Cooling Fans Pulling Air Through Intercooler.

[4drftn]

watched a performance dvd the other week and there was a performance/race car on it that had a large intercooler in the back with twin thermo/cooling fans pulling air through intercooler.

i was thinking it is a good idea because it will always have cool air flowing through it.

when using fmic setup air gets forced into fmic while in motion, but if front mount has cooling fan pulling air through it would make intercooler more effective and efficiant...

saying all this if this is right, would putting a fan behind my fmic (pulling) create more of a gain? especially at standstill when intercooler is not getting air forced into it.

any info will be great or if anyone else has any other ideas will be a bonus.

4drftn

[sh@un]

no- because the factory viscous thermatic fan already does a good job

you just need to pay attention to having air-guides in place if you upgrade your smic to fmic

[skybarge]

yeah sh@un is right, no gains to be had

it was probably a radiator/cooler combo at the rear because they'd run out of room at the front, the fans were probably just to push air through because it'd be lacking the wind you get from the front of the car

[rev210]

spend a little time making some foam air guides (or a nice metal guide if you have the skills with the material) for between the intercooler and radiator so the air doesn't 'spill' making the standard fan setup work more efficiently.

[4drftn]

sorry i may have not explained myself well, but i am already running viscous fan+12inch cooling fan infont of my radiator pushing air into it...

now... what im actually trying to find out is benifits from having a pulling fan on the back of an intercooler or fmic, in other words trying to get more air and cooler air into intercooler to maybe produce more power etc.

sorry for the confusion

4drftn

[rev210]

only of any use when car is stationary for heat soak. Use a water spray instead.

[W0rp3D]

i have seen this done, it was set up to come on when the intake temps go up to a certain temp, only really usefull and low speeds or stopped when there is not enough air flow over the fmic.

[GeeTR]

Id start with measuring your actual intake temps, take a common, do some plots over time, otherwise your just faping into a carrot cake.

Water spray while standstill i find isn't soo effective (well not as much as Id want it to be) The water itself isn't cooling the IC, its the latent heat thats absorbed in the state change from liquid to gas (evaporation) Hence, without the air moving over it, kinda hindered.

Thermos and a water setup could work well me thinks, if you really need to prevent heat soak while standstill.

If state change heat absorption is your game, iv always been interested in those C02 IC sprayers. C02 is dirt cheap, and in 30s can have a ice covered IC when dead still. I had almost ordered one, but a change meant it wouldn't work with my setup.

Thinking aloud

EDIT: After getting some base figures, first try air guides first as mentioned - a must.

Edited March 9, 2008 by GeeTR

[R338OY]

When the intercooler is working hardest is when you're in motion- meaning there's plenty of airflow already over the cooler.

water-->air intercooler would be the best upgrade, esp. for heatsoak issues, but it's not exactly a simple bolt-on upgrade like a regular fmic.

Airguides ftw, maximise airflow to the cooler. In the meantime you might want to put a fan behind the fmic and do some tests with a thermometer-type tool and see if the fan makes a difference to charge temps and cooler heatsoak temps.

[GeeTR]

Air -> Water IC's (what i think you meant) still needs a heat exchanger (rad like)

People use thermos on those heat exchangers... thermos on a Air -> Air should work just well maybe?

Try it, let us know

Edited March 9, 2008 by GeeTR

[4drftn]

i think i most definatly will give it a go... aswell as air guides for maximum gain. does anyone have any pictures of an airguide they have customly made for there setup?

also how would i go about measuring the air intake temp/amount? will it be in ECU data?, i have a microtech LT-8 ECU, should i be able to access that sort of info?

cheers

[black33gtst]

Always wondered if 12 volt peltiers would be the go. Peltier runs on electricity gets hot one side and very cold other side smaller ones can cool cpu in computer so i imagine larger ones could be utilised in aiding to cool an fmic? just a thought

[fresh]

what are you going to do with the massive amounts of heat from the other side of the peltier coolers ???

[jdf skyline]

from memory the early mazdas, mx6, i think they were had this setup, but only for the reason the cooler was in the back off the car, and R338OY said previously, when the cooler is actually being used there is plenty off air flow

[djr81]

The short answer to this is : don't waste your time.

A properly ducted intercooler will take advantage of the high pressure built up at the front of the car when travelling at any reasonable speed.

This pressure build up will be more than any fan is capable of providing.

Hence installing such a fan is a waste of time.

But:

If your car is a GT-R it already has a fan installed to push air through the radiator. You can hear it click on when the car is sat idling on a hot day.

It is far, far easier to plumb in some water misting to spray the intercooler when the inlet temps go above a certain threshold. Why don't you look into that?