ronniebiggs

A couple of quick questions:

What size diameter pipe is best for the pipes connecting to the intercooler. My intercooler itself has a 2.25" inlet and outlet. Does it make any difference from a performance point of view?

Opinions on how to pipe it up? I like the idea of going over the top of the slam panel and through the holes on it as it frees up space around the fans and rad etc.

Many Thanks for any feedback.

Andy

Stephanie Turner

Andy,
The standard IC piping diameter is about 2" to 2.25". There is no real gain to be had from going with larger tubes. 2" tubing can easily support 400 whp with no drag in flow. Our IC tubes leave the turbo at 2". Tubing swages up to 2.25" at the intercooler inlet and outlet. Tubing then swages up to 2.5" for entry into the throttle body, only because it has to. At least 1/3 of the IC tube length is 2" in diameter.

Intercooler tubes need to be kept as short as possible. Route them accordingly.

Corky also believes that the Garrett turbo designers know what they are doing. They would not put a 2" outlet on a turbo that needed a larger flow area. Calculate the air velocity in the tube and keep it below 600ft/second. That will yield no drag.
Stephanie

ronniebiggs

Thank you for the reply Stephanie. I expected a flaming for posting this question and got a poor response. I appreciate your reply. Thats the exact answer I needed. I will probably keep it at 2.25" just for ease if I can get that size pipe. Routing may be a problem for me as I bought an intercooler which is probably a few inches to long. I initially intended the pipes to go up through the 2 holes in the slam panel but im not sure I will be able to achieve this now. I think I might have to come up next to the radiator instead.

How do I calculate the air velocity. What is the formula for it? I will have a go and let you know what I come up with.
Thanks again.
Andy

aaronc7

iTrader: (8)

600 ft/s seems pretty fast, but I can't say I've done any real world testing either. I always was under the assumption it was smart to stay below 0.3 or 0.4 mach... as past that there are significant and exponential losses associated.

I've had this excel spreadsheet for awhile that I use to calculate this crap... it's simplified, but gets you in the ballpark without having to toy with tons of options. I just added some tube diameter vs speed cells with reference speeds to mach 0.3 and 0.4. Feel free to use it if you want.

ronniebiggs

Thanks, Ive had a play with the attachement and if you only change the tube diameter and the psi amounts im well under the 0.3 mach. Does the tube length not have an effect on the end figure. I would have thought it did?

My pipe lengths are going to be longer than I expected as I cant get the pipes up through the holes in the slam panel. Instead I will have to cut the plastic air damn and take a 90 degree bend out from there head backwards towards the rear of the car then another 90 and another then verticla upwards if that makes any sense!
It will be a tight bend into the inlet manifold unless I go on an angle towards the Rad and put a bend in to straighten it up.

Damn its harder than I expected!

Guess its probably best to get a load of pipe and see how it goes.

aaronc7

iTrader: (8)

i would just assume the longer the pipe, more bends etc is just going to cause more restriction.. more psi loss between turbo and throttle body, but I don't think it really changes the theory behind air flow, diameter and speed etc. Either way obviously this is a simplification-- but at the same time this isn't an F1 race car, so I would say it's ballpark/close enough to really worry about.

ronniebiggs

im trying not to get to bogged down in the logistics of it. But I want to avoid making a silly mistake first time round so I dont have to spend money twice. I will order the pipes and plump it in. Just need to order my megasquirt from Brainiac then thats me up and running.

Im just waiting on alittle longer before I decide to take the leap.

Full_Tilt_Boogie

iTrader: (1)

Hyper says 4" charge pipes are where its at

aaronc7

iTrader: (8)

begi/fm kits use 2.0/2.25 hotside and 2.5 cold side....thats good enough reason for me

ronniebiggs

After many hours I have the intercooler mounted. I had to bend all the A/C pipes to make it fit as I found i had to get it high up so the plastic air channels fitted in. Now I need to wait for a few brackets for the bumper as I snapped the bolts that hold the bumper to the wing taking it off. Then I can put it back together and thats my first official turbo modification done!

aaronc7

iTrader: (8)

awesome. take some pics

ronniebiggs

I will do tomorrow.

ronniebiggs

Ok so here are some pics of a piping problem. It was hard to take good pics as it was only on axle stands. I could do with any advice on how they would pipe this intercooler up?







The left of the car (looking at the front!) should be ok to go alittle along the inner wing then back into the engine bay and up to the inlet manifold. But the other side is a nightmare. The pumps and belts are in the way!. The only thing I could think which im not happy with is to cut the inner wing and come up through it. Thats assuming it will line up somewhere near the turbo (As I havent ahd the manifold on yet!)

Any thoughts welcome.

buffon01

iTrader: (9)

Over the rad seems a solution to me. I have 2.5" all around, but I'm a ghetto ****.

ronniebiggs

I cant get over the rad i dont think as the intercooler is to wide and the ends stick out almost level with the start of the inner wing. I wouldnt be able to get back inward and up through the holes.

this was the way I wanted to go. If I could still do it I would love someone to tell me how.

Pics would be good if possible to illustrate it.

ronniebiggs

Anyone managed to keep the A/C with FI?

Stephanie Turner

Yes. And I have a rather large intercooler. Do the inlet and outlet on the IC point to the ground?
Stephanie

ronniebiggs

No they point horizontal. I wish they did as it would be easy to go through the holes in the slam panel

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

Better pics:

















I've even fit this 18x12x3" core with a/c:

ronniebiggs

I dont know how you did it! I just cant see how I would get the pipe through the pipes (See the 2nd from bottom pick of my pics).

What bore size 2"?

I couldnt fit any bigger intercooler as it hits the aircon condensor (i think thats what it is!) near the aircon rad.