RevIllusions

has anyone tried or thought there would be any significant power gains to modify the cold air box for more direct air from the vortech kit??

i was looking at the pictures of the air box and it looks like it takes colder air from behind the headlight, possibly from the side of the fender.

i was thinking about maybe adding a air duct from the front bumper to the box, or even getting a intake pipe extension and relocating the entire filter (AEM style).

comments???


thanks

Pinky

It has an intercooler that drops temps by about 100 degrees dropping them near ambien. Pulling in air that is ambient will not gain you anything since it might only be 10 degrees cooler. Minimal effect if ANY!

This is the reason why you see air intakes on Turbo cars have intakes right in the engine bay. Compression raises temps by over 120 degrees but the intercooler(or what ever type is used) brings the temp back down to near ambient.
HTH.

On a stock NA car this effect in temp drop upon intake will be greater because the air will ONLY get hotter as it travels.

Jenner

An air to air cooler(usually called an intercooler as seen on most cars with turbo) cools the air somewhat, but air to air isn't very effecient. Also it needs access to fresh cooler flowing air, so there is more plumbing which in turn creates a need to turn up the boost to get the same boost as before which in turn cranks up the heat. An intercooler will NEVER see close to ambient temperatures. It will see lower temps than no intercooler at all with a pressure loss equal to the size of the intercooler and the amount of piping. It also blocks the radiator in most cases which can cause the engine coolant temp to rise also.

An air to water (can be an intercooler or aftercooler) is 80% more efficent than an air to air design. It also has significatly less plumbing so there isn't a drop in boost. The air to water system can cool the super or turbo charged air to ambient or near ambient temperatures and with the addition of ice to the system(usually in drag racing) it can cool below ambient temps. It also does not block nearly as much of the radiator(usually 10-20% max) so the engine coolant isn't affected.

All in all since compressing air generates heat it really doesn't matter so much where the air intake is, but more so how efficient the inter/after cooler system is.

Also note that commpressed air from a supercharger makes much less heat than the air from a turbocharger.

"Heat
Because the turbocharger is mounted to the exhaust manifold (which is very hot), turbocharger boost is subject to additional heating via the turbo's hot casing. Because hot air expands (the opposite goal of a turbo or supercharger), an intercooler becomes necessary on almost all turbocharged applications to cool the air charge before it is released into the engine. This increases the complexity of the installation. A centrifugal supercharger on the other hand creates a cooler air discharge, so an intercooler is often not necessary at boost levels below 10psi. That said, some superchargers (especially roots-type superchargers) create hotter discharge temperatures, which also make an interooler necessary even on fairly low-boost applications."

"The term 'intercooler' comes from days when they were first used on twin turbo aircraft engines. With two turbos, the air charge would get VERY hot - it was heated by the first turbo, then heated again by the second turbo. To combat this double temperature rise they placed a heat exchanger in between the two turbos and called it an "intercooler" because of its location in between two turbos. When this same kind of heat exchanger is used on a single turbo or supercharger, it is located after the supercharger, and should technically be called an "aftercooler" because of its location after the single turbo or supercharger. These terms didn't seem to stick, though. The term 'intercooler' caught on and became almost universal for all heat exchangers regardless of their position. The term 'aftercooler' became synonymous with air-to-water coolers because this is the term Vortech uses to describe their coolers, which are water cooled. So while technically incorrect, we will still use the popular terms 'intercooler' to mean any air-cooled charge cooler and 'aftercooler' to mean any water-cooled charge cooler.

Why Intercool?

There are several important benefits to intercooling that have resulted in their increased popularity in recent years. The most significant advantage is that intercooling increases the detonation threshhold because of the cooler air charge, meaning you can run more ignition advance for higher performance, or run lower octane fuel before experiencing detonation. This makes intercoolers very desirable for those looking to get the most out of their street vehicles on pump gasoline. The cooler air also allows your engine to run slightly cooler, reducing the chances of overheating. Intercoolers also enable your engine to produce more horsepower because of the denser air charge being delivered to the engine's combustion chamber.

Don't assume, however, that you can simply bolt an intercooler on to your supercharged engine and expect power gains with no other changes to the system. Intercoolers do create some internal drag causing a slight reduction in boost, and can also cause the engine to run lean (knock) due to the denser air charge. These problems are easily corrected and should not cause concern, however they cannot be ignored. Boost pressure can be brought back up (actually you'll probably want to run substantially more boost than you did with a non-intercooled application) using a smaller supercharger pulley. The smaller supercharger pulley will spin the supercharger faster and increase its output. Make sure your supercharger is designed to handle these higher boost levels. Correcting the air/fuel ratio to compensate for the denser air charge can be done with larger fuel injectors, recalibrated FMU, larger fuel pump, adjusting the mass air meter, etc.

Intercoolers... Aftercoolers... What's the difference?

In order for an intercooler to effectively cool the air that passes through it, the intercooler itself must be cooled by some external means. Most intercoolers are cooled just like your engine's radiator - air flows over the outside of the intercooler's fins, which in turn cool the air inside the intercooler - hence the name Air to Air Intercooler. Some intercoolers, however, are cooled by water instead of air, in which case they are generally called aftercoolers, or Air to Water Intercoolers. The benefit to an aftercooler is that air passing through it can be cooled more than in a traditional air/air intercooler if very cold water and ice are used to cool the intercooler - in fact, some aftercoolers chill the air to below ambient air temperatures even after it has been compressed by the supercharger. The reason aftercoolers are more effective in cooling the air charge is because water is a much better conductor of heat than air - in fact water conducts 4 times as much heat as air! The obvious drawback is that with time, the water will heat up to the temperature of the air passing through it, and its ability to cool incoming air goes away. Some aftercoolers, however, use a small radiator to cool the water that runs through the system, making them ideal for street use as well as racing. For drag racing applications aftercoolers packed with ice work very well because they only need to work for around ten seconds or so (hopefully) before you shut down and head to the victory podium. For milder racing and street applications air/air intercoolers or aftercoolers with radiators are more practical as their ability to cool incoming air is not reduced with time."

Pinky

Don't you have to work or something? Have a great weekend. Nice write up. Should keep this in the archives!