Alright, picked an intercooler

Daspanka

Daspanka

Registered User
After lamenting over it for two weeks. I think I've chosen a FMIC for my '95. It has the inlet and outlet on the same side, so the airflow is like a "U" shape through the IC. The core is 24x12x4. Because of the "U" routing of air, each half is a cross section. 6x4=24 and our stock IC seems to be 8x3=24, so about the same amount of internal flow as the stock. But, the air would flow through 48" of aluminum in the airstream, which is about 4 times the length of the stock. What do you guys think? Can I wedge this onto the front of my 95? Total lenght is 31". Appreciate any feedback.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Big-...2QQihZ019QQitemZ290013766316#ebayphotohosting

Thank you!
Daspanka
 
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Bad idea. The best intercoolors flow a short path through the core over a wide surface area. Here's what I mean...

Yours:
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Mine:

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You're probably going to have a high pressure drop, which means the blower is going to have to work harder to push the air through the core. In other words, you'll be wasting horsepower to make boost that you'll never see at the intake.

You've got the right idea with the same side inlet and outlet, you just need a different core.
 
youd be better off going with something like this, which happens to be for sale also. Core size is 18x6x3, 2 core made by procharger
 
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personally I prefer the double IC Victor has at spinning wheels...those suckers are sweet...;)..priiiiiiteeeeee too..:D
Rick
 
Pablo94SC said:
Bad idea. The best intercoolors flow a short path through the core over a wide surface area. Here's what I mean...

Yours:
[========]-
[========]-

Mine:

/----------]-
[||||||||||]
\----------]-

You're probably going to have a high pressure drop, which means the blower is going to have to work harder to push the air through the core. In other words, you'll be wasting horsepower to make boost that you'll never see at the intake.

You've got the right idea with the same side inlet and outlet, you just need a different core.
Click to expand...

Would it be possible for you to explain that a little more. I was gonna go with the same core Daspanka chose. There aren't many choices for same side FMIC's. I have searched and searched.
 
Look on the DSM sites. They sell plenty of kits like that. Or, find a top-down core from one of the various manufacturers (Spearco, Garrett, Griffin, et al) and then punch the core # into google. That'll get you a whole slew of sellers and they'll put the end tanks on however you like. Personally, for a lightly modded SC, a Griffin core with Spearco end-tanks would be perfect and cost between $4-600. $200 or so for all the plumbing and fittings... :)
 
Thanks for the advice, guys

Thank you very much for the feedback, especially Pablo94SC for putting it into perspective for me. Based on the advice I got here, I did choose a different IC. But, I'm not going with one of the short core models, though. Based on all your advice, I did some reading on the subject. Seems there are two kinds of pressure drop in an IC. Hydrualic pressure drop, caused by the constricted entrance to the IC core (always present, but too much is bad), or excessive turbulence (some turbulance is good) of the core. And pressure drop caused by cooling of the air charge (Put a filled ballon in the refridgerator for a while, it will shrink). The later pressure drop is desirable, and some hydrualic loss of pressure is inevitable. I chose an IC with a straight design 29x11x3, straight-in tapered end tanks, and about 50% more cross section than our stock. That should minimize hydraulic pressure loss and also offer a larger drop in air charge temp than the short cores, even though there will be more pressure lost due to cooling and internal turbulence or "drag" inside the IC. I think it's a good trade off. Thanks to everyone who replied as I was about to make a $200 mistake. If anyone else wants to read these articles, just do a google for intercooler design. They are all on the first search page.
 
Here's some pics

Here's the IC and the piping kit from Ebay. Just to finish the thread.
 
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Whoops, piping kit pic

The whole package including IC came in right around $350 after shipping.
 
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Ic

Looks like youll be able to make yourself a nice little setup


As far as intercooler Flowpaths That is very argueable
According to the GN guys The longer the core the more cooling capacity
because the Aircharge spends more time within the core thus extracting more heat. For Instance the Intercooler he has orginally listed on here had a 24x12 core and worked as a 2 pass intercooler, So the Aircharge would first be cooled when it flowed through the first half of the core 24x6 and then would make a second pass through another section or 24x6 core natrually the air would cool even more as it pased thorugh the second section of core.

I have seen this theory of the Longer length core But air charge travels a shorter distance But The GN guys dont seem to think this is the way to go

As far as the it taking more to fill the longer core, This doesnt make sense because our Intake is already pressurized from the Blower


In reference to:
"personally I prefer the double IC Victor has at spinning wheels...those suckers are sweet.....priiiiiiteeeeee too.."
Rick

Yes the I/C Victor sells are nice, Its to bad that they were about 150-200 cheaper before Victor became the sole distibuter (when they were able to be purchased from the fabricator)
 
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That,s About How 2 Ic,s Side By Side Are Done

rzimmerl said:
youd be better off going with something like this, which happens to be for sale also. Core size is 18x6x3, 2 core made by procharger
Click to expand...
I JUST MADE TAPED TUBES TOP & BOTTOM IN THE SAME CENTERS AS THE STOCK IC PIPING:eek: YOU MAKE 2 1/2 SS PIPING TO HOOK RIGHT INTO STOCK IC TUBES:cool: AND CONNECT THE FMIC WITH RUBBER CONNECTORS AT THE FMIC :p IN FRONT OF THE RADIATOR:)
 
Daspanka said:
After lamenting over it for two weeks. I think I've chosen a FMIC for my '95. It has the inlet and outlet on the same side, so the airflow is like a "U" shape through the IC. The core is 24x12x4. Because of the "U" routing of air, each half is a cross section. 6x4=24 and our stock IC seems to be 8x3=24, so about the same amount of internal flow as the stock. But, the air would flow through 48" of aluminum in the airstream, which is about 4 times the length of the stock. What do you guys think? Can I wedge this onto the front of my 95? Total lenght is 31". Appreciate any feedback.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Big-...2QQihZ019QQitemZ290013766316#ebayphotohosting

Thank you!
Daspanka
Click to expand...

Why is this better then what we already run on our cars?
 
Ford Interheater

rickbtbird said:
Why is this better then what we already run on our cars?
Click to expand...

IMHO, the factory unit is more of an interheater under most circumstances. You drive most of the time NOT under boost. While not under boost, the
bypass valve just recirculates air through the SC and IC. As everything heat soaks, the air in the "loop" heats up, futher heat soaking the IC. When you first crack open the boost, the first shot of air is that 150-200 degree "recycled" air. As hot or hotter than the "fresh" compressed air coming from the SC when under low boost. After that, the IC and SC tubing are so hot that they can't really cool the incoming air charge. Even with a 800cfm fan, my intercooler end tanks and sides of the core are so hot after normal driving that you can't lay your hand on them. The front mount is outside the engine compartment and in the airstream. It is further insulated from heat soak by the silicone connectors in the piping which don't transfer heat as well as the aluminum tubing. It's typical for the surface of the front mount intercooler to be only a few degree's above ambient during normal driving. This means that the 200 degree air coming from the SC is hitting an intercooler that's maybe 90 degrees or so instead of the 140 degrees+ that I've measured from my Ford unit. Under sustained boost (road course), the Ford IC will heat up further because of the poor air flow, so the figures will get worse (remember, you STARTED at 140-150 degrees). The front mount will heat a little, but will still shed most of the heat through the incredible difference in air flow and it's lack of receiving heat soak from the engine compartment. IMHO.
 
Longer vs shorter core

Conan56 said:
Looks like youll be able to make yourself a nice little setup


As far as intercooler Flowpaths That is very argueable
According to the GN guys The longer the core the more cooling capacity
because the Aircharge spends more time within the core thus extracting more heat. For Instance the Intercooler he has orginally listed on here had a 24x12 core and worked as a 2 pass intercooler, So the Aircharge would first be cooled when it flowed through the first half of the core 24x6 and then would make a second pass through another section or 24x6 core natrually the air would cool even more as it pased thorugh the second section of core.

I have seen this theory of the Longer length core But air charge travels a shorter distance But The GN guys dont seem to think this is the way to go

As far as the it taking more to fill the longer core, This doesnt make sense because our Intake is already pressurized from the Blower


In reference to:
"personally I prefer the double IC Victor has at spinning wheels...those suckers are sweet.....priiiiiiteeeeee too.."
Rick

Yes the I/C Victor sells are nice, Its to bad that they were about 150-200 cheaper before Victor became the sole distibuter (when they were able to be purchased from the fabricator)
Click to expand...

yeah, I got some great info from the BGN guys. The thing that made me change my mind is called "approach" which is the difference in temperature of the incoming air charge vs the intercoolers temperature. The wider the approach, the easier it is for the IC to remove heat fromt the charge. Let's say that the incoming air charge is 200f and the intercooler temp is 90f, that gives you an approach of 110f. The intercooler transfers heat from the air charge very efficiently down to about 20-30f above its core temp. Then it becomes inefficient in that adding inches of core will not result in much more heat being remove once the approach reaches temps this close to the cores temp. In other words, the first 10 inches of core may remove 70f from the charge, the next 10 inches only 30f, then the next 10 only 10f. You finally start loosing more pressure in turbulent hydraulic loss from the drag inside the core than you offset with temp loss. I looked at some of the factory high performance cars with IC's that worked (skyline GTR, etc) and they seem to follow that premise.
 
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