Charge coolers

[JKing]

Everyone is going on about FMIC at the min but having read through a few US sites it seems they are having good results using charge coolers to cool the boost on turbos and superchargers.

Was wondering if anyone has tried fitted one to a 1.8 20v turbo VAG engine and if no why not?? I know space is limited in the engine but if the battery was relocated to the boot there would be amble room I'm sure.

 

[m0rk]

Pace do one, but an FMIC is more efficient.

 

[flashbsd]

ask badger, he had a ncie one fitted from jbs? on his mrs's lupo!

Saw it in a mag the other day

 

[JKing]

m0rk: any more info to back this up??

 

[andy_dea]

alot of ihi people used the pace/ jabba charge cooler and most added water injection as not the most effishant, once the water in the system is warm, it takes along time to cool itself again, where as an intrcooler does not suffer from the same sort of heat soak

look on pace products website they have pics and listed the ibiza one

 

[JKing]

Just found them on Pace, £675 for the kit so not cheap. Thanks for the info Andy, can understand the logic now.

 

[Addo]

Chrage coolers are to unefficent, the engine bay and enigne components get to hot especially when you run high boost. Charge coolers can be effective but its usally the case simple is best. Bill ran a charge cooler but had to pack with mucho ice to keep charge temps at bay, Bill has been running an AM interccoler identical to my since 2004 it works very well with the high horse power applications.

 

[m0rk]

m0rk: any more info to back this up??

Just practical thinking.

What cools the charge air is water. which you have in limited supply on board a car

but with an FMIC what cools the air is more air - of which there is an aweful lot in the atmosphere

 

[Addo]

Take this as an example if you put you finger out the car window on a hot summers day whilst travelling at 70mph it feel quite cool.

put you finger in the engine bay on a hots summers day after driving at 70mph and it f**king hot.

Air passes through the intercooler passing the aluminium and cooling the aluminium casing down with a charge cooler its an ongoing battle against hot metal components conducting heat on to the charge cooler and then the water has to cool the charge temps and conduction temps.

 

[ibizacupra]

I ran a CC on IHI for quite some time.
For road use it was good..

It is MORE efficient an intercooler in reality, with water having x4 the specific heat capacity of air)
You do need to have a good (large) sized pre-rad to make best use of the system.

Its benefits are of its compactness in the core (charge side) and small water pipework to a relatively thin but big surface area water pre-rad. Easier to fit in some respects.

Downside is its cost. More components, pumps.. can and do fail on occasion.
Get the pre-rad too small and it will be ok initially but then heatsoak. x4 specific heat capacity is good for absorbing the heat but then again its also x4 slower to give it away again.

I changed mine for a large (read fecking huge) air to air FMIC for sustained race track intercooling where my pre-rad on my CC was too small for sustained load and did heatsoak.

My old CC is on MrsB Lupo 1.8T now and works a treat on that. Its benefit of slim pre-rad being a great help in fitment.

Add some peltiers to the CC and you can cool to sub-ambient temps if you want to. FMIC wont do that for you.

Plenty of choice.
CC is good, FMIC is simpler and these days there are products available from a few folks.

 

[ibizacupra]

Take this as an example if you put you finger out the car window on a hot summers day whilst travelling at 70mph it feel quite cool.

put you finger in the engine bay on a hots summers day after driving at 70mph and it f**king hot.

and wet your finger and stick it out of the window and its even cooler