Hinano

I'm trying to stay low key and am wondering about putting a intercooler in the area behind the drivers side fog light. I know many cars have SMIC's there but the fog light hole is pretty small. I was wondering if anyone knows how the air flows in that area? I know from touch the car that behind the drivers headlight the whole area is cool so I do think air is getting pushed into the engine bay. I'm wondering if there is a way to mount a intercooler in that area and still get efficient airflow.

MOABmiata

There isn't enough airflow there to support an intercooler worth your while. Have you thought about a black intercooler? They're pretty stealth.

ryansmoneypit

iTrader: (6)

Forum unspoken rule:

Don't start a new thread for every question.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but you have a build thread already. Stick to it. Don't give them more reason to hate.

aidandj

iTrader: (5)

With some fancy ducting you could make it work. But the extra piping needed would suck. Especially if you are going over the rad.

Savington

iTrader: (31)

No

Hinano

I did think about it actually but I was thinking more flow to radiator is never a bad thing and I was hoping I could run the stock one.b

I was wondering if I can plumb it from the two holes behind the headlight, the fender and fog light one.

My question and the location of it is appropriate.

Hinano

Have you any idea the actual flow possible? Like what about for low boost application?

patsmx5

iTrader: (16)

I'll try to help.

It's not a great idea, honestly. It's much easier to put it up front. If you paint it say flat black, it will not be a huge shinny intercooler that pops out, but yes, it's still an intercooler and it's still out front. Look around online and you can find pics, see if this is acceptable for you, as it's the easy/better way.

That said on my car, I moved the A/C condenser forward, the radiator back a touch, cut the car in a couple spots, and put my intercooler between them. So it's hidden. With A/C on obviously some heat goes into the intercooler, so not ideal. This setup has compromises! But it does keep the IC hidden and the pipes are super short/simple and up high not under the car. I have a build thread in the builds section that shows it, and probably one from 2007-2008 whenever I turbo'd this car and originally installed the intercooler there.

You asked if it could be made to work "efficiently" using a fog light hole, and that's a huge NO. Not efficiently at all. I'm sure if you tried, you could get it some air, and it would do something, but no it would not be efficient, heat soak easily, etc.

My Mercedes C63 has a heat exchanger in the passengers side fender that's fed by a hole that's about fog light sized. It has a little SPAL pusher fan on it too, HX is about 12" by 14", probably 3" thick. It's an oil cooler for a 500hp V8. Considering oil coolers are generally much smaller than intercoolers, that probably means it's not gonna be enough airflow for your idea.

Hinano

Hey thanks a lot for all the input. Im definitely considering to paint the intercooler black. I would do the hiding method but I already removed AC.

What do you think of maybe making a scoop from underside of the fog light? Or what about mouning the intercooler backend as the wheel well wall? Maybe it still won't flow?..

Savington

iTrader: (31)

You need substantial and direct airflow to properly feed an air/air intercooler. You cannot cure this with scoops or ducts in the fog light area. Put the intercooler in the mouth of the car.

patsmx5

iTrader: (16)

I don't understand what you're asking there. If you're gonna ask questions, use better grammar and make sure what you type actually makes sense! But I'll tell you this....

If you put an intercooler that's say, 24"x13"x3" CORE (HUGE, overall will be 30x13 probably) in the trunk (won't fit anywhere else), and somehow got perfect ducting to it so it got ambient temp air (so from front bumper...), and you had a a pair of SPAL Extreme performance fans on it (they pull about 40A each), and somehow routing intercooler pipes was no problem (it will be almost impossible) it would probably cool the air pretty decent, you could probably get that setup to 80% effectiveness for a street car. Not bad, but not as good as a front mounted Air/Air.

But it would be heavy, complex, and a nightmare to install. And expensive, and you'd have to hack the trunk and a path from the trunk to the engine.

So while I support innovation and actually thinking, the short answer is, it needs to go up front to be effective. If this is a drag car, you could do a water/air setup and that could be hidden, but it's still expensive and heavy, though it's well documented how to do that in the drag racing world.

cyotani

iTrader: (8)

if you cut a hole to enlarge your foglight hole to about the size of the frontal area of your intercooler it might work.

patsmx5

iTrader: (16)

About 1/3 the frontal area would be plenty. But yes, he needs to mount it where it belongs.

Hinano

Yeah okay, sounds like heat soak. I'll paint it black and mount it in the front. Thanks.

Mobius

iTrader: (2)

If you look at any frontal shots of my car, the black intercooler is essentially invisible. It is definitely the way to go.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

im in this camp.