Cut up my lightning IC tonight, interesting *MAJOR DUW*

V6Sprout

Registered User
Well I finally decided to cut up that lightning IC I have, I was told it leaked thus the reason I got it so cheap, these things are damn near $900 from FORD, I got this one for $33 off eBay. Anyways I cut both end tanks off to find that the IC core is actualyy TWO cores, which is perfect sicne I wanted to cut it in half, now I have TWO good cores, sweet. I am gonna have the inlet and outlet come out the rear or may be the front like the cobra, and I want to ultimately use the Cobra blower since the lightnign may sit too high even for a cowl hood, but witht he smaller IC the blower will sit much lower, check out the pics. There are a lot :)

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almost looks like it had been attempted to be fixed already, the case didn't look hacked up so I wonder if FORD tests these first and welds them up where they leak when they assemble them?

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Interesting the coolant flows across the top then throught the bottom, or vice versa, I thought it flowed one side then down the other side, but nope, top to bottom which really makes more sense now that I think of it, its just the way the tubes are setup made me think side to side.

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cores cut in half.

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and now sitting on my custom intake witht he lightnign adapter plate and a Suprecoupe blower for reference sake.

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and the orginal height it sat at before I cut the IC

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ummm....

Looks good.

I talked to my buddy at the ford dealership, his claim on the water-to-air intercooler found in the lightnings is that it actually WARMS the air. He feels this is mainly for emmissions purposes to keep temps at a specific constant.

He told me that he emptied the system on his truck and ran a couple of tenths quicker between cool downs.
 
really? so it ran quicker without the IC then? I know a lot of lightnign guys upgrade the intercooler heat exchanger and this helps a lot.
 
"I know a lot of lightnign guys upgrade the intercooler heat exchanger and this helps a lot."

Exactly.

Apparently according to my buddy who is a Ford Tech and has 2 supercoupes in his garage, said is basically, the Ford Lightening Intercooler is too small to be effective as a charge air cooler. Instead, at a certain point, it ends up doing more to heat the air and maintain constant intake temps to the engine. Be it 20ºF or 90ºF outside.

His mod was simple, but he does recognize and recommend what other lightening owners do by upgrading the intercooler.

One area that he felt that could improve would be the front heat exchanger. He also told me that he filled the whole system with ice water and ran a couple tenths quicker too, before everything heated up. Then it ran even slower than it did empty.

I asked him if he beleived in using air-to-air and air-to-water intercoolers and his response was "Absolutly! As long as they are properly sized and are able to efficiently absorb and reject heat"

Your lightening intercooler may not be scrap just yet. Remember, the lightenings use the M112 Blower which is bigger than our M90's. PLus, if you pay special attention to using a good water heat exchanger and a quick water pump, I'm sure it would give you gains.
 
I hate to say it but I think your freind is FOS....The IC as to preheat air for emmisions?...Oh brother....
 
Deep6 - my goal here is to use the lightning or Cobra blower on the SC motor, but my idea is alos to obtain the same HP with less boost using the larger blower, so in doing so less heat from the blower which may actually increase HP or effeciency at least of the blower. Then depending on how that goes up the boost for more HP.
 
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