My retarded intercooler idea
 

Let me just say, first and foremost that I know that this is a very stupid idea, and that a normal front mount would be ten million times better. Also, that I rarely say shit this stupid, and maybe I am having an off day.

But...

Whenever I see the new begi s-kit's cross pipe I think, like someone else mentioned that it would be a useful part to modify. The logical, practical, and obvious thing to do would be to add water injection and have a very good system.

Ok, now here is my stupid idea. Get a really small intercooler, as in, a stock one from a turbo car or something of that respect and plumb it in where the cross pipe is. Now I know that airflow is needed for an intercooler to really work, but there is some air moving in there, just not a lot and its not exactly cold, but still. The only reason I really am thinking about this is that it would be painfully easy to just plonk down an intercooler there, and that it might have some kind of minuscule gain. Maybe cut a hole in the hood and make some dicting to get some flow through it? As I said, this is a stupid idea, and I have no idea what the fuck I am talking about, but I would just like to know if this is truly retarded, or if some tiny gain could be made from doing this.

Oh and a side thought, has anybody ever just had an intercooler sticking up out of the hood like those giant double blowers on old muscle cars? new trend eh?

semi diagram-
Attachment 215187

you could try having an intercooler sticking up in a wrx-style scoop

If your willing to cut up the hood and all, I would go with a top mount intercooler, as Mach929 suggested. I would literally copy what Subaru did, and use a scoop off of a WRX, as I think they look cool as hell. Your gonna need cool air if you want to cool the air much with a tiny intercooler.

That's where you put the Water to Air Core.

Mark

Like Y8s old setup.

How about a paraffin IC guys.

heatercore FTL

You could do it
It might be easy
As you said it would not be the ideal situation because of airflow.
Maybe with the right ducting it would function better than no intercooler at all
There is a reason people change out OEM top mount intercoolers
My coilovers don't fit and I'm in a bad mood
Try it with a scoop and a radiator fan from a sportbike wired to run all the time
Run the piping across the back into the wiper cowl and run a cowl hood

I'm out of things to say.....

Finally someone else admits it IC'ers are retarded :p

haha nice mag.. i'm soon to be joining you mag with the WI team.

you rang?

http://gallery.y8s.com/d/252-3/DSC00747.jpg

I think I posted about a top mount intercooler in a miata like the first week I joined this forum. Everyone said it made no sense because of heatsoak, and the expense associated with cutting up the hood. No doubt it would make running IC pipes simpler but it just wont work to well. Recently I have also realized just how little space there is under the hood. Even if you mold a hood scoop into the hood, or chop one off a subaru and glue it onto our, the intercooler probably wont have enough space underneath sitting on the engine.

Thanks for the responses. Well that liquid to air barrel intercooler seems to be the kind of thing I was thinking about, but hot damn, those are expensive. Plus they need lots of other bits to work, making them complicated, and the opposite of what I was after. y8s, how much did that setup cost you?

I guess I need to read up some more on WI as so far that seems like the most realistic idea, that will actually work well.

The small a/a IC with a scoop sounds cool, but it would probably like people have said, not work very well, and ultimately be more of a pain in the ass then just fabricating a fmic system. I still like the idea though

IIRC last year there was a post with a white turbo miata(90?) that had a saab 900 IC in the engine compartment (mounted on Passengerside). It was very nicely done. there was a small hoodscoop as well.



http://hometown.aol.com/cujet/turbomiata2.html

I'd only do it if I could completely block the airflow from the radiators and scavenge good ambient airflow, It also would need a hood scoop and ducting to flow the air out under the car...

Are you sure? I dont think the STI's and the RX7s have anything that complicated. As long as the car is moving I would imagine it will be fine. The only thing both those cars do is they have the scoops seal around the intercooler.

edit: But ultimately FMIC are cheaper, easier, and much more efficient. But you cant deny the awesomeness of a miata + hoodscoop.

thier location is better, behind the radiator means the only airflow is from the hot air passing through the radiator, it will quickly become a heatsink.

the stis, since they are sealed, wont cause airflow issues for the radiator. if you simply cut a scoop, the air forced in behind the radiator could very easily make it so no air travels through the radiator itself anymore.

I saw a CRX that did something like this and he literally just had the DSM intercooler sticking out of the hood. Ghetto as hell, but it looked interesting.

Here is what I have done:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...d/IMG_1625.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...d/IMG_1628.jpg

I cut a vent in the hood, it was easy and looks good too. I will post a pic of it soon.

What kinda clearances for the belts are you working with?

Kylelind,
Cool manifold, is your dp perfectly straight?

there is a guy here in Atlanta has a NB with a small intercooler in the exact same place/style as you mention. I have seen the car 2 times and it's been awhile. BUT if anyone in Atlanta sees a blue NB with silver stripes...... oh fuck hold on...


Alrighty found a pic......
I talked with the owner and he had temp. sensors on either side of the intercooler and said it worked quite well. He was running a M45 on it at the time. Also, air was begin fed through the hood via a Viper style scoop.
http://www.ushills.com/~shawnh/trips...100025_JPG.jpg

you'll probably find that guy over at Mnet in the classics and collectibles section, lol

to the OP, i think it can be done and it can work but i doubt its better than a front mount, especially with higher boost/power cars due to size limitations of intercooler among other things im sure
so ie. lets not reinvent the wheel

I just noticed that Blue NB with the viper tag has a air intake duct in it's driverside headlight. I like it.

I like the N20 sprayer on it. doubt he saw less than 120°F

Should have sprayed it in the intake, it would do a lot more good. Some people are just scared to death to spray nitrous in the motor, they think it's 'suicide'.

You can look at my build thread for the rest of the pics but I am working with about 1.5" of clearance between the back of the v-mount and the pulleys. The best part of my setup is that I did not have to chop the car up at all, all bolt on....except the hood. The downpipe has a bend in it but is pretty straight. All of my temps seem good and I have yet to put any shrouds on!! I can do some datalogging at Laguna Seca in January.

Droptop and kyleind, thanks so much for the pictures.

Did you buy the v-mount radiator as a kit? If so I'd assume it's a bit pricy, especially because of the new radiator. But its still a very cool idea, although I would almost rather just slightly angle the stock radiator and run a fmic with over the rad piping like that crazy expensive track dog one. Still a very cool setup.

And droptop, that was exactly what I was thinking about. But people have brought up some valid points against that, such as rad flow and heat soak. I think without some kind of scoop that would do very little good after seeing it mounted up. Pretty much a heat sink mounted in a hot box. There has not been much of a consensus on this though, would it help??


Thats exactly what I was thinking about lol. Very ghetto indeed, but hey, it will be different, and get more flow than anywhere else.

And one last idea for my original thing, but with a hood scoop. By having the intercooler airflow isolated from everything else would it work? Would be more work than it's worth, but just thinking aloud now.
Attachment 215161

Another idea, a scoop and some kind of intercooler like this one off of a mini.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI8Fa...ee226f430494f5

Very cool idea, a bit pricey, but would be really cool to pull off.

Thats pretty much what I plan to so when I get around to the hairdrier. Thats why I have done my coolant reroute how I have, ill put up a post in the general section with some pics of it.

Tim

you know what would be easier......

http://www.boostedmiata.com/intercoo...coolersaab.jpg

lol got it. So the whole alternative IC idea is pretty much a lot of work for no gains.

Would an intercooler with the inlet and outlet on the same side like in your picture be ideal, or would something like this flea-bay kit be ok? I'm just trying to figure out what would be easy and cheap.

This method seems to work pretty well:

http://www.postimage.org/aVHIIh0-34d...44eaf26fa7.jpg

:inout:That's what I'm going with.

I have an all aluminum one of those lying around, i was thinking about using it but ill probably go with the SLK IC i also have lying around seems to fit rather nicely in front of that rad, but has plastic endcaps :sad2: