Intercooler sprayer, convert wiper fluid resevoir?

Darkside

Registered User
I was looking at an intercooler sprayer on Ebay a little while ago and was thinking that those things are basically the same thing as a windshield washer tank, at least the one I was looking at anyway. I mean, if somebody wanted to they could just run the hose from their washer tank to a sprayer in front of their intercooler. Plus you could fill it with ice to keep it real cold. When you push in on the window wiper lever, instead of spraying your windshield it would spray your intercooler. You would have to disable the function that turns on your wipers though. I don't know what kind of performance if any those sprayers add so that would be the variable. :confused:
 
Well in theory, and this is just me spittballing here, the cooler you keep your atomized fuel/air mix the more you can compress it before detonation giving a lil more horsepower. Whether something like that will work is anyones guess till it's actually tested. Although my washer hose broke loose from the little splitter up by the fire wall so I just plugged it far as I know the pump still works maybe I'll give that a try. I like the ice idea by the way :D...

Rick in FL :cool:
 
Yes your totally right. Ive read the same thing in a sports compact magazine. I think they used a different fluid to spray on the ic but same idea exactly. Just get a spray end nozzle to put on the hose and position it to spray over the ic. If you plan to do this let me know b/c me and my friend were both thinking about doing it. Cost a few bucks at max so its a cheap mod. Zach
 
There is a different fluid that is "Recommended" to be sparyed onto the IC. Can't remember why right now, but my buddy's doin this on his 86/9 Conquest. It's just another way to get a little more power, and it can be done for very cheap, any scrap yard will have most of the parts you'll need.
 
thats funny b/c my friend i talked abouts doing it to his 88 starion/conquest. lol. I just called him and told him to look the fluid up if mentioned. Ill post back. Zach
 
Alcohol would be best..However it can corrode aluminum after awhile...Im sure however window washer fluid itself would be just fine..Still bette rthen plain old water
 
I posted some pic's .....

Some time ago I posted some pic's of a setup that I made.The cost was around $20 and it took about a 1/2 day to build. You take a washer bottle from a "F" seires truck or bronco, cut off the rad. overflow,and plum it up. The sprayer was made from 1/8" copper tubes with holes drilled down one side of each tube. The tubes were hooked together on the top and bottom with only the top two tubes drilled as well. The unit slides between the cooler and the front rubber. You run the thing with a push switch hooked up to 12 volts.... Simple and it works as well.... Now before someone asks for some more pic.s, I will be getting my son over here soon and I will ask him to shoot them... In the time being,if someone wants,{and knows how, I don't} they could do a search for them...........Rich
 
Why do you guys want to waste your time with washer fluid? When your car is hot and then you spray washer fluid on it, its not going to cool it quick enough to even make a difference. What you need is a CO2 sprayer.

Get a 10 lb nitrous bottle, fill it with CO2, run a switch to the solenoid, and then plumb it up to a brass spray bar with holes drilled in it, mounted to the front of the ic. We built one, and in 15 seconds the IC was frosty.

You could even wire up a WOT switch and then a master switch so when you are racing you can power up the system and then when you go to WOT it will spray. I would personally do it before a race since while you are staging you could be icing up the IC.
 
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I guess the IC sprayer idea probably works or Subaru wouldn't add unnecessary weight by installing it on their rally cars, but for drag racing it wouldn't work. If you have any kind of liquid dripping out from under your hood, you'll be sent back to the pits. And even if they don't notice, you don't want to be the a-hole who waters down the track... CO2 might work better, although people would probably think you had rigged up a fake nitrous purge valve...
 
The only downfall to an IC sprayer using c02 is that over time, when spraying co2 on intercoolers like our factory cores that have epoxied endtanks, the constant change from hot to cold could cause the cores to crack. Ive been told this many times when I first found the NX ntercooler kit and posted it here.
 
nothing a little creative ingenuity could fix. From our testing it works good and it usually so damn hot outside in the summer the water will evaporate in a matter of minutes. Plus what about tire tracks that are wet from the water box rolling up to the line? I would personally have a switch to spray it for about 10 to 20 seconds while staging, then turn it off, that way its already cold when you launch. Or you could use WOT to activate it but it might not really help much until you're through the traps. Now on the street or highway it'd help but at the track you want the IC frosty before you race.
 
Scott

The water evaporating is just what you want..Use alcohol or window washer fluid even better. Without getting technical (there is no reason for it here) take some alcohol and a cotton ball and swipe your arm with it..Feels cool...DO the same thing then wave your arm. Feels even cooler. It's all about dissapating heat..And a cheap way to do it mind you. Kind of like when you sweat..Its to cool you down. Stand in front of a fan. Feels even cooler even though its the same hot air blowing on you that originally made you hot.

Its no mistake the WRX and Lancer EVO have "window washer fluid" spray bars on their intercoolers.

Sure CC2 would cool better...Or NO2..Or any compressed gas for that matter,,But its cost prohibitive and requires a tad bit more for installation. Also the CO2 can cause cracking on the IC seems and weak spots on the core of the IC (Extreme Cases).

All in all the alcohol sprayer is cheaper and easier to install and will do the job just fine. Its also easier to refill..Anywhere
 
One of my old budies at Jegs had NOS hooked up to his intercooler on his 87 GN. He said it work really well. He told me to put it on my SC many years ago.

Shane
 
Yeah but take a co2 canister and puncture it and spray it on your arm, you'll get frost bite. I believe rubbing alcohol would work to a degree but N20 or CO2 would be much more efficient. Due to the properties of the N20, I'd inject it into the intake tract after the blower and before the IC to cool the air and add oxygen to the mixture to burn the fuel more efficiently. Spraying it on the intercooler would work but its a good waste of nitrous when you can spray it IN the intercooler and get more benefits in the performance dept.
 
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On that note a properly functioning alcohol injection kit will work real well...As would a properly functioning propaine injection kit....Keyword Properly..

But fopr a cheap make a difference..YA cant beat a IC water sprayer
 
pro street rich said:
Some time ago I posted some pic's of a setup that I made.The cost was around $20 and it took about a 1/2 day to build. You take a washer bottle from a "F" seires truck or bronco, cut off the rad. overflow,and plum it up. The sprayer was made from 1/8" copper tubes with holes drilled down one side of each tube. The tubes were hooked together on the top and bottom with only the top two tubes drilled as well. The unit slides between the cooler and the front rubber. You run the thing with a push switch hooked up to 12 volts.... Simple and it works as well.... Now before someone asks for some more pic.s, I will be getting my son over here soon and I will ask him to shoot them... In the time being,if someone wants,{and knows how, I don't} they could do a search for them...........Rich

I been waitin and asken and waitin for you to post those pics again :D Where did you put the washer bottle? Is the pump inside the bottle or is it mounted seprately to? Im trying to go by memory from the first time i seen those pics but it was like 6 months ago
 
here's my .02 since i've been messing with the sprayer the last couple days. i went to the track the other night and ran 6 times. the 1 time i remembered to hit the IC sprayer (windshield squirts)was my fastest run of the night. i took the tube that goes to the squirts and put a nozzle in it. i ran the tube forward to the IC. then i cut out the screen in my washer fluid reservoir. without the screen you can fill it with ice and water. now the track where chris and i go to, you usually are in for about a 20-45 minute wait to even get near staging. so we pop the hood, pump the piss out of the sprayer and run the IC fan if so equipped. reach down the back side of your IC and there ya go. it's cold. not rocket science. cooler is better. i made a sprayer nozzle out of a bic pen and got a pretty good fan shaped pattern out of it. now as far as alcohol, i haven't experimented with it but spray alcohol in a fine mist at hot metal and it evaporates instantly. granted, you could be wetting the track by spraying water but the boot for the IC contains what doesn't blow back toward the engine. i've since hooked up a wire to the hot lead on the pump and i won't have to run my wipers while spraying anymore. as for my 2 cents, that's about what it costs for an IC sprayer. it works pretty good.
 
I have tried and tested all the items above and would not recommend for the following reasons:

CO2- Freezes up, does not last long, hard to get it refilled. Cannot use a nitrous bottle

Spraying water- makes a mess, if you dare do it in the lanes they will run you out, not worth the trouble with little to no gains. You are better off putting Ice on the IC in the staging lanes anyway.

water/alchol injection- Maybe if you have detonation, no powergains, good for cars with no IC or that run 20psi+

It would serve you a 100 percent better to just put a nitrous kit on and run a small 50 shot, there is no wondering about that. ;)
 
Scott,

I've seen the co2 sprayer on Micah's car and a similar NX nitrous spray bar on my son-in-law's Supra. The thing that I didn't like about either one is how quickly the bottle emptys.

I rather just spray some nitrous into the lower IC tube for cooling the air. Something small like a 25 HP shot would be plenty and wouldn't require any other mods.

David
 
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