Intercooler selection and location

[r3meyer]

My car has a massive radiator.  Most times even on a warm day and a hard run I only get one fan to run.  Going to put a blower on my car and was trying to decide on intercooler location and function.

I have plenty of room to put one infront of my radiator and just use the cooling stack.  Or should I remote mount a smaller intercooler with its own shroud and fan setup.  Anyone done both and have some input?  I dont use a windshield so I get lots of air moving through the car.

 

[Rockwood]

Air to water or air to air setup?

 

[Glamisdude]

Different setup from mine but most superchargers have a integrated air to water so my situation is similar.

I have a twin turbo LS 442ci with a windshield. My intercooler setup is a manifold mounted shearer fabrications water to air. I mounted the heat exchanger which is 35x12 in front of my radiator that is a 35x19 cbr with two of the brushless 16inch spals running variable speed thru my Holley HP. I have never seen Intake temps exceed 115.  Engine water with just normal duning never gets over 200. The only time it starts to get up around 210-214 is when I’m hitting the dunes around osbourne when it’s 95+ degrees and Im flying around trying to loose the people following me. LOL.

The issue I have noticed is oil temp. I have a engine oil cooler mounted separate from radiators. It’s a 12x10 setrab with a fan. Oil temps before my cooler on those Osborne runs can get up around 240-250 after some fast duning while water never gets over 215. Im guessing the cooler prob drops the oil temp 10-15 degrees minimum so I keep that in mind when monitoring my temps. But I am going to add a temp sensor after the oil cooler this summer just for more data. 

 

[lincster]

This is what I did.



CBR builds these radiators and I had them add fans.

My engine radiator sits low and I didn't want to impede air flow so I added a separate heat exchanger for my supercharger.

I agree with what Glamisdude said about engine oil cooler.  

I added a small cooler from CBR with dedicated fans.



I drilled 1" holes in the floor and those are pusher fans.

I don't see over 270 oil temps even when it is hot outside.

 

[r3meyer]

Air to water or air to air setup?

Air to Water.  

Different setup from mine but most superchargers have a integrated air to water so my situation is similar.

I have a twin turbo LS 442ci with a windshield. My intercooler setup is a manifold mounted shearer fabrications water to air. I mounted the heat exchanger which is 35x12 in front of my radiator that is a 35x19 cbr with two of the brushless 16inch spals running variable speed thru my Holley HP. I have never seen Intake temps exceed 115.  Engine water with just normal duning never gets over 200. The only time it starts to get up around 210-214 is when I’m hitting the dunes around osbourne when it’s 95+ degrees and Im flying around trying to loose the people following me. LOL.

The issue I have noticed is oil temp. I have a engine oil cooler mounted separate from radiators. It’s a 12x10 setrab with a fan. Oil temps before my cooler on those Osborne runs can get up around 240-250 after some fast duning while water never gets over 215. Im guessing the cooler prob drops the oil temp 10-15 degrees minimum so I keep that in mind when monitoring my temps. But I am going to add a temp sensor after the oil cooler this summer just for more data. 

Who made your intercooler?  Do you have any pictures you could post how its mounted?

I have the Holley HP also.  Is the HP controlling the speeds or do you simply have them powering up the speed controller?  Are they running together at the same time or are they staggered?  

This is what I did.

View attachment 31064

CBR builds these radiators and I had them add fans.

My engine radiator sits low and I didn't want to impede air flow so I added a separate heat exchanger for my supercharger.

I agree with what Glamisdude said about engine oil cooler.  

I added a small cooler from CBR with dedicated fans.

View attachment 31066

I drilled 1" holes in the floor and those are pusher fans.

I don't see over 270 oil temps even when it is hot outside.

This is the same setup I will be running.  Whipple 2.9.  Can you share what your setup is?  Engine, boost, pulley size, injectors, etc.  Do you have any pictures of your acc drive setup?

 

[Jtmoney714]

Different setup from mine but most superchargers have a integrated air to water so my situation is similar.

I have a twin turbo LS 442ci with a windshield. My intercooler setup is a manifold mounted shearer fabrications water to air. I mounted the heat exchanger which is 35x12 in front of my radiator that is a 35x19 cbr with two of the brushless 16inch spals running variable speed thru my Holley HP. I have never seen Intake temps exceed 115.  Engine water with just normal duning never gets over 200. The only time it starts to get up around 210-214 is when I’m hitting the dunes around osbourne when it’s 95+ degrees and Im flying around trying to loose the people following me. LOL.

The issue I have noticed is oil temp. I have a engine oil cooler mounted separate from radiators. It’s a 12x10 setrab with a fan. Oil temps before my cooler on those Osborne runs can get up around 240-250 after some fast duning while water never gets over 215. Im guessing the cooler prob drops the oil temp 10-15 degrees minimum so I keep that in mind when monitoring my temps. But I am going to add a temp sensor after the oil cooler this summer just for more data. 

Where is your oil temp sensor mounted now?

 

[Rockwood]

You can probably run it in front of the radiator.  Even radiators with 210* coolant (never gonna happen with the supercharger water) in them only end up with 120* ish air temps on the back side.  With the intercooler, I doubt you'll ever see much above 110*F for the water in there, so the temp delta will be much lower.

Do you have a thermostat on the motor?  Biggest issue is it's best to always have at least one of the fan running, preferably both, but this would likely over-cool the motor. 

 

[lincster]

This is the same setup I will be running.  Whipple 2.9.  Can you share what your setup is?  Engine, boost, pulley size, injectors, etc.  Do you have any pictures of your acc drive setup?

Sure.

LS1, built by CBM.  All forged internals, cam, trunnion kit for heads, 8 lbs of boost, 10.25 compression.  Magnusson 1.7L blower, smallest pulley I can put on this blower (2.8" I think), 80lb injectors (can't remember brand), accessory drive setup is stock LS setup.  I picked this blower just for that reason.  All I did was get a longer belt.

I think that covers everything.

 

[Glamisdude]

Air to Water.  

Who made your intercooler?  Do you have any pictures you could post how its mounted?

I have the Holley HP also.  Is the HP controlling the speeds or do you simply have them powering up the speed controller?  Are they running together at the same time or are they staggered?  

This is the same setup I will be running.  Whipple 2.9.  Can you share what your setup is?  Engine, boost, pulley size, injectors, etc.  Do you have any pictures of your acc drive setup?

The hp is controlling the speed of both from one pwm- output. You give the fans power all the time and let the pwm signal start, stop and control them. There is no external control it is all integrated in the fan. 
 

the reason I went with the variable speed fans it because I don’t want to cycle one or both off. I wanted to make sure I always have air pulling thru them. Since they don’t shutoff and instead they just slow down I have achieved that. 
 

this is the only pic I could find when I was putting it all together. We welded tabs on the radiator and intercooler and bolted them together. The intercooler is so big you can hardly see the radiator behind it 

 

[Glamisdude]

Where is your oil temp sensor mounted now?

Oil Temp sensor is mounted in my remote oil filter block. That is before my cooler. 

 

[Whipsandshyt]

Here is a pic of my LSA. I put the intercooler in front of the radiator with tab that were welded to the radiator and a bar below for support. IAT never above 110

o

 

[GeneralG]

Anyone else with more idea's on mounting the heat exchanger?  I'm in the midst of attempting to find a better mounting solution for mine.  

 

[LegitDuner]

Oil Temp sensor is mounted in my remote oil filter block. That is before my cooler. 

I'm not a scientist but something tells me that oil filter block is kind of acting like a heat dissipator, probably a lot of heat coming off that thing.

I don't know just a thought

 

[Glamisdude]

I'm not a scientist but something tells me that oil filter block is kind of acting like a heat dissipator, probably a lot of heat coming off that thing.

I don't know just a thought

If there is, it’s very little. There is so much oil flow it doesn’t hang out in there long enough to dissipate much. Also where I have the block mounted there isnt any airflow to carry any heat away. I leave that up to the oil cooler 

 

[GeneralG]

Not the ideal location for an Intercooler to be mounted but maybe will attempt it.  @Kansas T had a good idea about an aluminum shroud covering the top portion of the radiator fans forcing air downward.  And maybe since the intercooler has fans pulling the air through it would work good even in this location?  

 

[Pennywise]

Not the ideal location for an Intercooler to be mounted but maybe will attempt it.  @Kansas T had a good idea about an aluminum shroud covering the top portion of the radiator fans forcing air downward.  And maybe since the intercooler has fans pulling the air through it would work good even in this location?  

View attachment 38996

Great way to pre-heat the inner cooler using the radiator.  Save yourself some headaches and move it now. 

 

[Rockwood]

Not the ideal location for an Intercooler to be mounted but maybe will attempt it.  @Kansas T had a good idea about an aluminum shroud covering the top portion of the radiator fans forcing air downward.  And maybe since the intercooler has fans pulling the air through it would work good even in this location?  

View attachment 38996

Quickie panels to separate the two and it would be fine.  Add sides for the exchanger to force air through it for even more airflow.  That being said, if you raise it to the top of the rusty tubes, do you lose that much visibility?

 

[Kansas T]

Because the heat exchanger core is so thick and it has fan, it blocks most rear visibility if he moves it up.  Having it in front of the radiator would be ideal, but there just isn’t any room.  I think a shroud to deflect hot radiator air under the heat exchanger would work pretty well.  You could even put a heat reflecting material on the shroud to keep it cool on one side.  I used some DEI stuff on my Rzr and it works amazing.