top mounted intercooler. Has anyone tried it?

Heh heh, no matter how fast you're going in an STI or WRX, it's still an STI or an WRX and not an American vehicle with half of the awesomeness and overall cool, rare, mojo of the T-Bird SC. The STI's and WRX's are great cars, and many foreign cars are engineered well, but there's something about American engineering that has a crudeness and is less refined that appeals to me.

That being said, the SC is not one of those crudely designed examples. To me, the SC is one of the best American engineered cars ever, and was/ is still much ahead of it's time. Straight line power isn't what makes the SC as great as it is.
 
An sti is not even close to the same league of car its lighter awd twin overhead cam flat 4 turbocharged 6 speed manual car. That's like comparing a gt500 to a 90s v6 stang
 
Ya I am serious. Have you ever raced one at a legal quarter mile track? Like I said 12.8 is a 12.8 no matter what did it, no stock super coupe has ever even came close. So yes I am serious. You never really got my point anyway. turshin got it though.

I really think you're the one missing the point here. The placement of the IC is irrelevant to the car's 1/4 mile time. The Subies would be just as fast or faster with a front mount.

By your logic, since the WRX has 4 doors and runs faster than an SC, we'd better add two more doors to our SCs. 12.8 is 12.8 no matter what did it.
 
You said that i can fins a core and pipe kit for our cars for 350 dollars. Now tell me specifically where you can find this kit at. Not trying to say it doesn't exist I may be interested in buying it.


CXRacing. Intercooler, choose your size. Piping kit, again choose your size/bends ect. It requires some fab work, but you'll be real close to $350 depending on options. I don't believe anyone makes a "reasonably priced" kit specifically for the SC ( I feel MP's is out of their minds on the price of theirs).

Adam
 
WRX has 100 more rwhp than a stock SC and weights at least 600lbs less than one. Not really a fair comparison stock for stock, not to mention the better traction the WRX would have.

I believe MannySC had a top mount SC on his car back quite a while ago. It didn't work well because at that location there is low pressure across the hood near the base of the window. To move it somewhere else you would want to identify or create a high pressure area above the inlet of the intercooler heat exchanger and a low pressure area below it. You can use a fan to create some of that but it always works way better if the design of the car creates some on it's own. Thus the reason why the stock location is next to the radiator and sealed there. When all the parts of the SC chassis are in place (including the rubber lip below the lower radiator support) a natural low pressure area is created to the rear of the radiator and stock intercooler location when the vehicle drives down the road.
 
I'm not going to get into the debate of front mount vs top mount intercooler's but check this out. Around ten or fifteen years ago I heard of a body shop local to me selling what was supposed to be a prototype SC engine. In fact I believe I heard about it from someone on these boards. Anyway, I went to check it out and it was in fact an SC engine but I didn't consider buying it because the owner of the shop wanted to much for it. But the interesting thing about it was it also came with the radiator and intercooler which were in fact one unit. It looked like one big full sized radiator but the top half or bottom half (can't remember which one but I think bottom) was the intercooler. There was also a 60 pin breakout box that came with the engine and radiator/intercooler setup. I wish I would have at least taken some pictures of the radiator/intercooler setup ...never seen anything like it.
 
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I believe MannySC had a top mount SC on his car back quite a while ago. It didn't work well because at that location there is low pressure across the hood near the base of the window. To move it somewhere else you would want to identify or create a high pressure area above the inlet of the intercooler heat exchanger and a low pressure area below it. You can use a fan to create some of that but it always works way better if the design of the car creates some on it's own. Thus the reason why the stock location is next to the radiator and sealed there. When all the parts of the SC chassis are in place (including the rubber lip below the lower radiator support) a natural low pressure area is created to the rear of the radiator and stock intercooler location when the vehicle drives down the road.[/QUOTE]

That's the best answer I've seen on this whole thread. Thank you guys for all your input. A good debate is always healthy. I was just trying to come up with some things to do while the engine is out of the car. Gonna check out an intercooler an pipe system for my car cause I agree that the Magnum Powers kit for 1400 dollars is insane. Keep those birds flying guys.
 
Ya I am serious. Have you ever raced one at a legal quarter mile track? Like I said 12.8 is a 12.8 no matter what did it, no stock super coupe has ever even came close. So yes I am serious. You never really got my point anyway. turshin got it though.

I agree the placement of the IC has nothing to do with 1/4 mile times.

For that matter if you want one of the fastest 1/4 times look no further than the Buick Grand National.

Even very mild tweeking will yield to a 12.5 quarter mile with traction.
 
Heck, just get a 300c SRT8 and you'll be in the 12's without doing anything. Get the 300c hemi and some light tweaking will get you in the 12's, and not have to worry about intercooler's etc :rolleyes:.....

Put the 300c against the Wxi and go flat out for top speed.....

Just saying.
Fraser
 
I love this its so easy to stir a turd, lol. I think that intercooler placement is very important to a cars performance, quarter mile times or other. It seems that the super coupe has heat soak problems also. I am comparing a top mount intercooler car to a front mount. Just so happens that the WRX was brought up, not by me by the way. And it works for the WRX ( my point by the way). So after seeing the (worst ever idea) comment i thought why say that unless you had tried it. I dont think a top mount intercooler will work on a Super Coupe. It doesnt matter if the WRX is a rally car and weighs so much less or if its awd or if it was a 100,00 dollar super car or if its still just a WRX it posted what it posted, the stupid things are fast. A 12.8 is a 12.8 even if the neighbor kid did it on his ten speed bike. Stock for stock no Super Coupe will take a WRX. Also I seen advertised 1986 grand national time of 13.7, the 87 GNX was posted at 13.3. Minor tweeking would most likely not get a 12.5 from the GN and maybe from the GNX. Anyway I posted stock for stock. O ya the times I posted are from a site called Zero to 60 times.
 
WRX has 100 more rwhp than a stock SC and weights at least 600lbs less than one. Not really a fair comparison stock for stock, not to mention the better traction the WRX would have.

I believe MannySC had a top mount SC on his car back quite a while ago. It didn't work well because at that location there is low pressure across the hood near the base of the window. To move it somewhere else you would want to identify or create a high pressure area above the inlet of the intercooler heat exchanger and a low pressure area below it. You can use a fan to create some of that but it always works way better if the design of the car creates some on it's own. Thus the reason why the stock location is next to the radiator and sealed there. When all the parts of the SC chassis are in place (including the rubber lip below the lower radiator support) a natural low pressure area is created to the rear of the radiator and stock intercooler location when the vehicle drives down the road.

Good points. There indeed is a low pressure zone at the base of the windshield. I was researching ways to reduce heat in the engine bay and someone had mentioned that, and it had pointed out that you have to take advantage of low/ high pressure zones when you're moving down the road.
 
I love this its so easy to stir a turd, lol. I think that intercooler placement is very important to a cars performance, quarter mile times or other. It seems that the super coupe has heat soak problems also. I am comparing a top mount intercooler car to a front mount. Just so happens that the WRX was brought up, not by me by the way. And it works for the WRX ( my point by the way). So after seeing the (worst ever idea) comment i thought why say that unless you had tried it. I dont think a top mount intercooler will work on a Super Coupe. It doesnt matter if the WRX is a rally car and weighs so much less or if its awd or if it was a 100,00 dollar super car or if its still just a WRX it posted what it posted, the stupid things are fast. A 12.8 is a 12.8 even if the neighbor kid did it on his ten speed bike. Stock for stock no Super Coupe will take a WRX. Also I seen advertised 1986 grand national time of 13.7, the 87 GNX was posted at 13.3. Minor tweeking would most likely not get a 12.5 from the GN and maybe from the GNX. Anyway I posted stock for stock. O ya the times I posted are from a site called Zero to 60 times.

Regarding heat soak in the intercooler, has anyone tried to fabricate or MacGuyver some sort of heat shield in between the lower IC tube and the manifold? I was thinking of doing that, or even wrapping some sort of thermal reflective tape or material around the lower IC tube. It was mentioned somewhere else that a flaw in the SC intercooler design was that Ford put the lower IC tube right next to the driver's exhaust manifold. I was thinking of getting ceramic coated Kooks headers for that reason, but it doesn't look like those are in production.

I know that Ford, on my 3.8 Stang, had put some thermal fabric on the EGR tube, which gets ridiculously hot (and almost threatens to burn through spark plug wires, based on the wire looms that connect to the valve cover bolt appendages). Looks like crap, but helps to cut down on the EGR tube temps, especially considering that the tube itself is located right under and by the intake manifold/ air intake tube.

Edit: if one was to thermally insulate the upper and lower IC tubes, does anyone think that it would trap the heat inside the tubes, from the blower? On one hand, you'd be protected from heat soak from the engine bay, but i'm wondering whether the more brutal temps aren't from the inside.
 
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Regarding heat soak in the intercooler, has anyone tried to fabricate or MacGuyver some sort of heat shield in between the lower IC tube and the manifold? I was thinking of doing that, or even wrapping some sort of thermal reflective tape or material around the lower IC tube. It was mentioned somewhere else that a flaw in the SC intercooler design was that Ford put the lower IC tube right next to the driver's exhaust manifold. I was thinking of getting ceramic coated Kooks headers for that reason, but it doesn't look like those are in production.

Seen this thread? http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthr...ock-cast-manifolds&highlight=wrapped+manifold
 
Good thing we are on a Thunderbird enthusiasts website eh?

What, you suggesting I shouldn't say anything at all unless its about the SC?

Sheesh, I get shoved out because I don't own an SC any more even after everything I did for the SC and this community.

Laters
Fraser
 
What, you suggesting I shouldn't say anything at all unless its about the SC?

Sheesh, I get shoved out because I don't own an SC any more even after everything I did for the SC and this community.

Laters
Fraser

Fraser, I think Tom was just poking fun and that it was nothing personal. Theres always joking going on around here, and I think its apparent that this thread really wasnt going anywhere good anyway.
 
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