab that would turn the compressor on. I'd let it run for a few minutes and then flip it off. The IC pump would do the job of bringing hotter IC fluid near the supercooled core. Sort of like having a "battery" of cool air. After the run I would flip the switch again and let it cool it back down. It was truly a killer setup. I paid about 2 grand back then for it, so it wasn't cheap.


I really hope they implement it somehow in the newer vehicles.

 

You may be reading the data too narrowly. This post was in response to someone who claimed that the shroud would choke off airflow at highway speeds. There may also be similar evidence of the shrouded setup's efficacy at slower speeds.

 

It would seem to make "sense" that the intercooler fans at lower speeds (and I'm not sure what these speeds would be - perhaps around the speeds Rich is mentioning - 20mph) or sitting still, cooling down between runs, by pulling air through the intercooler "faster" than what it's flowing through on it's own and taking some more heat energy out of the intercooler than happening from the surrounding air - it would seem it would reduce the fluids temperatures somewhat as previously noted - and any "shrouding" after the fans might make the air exit the fans faster or easier would seem advantageous. At higher speeds however - lets say 60mph+ - are the fans continuing to pull air through the intercooler faster than the air flowing through it at that speed or higher speeds? I would think that at some speed, the fans might act more as a restriction to air flow through the intercooler. But at a drag race - starting from speed "zero" - perhaps the gain in lower intercooler fluid temp's at the beginning of the race might offset any losses that may occur at over 100mph.

Also - when you're seeing temp changes of, say only 3-4 degrees - this could be due soley to variations in sensors, connections, etc, and the devices recording and measuring the "apparent temperatures." I don't know what the "calculated" and/or "allowable" variations on these sensors, connections, or recording devices, etc - and the possible "stacking effect" of these variations are - but there is some kind of +/- variation that is occurring - and the temperature change you see on the "readout" may not be "actually" occurring. I don't think I would take any temperature change of less than 10 degrees as being significant - and be confident is really occurring over time.