Going to upgrade to an air/water intercooler

[johnl]

I have to take a pic of the little fill tank I have, much smaller, maybe too small but a convenient size. It has a pressure cap and regular pressure cap barb for overflow and it has in/out ports in 3/8" NPT. One line to the fill tank will run to it from the highest elevation side of the intercooler's coolant end tank, while the other port/barb, as Jay said, will run down hill to a T on the return (lower pressure) side of the coolant loop (between the IC and the pump) to allow suction to pull clean airless coolant down from the fill tank.

I'm wondering what PSI the cap should have. What PSI cap ratings do the super charged cars' tanks run?

I don't know, will the system get hot enough to actually lift a pressure cap and then need a bottle to suck back from? If ambient is 70* and the system rises to 150*, then yeah . . . . a 3 or 5 pound cap will lift but not a higher rated 212* 12 or 15 pound cap.

I'm thinking of using the windshield washer tank as a convenient overflow reservoir. There is no serious incompatibility between the two fluids - windshield washer and coolant - especially if overflow and suckback are rare events.

[86Shelby]

Coolant smeared by wipers sucks. Sucks badly.

[GLHNSLHT2]

After installing a reservoir in my friends system I'm pretty sure the is very little to zero pressure. Before the reservoir there was a lot because we could never get all the air out of the system. So the air in the water would heat up and if you took off the cap to the system it'd blow out all over.

Also anxiously waiting on pics and info about your reservoir John.

[johnl]

Here's pics of (1) the small fill tank, (2) the bottom of the IC - the two mounting aluminum tabs that connect to the steel bracket that bolts to the 520's bell housing, (3) the steel bracket as it bolts to those two tabs, (4) the warped DSM flange that I had to mill file flat (5) the rear bracket that bolts to the compressor face (with the small fill tank also seen), another view of the flange filing, and another view of the steel bottom bracket in place.

[A.J.]

Thanks for posting your progress John. I'm going to be going to Mega Squirt in the van so I can get rid of my distributor and put my new larger intercooler on the side of the head. You've given me a lot of good possible mounting ideas.

[GLHNSLHT2]

so what's the reservoir out of?

[johnl]

I was told that it is out of something Swedish, a Saab or maybe a Volvo. Steel, nicely welded up out of a piece of square tube.

[johnl]

Found this to control the heat exchanger fans -

http://www.jegs.com/i/Derale/259/167...11#moreDetails

Couldn't find a 12 volt DC sending unit that would switch on, with a relay, at 100* or thereabouts.

Got some 5-6" motorcycle fans at the junkyard, $10 each. One off a Kawi EX500, another off a Kawi 600 Ninja, and a third off of a Honda V4 Vulcan. Getting two of them mounted inside the bumper along with the exchanger will be a treat. Also grabbed the oil cooler off of an air/oil cooled Suzuki 1100 Bandit along with the hoses; they have versatile banjo fittings at both ends.

[A.J.]

I think you're wasting your time, money, and resources by putting a fan on the heat exchanger (if it's not located somewhere up front). I put mine in front of my radiator. If I need to cool off my heat exchanger, I just turn on my radiator fan.

[johnl]

See page 2, post #33 for pics of the heat exchanger.

It is well in front of the radiator, squeezed inside the aluminum Charger bumper that sits inside the nose cone/fascia; the distance between the heat exchanger and the radiator is too far from the radiator fan for it to pull air through the exchanger. There's a lot of room in that Charger fascia.

[johnl]

Cut the brackets off the fans and reused them to fabricate the mounting of the two fans. Tapped the bumper for the four little screws while the top mounts had nuts spot welded to the bracket so just drilled and bolted those. Split some 1/8 vacuum tube and slipped/taped it onto the shrouds' bare edges to protect the exchanger from those edges.

[minigts]

That is a great idea John! I wish it weren't going to be in front my IC, otherwise I would look for a condenser for the AC for my car with those dimensions! Great use of space!

[turbovanman²]

Great thread guys.

[johnl]

Thanks to Jon and Simon from me and A.J.


Here's pics of the Volvo oil cooler which will hang below the bumper, the pics are of the bumper upside down side.

There are two pieces of aluminum channel, the same stuff used for the upper intercooler bracket, that allow the cooler to stand off from the bottom of the bumper in a token effort to allow some clean, unheated, air to get through to the main engine radiator. Since it is difficult to get nuts into the gap between the intercooler exchanger and the bumper, I elected to drill and tap the bumper for the oil cooler's fasteners.

[johnl]

The thermostat arrived today, a pleasant surprise in that both the control pot/relay and the lead wire to the thermocouple are small, making both mounting the box and insertion of the sensor inside the hose feasible.

[johnl]

Since a nylon ferrule in a 1/8" NPT compression fitting nicely compresses down to the OD of the thermocouple, I'll be placing it in the hot side coolant end tank of the IC and not between a hose barb and the heater hose.

[GLHNSLHT2]

The hot side of the i/c is going to see way hotter temps than the 240 degree limit on that controller. I would think that you'd want it in the water outlet side of the i/c, if the water get's say above 100 degrees then kick the fans on. No???

[johnl]

Jay, I could have been more clear and I just edited above to try to fix it.

The thermocouple will be placed in the wet, on the wet hot side of the intercooler, the first place that heat, transferred from the hot air to the coolant, can be "seen" in the coolant. And, of course, while the air coming out of the compressor may well get that high, the coolant should never get anywhere near 240*

The second pic attempts to show (badly) the thermocouple's placement in the wet end tank that will be the output side of coolant from the intercooler from which it leaves for the exchanger up front in the bumper.

As for determining the turn on temp, there are two contact screws on end cap of the unit next to where the thermocouple's wire enters and I suspect that I will be able to connect a Fluke to them to read, and - on the bench - precisely set, the turn on temperature.

[GLHNSLHT2]

cool John, we're on the same page then. Just couldn't tell from the 2nd pic it was in the water manifold.