Why wouldn't this Intercooler work???
 

I posted this over on Miata.net also...

I am in the process of installing a GReddy kit on my 1993 Miata. I haven't yet settled on an intercooler set-up, but I know I want to go with one eventually.

As you stand there and look at the engine compartment and think about how there is air that flows over the radiator, and how a conventional Miata intercooler set-up place the intercooler in front of the radiator, and just how many bends are in the piping... It got me wondering about placing some sort of circular, long, tubular style, intercooler [Visualize the barrels of a Gatlin gun.] that runs pretty much in the same area as the stock crossover intake pipe, except higher and closer to the hood. You would then have basically one 90 degree bend coming out of the turbo or supercharger and then the straight "gatlin gun" intercooler section, then another bend into the intake manifold. You could also have some formed sheet aluminum similar to the Jackson Racing CAI, except bigger, directing air over the tubular intercooler.

This seems like a much more straight forward approach to me, but I wonder if you would have enough volumn and enought cool air flowing over the "barrels" at this location.

Am I crazy? Or does this idea sound feasable? I realize that each individual "barrel" would also need cooling fins all around it too. I was thinking about some of the plumbing from the back of an old refrigerator or from some type of cooler setup.

No airflow.

yep:bigtu:

How does the Jackson Racing CAI work then?

[I'm not argueing, I just want to be sure before I toss the idea.]

It works (albeit, not nearly as well as they'd like you to believe) because what little airflow that's passing over the radiator and into the intake for the JR CAI is being consumed by the engine.

If you stick an intercooler there, not only would there be less flow because there is no constant vacuum sucking air through the area, but if you somehow got air to flow up and through the intercooler placed there, it has to actually get through the 'cooler's fins in order to exchange heat with the surrounding air...THEN you've got the matter of getting this newly-exchanged, heated air out of the engine compartment.

Now, you can get elaborate and build a v-mount setup that will place the intercooler above the radiator and exhausts the hot air through a huge hood vent directly behind it, but that's a lot of work (completely different mounting angle and attachment points for the radiator and probably a smaller, thicker radiator, lots of ductwork, giant hole in the hood, etc.).

Plus the Jackson Racing intercooler is an Air/Water cooler and it still has a fin plate that mounts in front of the radiator for airflow.

Edit: Damn he said CAI, another case of me not reading