fran shroud

nickleman60

Registered User
a friend of mine had a good suggestion about installing a shroud on the intercooler and bolting the i/c fan to it.it seems that with bolting a fan directly to the intercooler it will only pull air from directly in front of the fan.if you have a shroud covering the whole finned area, it would pull air from the whole finned area.the theory works well on a radiator why not a i/c.i fabbed one out of cardboard last night and i'll make it in the next few days and see how it works
 
Does anyone know what kind of results this would produce? I have a double IC & I've always wondered just how much air the fan draws from around the outer perimeter vice through the coils, & what if any performance could be gained by a shroud.
 
In general, the efficiency of using a fan to pull air through the IC is limited to start with, so adding a shroud on the whole assembly expecting any gain is questionable. To be honest, I'd be concerned that it would limit air flow at "speed" and decrease the efficiency of the air flowing through it naturally.

It's one of those things that isn't going to be an automatic win and would require someone to just test it.
 
I read somewhere a ways back that you don't get significant natural airflow across the IC until 80 mph or so, due to everything that's in front of it. I like the shroud idea, but you do bring up a good point about it possibly restricting airflow at speed. Nickleman60 built one is is going to install it on his new double IC. Guess we'll see how it works!
 
Mike8675309 said:
In general, the efficiency of using a fan to pull air through the IC is limited to start with, so adding a shroud on the whole assembly expecting any gain is questionable. To be honest, I'd be concerned that it would limit air flow at "speed" and decrease the efficiency of the air flowing through it naturally.

It's one of those things that isn't going to be an automatic win and would require someone to just test it.

I would say if that is the case we wouldnt need a fan shroud for our radiators. With a AC condenser sitting right in front of the intercooler you are not going to get that much natural air flow to the IC. Most guys install a fan directly to the IC and that will allow the fan to suck air only through the center portion of the IC. A shroud allows the fan to set back from the IC and pull air through the entire core. I think without the shroud installing an IC fan is not as efficent. Thats my thoughts

Ken
 
while i'm waiting for my i/c gaskets from tbird88 i took my double i/c with shroud and fan mounted to it and jumped it to a battery.i took a cigarrette and held it in front of the i/c to see how it pulled the smoke through it.it sucked the smoke through it from top to bottom.i then took my hand and felt the suction of the fan from top to bottom.in my opinion it's going to work very well when mounted to the car.
 
by the way ken i searched an earlier post and saw the double i/c with a shroud you made for someone.absolutely beautiful work! i actually scraped my first one i made in favor of one that's more similiar to yours.
 
I was thinking of doing a shroud as well....

Several years ago when I was working down in the gypsum mine we had to do a ventilation survey, so we where testing the fans. The fans where contained in a pipe that stuck out 2 feet out front/back of the fan. We discovered that the fan was only pushing 30% of its capacity.... the other 70% was being "lost" because of the exit air was actually being sucked back around to the entrance of the fan.

Once we built a shroud on the exit which extended it out 5 feet, the fan was running at 85% of its capacity.

I can see the same problem with just mounting the fan on the IC without a shroud. If you shrouded the fan it would be able to move more volume of air through the fins because you won't be wasting it sucking its own air back (and heated air at that) through it.

I get a feeling that the shroud wouldn't cause that much back pressure at cruise speeds to be an issue.

Frit
 
nickleman60 said:
while i'm waiting for my i/c gaskets from tbird88 i took my double i/c with shroud and fan mounted to it and jumped it to a battery.i took a cigarrette and held it in front of the i/c to see how it pulled the smoke through it.it sucked the smoke through it from top to bottom.i then took my hand and felt the suction of the fan from top to bottom.in my opinion it's going to work very well when mounted to the car.

Go to search at the top of page & type in "diffrent ideal on dbl ic" lot of diffrent post on like subjects, this is just one of them

Ken
 
nickleman60 said:
by the way ken i searched an earlier post and saw the double i/c with a shroud you made for someone.absolutely beautiful work! i actually scraped my first one i made in favor of one that's more similiar to yours.

Thanks I built a lot of these for the local guys and they loved them. Your idea with the smoke to see how the air flows is a good one. I think you will see an improvement
 
Keith, you should to try your cigarette idea on your intercooler without the shroud. You could hold it on the back side & see how much smoke gets sucked in around the fan.
 
i don't want to unbolt everything and remount the fan to do that.since your fan is bolted directly to the i/c why don't you try it?
 
Ok, probably best after I take it out of the car. There might be too much turbulance blowing around with it in the car.
 
i thought yours is wired to come on when yot turn the key on.don't start the car just turn on the key and test with some smoke
 
mcate said:
Does anyone know what kind of results this would produce? I have a double IC & I've always wondered just how much air the fan draws from around the outer perimeter vice through the coils, & what if any performance could be gained by a shroud.

mcate,
I have the IC that Ken made and you were seeing pictures of. It's a 2x IC with the fan shroud. ACT temps were logged on the dyno. On my 4th pull, peak rpms at WOT my ACT temps were 95*F with ambient temp at 76*F. A lot of this not only has to do with the fan and shroud, but also the design of the IC, porting on the supercharger, etc. There's a lot that went into my overall design of my SC mods. On my shroud, the sides and top and bottom are sealed off so the air HAS to come through the cores. No matter what anyone else says, a shroud WILL help. It's pretty easy if you think about it. Air is being pulled through at a certain rate. The problem is (without a shroud) that you are ONLY pulling through the cores where the fan is. The remaining surface area of the core doesn't have anything pulling air through it. Now, put a shroud on there, and you will pull through the entire surface area of the core. The key to it is though is to have the fan slightly away from the IC core. Mine is mounted on the shroud about 3/4" away from the core. Airflow is constant across the entire core. And by my dyno logged ACT temps, it is working. It will work, and improve the efficeincy of the fan.
 
i made mine 1/2" thick.any thicker and i'd have problems hitting the power steering pump pulley.as it is now the back of the i/c fan will be about 1/4" away from the pulley.i'm surprized that more people haven't done this to their i/cs.it's not only a very functional part ,it's inexpensive(i made my own) and looks pretty trick in my opinion.
 
nickleman60 said:
i made mine 1/2" thick.any thicker and i'd have problems hitting the power steering pump pulley.as it is now the back of the i/c fan will be about 1/4" away from the pulley.i'm surprized that more people haven't done this to their i/cs.it's not only a very functional part ,it's inexpensive(i made my own) and looks pretty trick in my opinion.
Got any pictures?

Tracy
 
no but if you go to the top of the and look under search for i/c fan shroud you can see pics of the one ken wagner made.it can give you some ideas of how to make your own
 
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