Charge air coolers

[Rick Byrnes]

Anyone had specific experience with PWR Air/Water charge air coolers?
Particularly interesting to me is the 8 inch dia cooler with 4 inch inlet and outlet.  I am doing some initial packaging for redoing the old turbo motor for use in the linerwannabe and have space for one of these as part of a compound charge air cooling system.
Mike
Dave
anyone???

Rick Byrnes

[Dynoroom]

Rick, is that one of those round tube type charge coolers? I try to keep up with all the new developments but I'm not sure who PWR is. And what is your decription of "compound" charge air cooling.

[Rick Byrnes]

Hi Mike
PWR is the round air/water with the 8 inch dia being the largest they produce.

Compound Charge air cooling
Two coolers in series.
In the Merk I used a large air/air with water spray, feeding into an air/icewater.  Had manifold temps of 20 to 30 degrees below ambient.
The packaging in the linerwannabe is perfect for one round air/water and a second conventional that will also change direction of airflow and align with intake plenum.  Hard to describe, and I haven't drawn up anything yet.  Just investigating and trying to find real estate for everything.  The turbo will be behind and slightly above the engine ala early Indy Offy's.
Hell, I'm still working on the block girdle, and without that,
"I ain't got nothin" .  The old turbo engine in the Merk had billet caps, but only 2 bolt mains.  I think 600 hp at wheels is about as much as I care to make with that type of set up.

Thanks for your response

Rick

[Speed Limit 1000]

ask me, about Wednesday or Thursday at Speedweek, and I'll let you know how ours is doing...

[tortoise]

Has anyone found it useful to run a charge cooler on an unsupercharged engine?

[Dynoroom]

Has anyone found it useful to run a charge cooler on an unsupercharged engine?

Yes, many have.   

[Dynoroom]

Hi Mike
PWR is the round air/water with the 8 inch dia being the largest they produce.

Rick, I've not run one but the one's I've seen running report that they work well, at least at the boost levels they are running (8-12 lbs.)

Compound Charge air cooling
Two coolers in series.
In the Merk I used a large air/air with water spray, feeding into an air/icewater.  Had manifold temps of 20 to 30 degrees below ambient.
The packaging in the linerwannabe is perfect for one round air/water and a second conventional that will also change direction of airflow and align with intake plenum.  Hard to describe, and I haven't drawn up anything yet.  Just investigating and trying to find real estate for everything.  The turbo will be behind and slightly above the engine ala early Indy Offy's.

Sounds like I'd try it the way you run 'em


Hell, I'm still working on the block girdle, and without that,
"I ain't got nothin" .  The old turbo engine in the Merk had billet caps, but only 2 bolt mains.  I think 600 hp at wheels is about as much as I care to make with that type of set up.

So in your car thats 280+   

Thanks for your response

Rick

Looking forward to seeing the car Rick

[Rick Byrnes]

To further comment on Mikes answer, I have in 99 and 00 when I switched to a N/A engine in the Merkur.  Qualified and set a some records with this set up.
I do not have specific inlet air temperature, but another racer whose system led me into it claims ~40 degrees f.  It's free power and I'm surprised that more people are not using it.

In the lakester, I initially designed a air/icewater system placed under the HDRA (High drag, ram air) scoop, and in testing it only showed about a 12 hp difference.  (without the ram air).
With my change to methanol and considering the power sucked up by 1 sq ft of frontal, plus the drag of that scoop, I have removed it and changed to a more conventional intake plenum/air inlet.
This system should be a net gain.  Time on the salt should tell the story.

Rick

[rebelce]

At 1% increase in power per 10 degree drop in intake charge, It's always baffled me why more people don't use charge coolers.