Hi, I went Patrick Mini yesterday, and they installed ,JCW injectors, JCW ECU updates, a bright blue Alta intake hose and a top mount Alta IC. Very good people . My question is ,when we got back to Iowa, driving +70mph, for 3hrs+ the intercooler was hot as hell, I quess I never checked out the stock one after such a long heat soak, is this normal? I layed up half the night trying figure out what they did to make the ic hot. Generally the new mods were under exciting ,in the rain anyways, alot of money for those extra few horsy's

 

That's it's job to exchange heat and get hot now, you can worry about something else like golbal warming.

 

Was the entire IC hot? or just the inlet side?
If it was working like it should, the outlet side should have been cool to the touch.

 

The problem with these big hoizontal top mounts is that while they have a lot of surface area for heat transfer with outside air, they also have a boat load of surface exposed to hot underhood air, which is most troublesome when the car is stopped. The worst part is that the additional IC size extends backwards towards the hottest part of the engine: over the cyl head and towards the header.

To limit heat flow into the non-functional portions of the IC, the sides and the front and (especially) back edges of the IC should be insulated, as well as the bottom of the "bars", i.e., the non-fin area facing the engine. The M7 aerogel blanket probably would help as well.

 

Hi, Both ends were hot ,but I think one side was a little cooler. I might have a IC to hood seal leak, Eric at Patrick did'nt check it. I'll check it later. I do not know what the IC's internal air temps were ,so the IC could have been working OK at speed , and if the aluminum exterior sufaces absorb under hood heat that would explain the heat that I felt. I know one thing, that Alta was much heavier than the stocker.

 

Sorry, wrong forum...again Not calling you out but this has been happening waaay too much lately!

 

OOPS, I keep forgetting about the new,new 07 turbo S's and the're being called 2nd gens S's ,Can somebody move the thread to the supercharged S's ,the 1st gen's?

 

It also has to do with the fact that the Forum Jump window has too many things in it and is too small. So when the drop down list drops, the "2nd gen" or the "1st gen" does not show up with its corresponding sub lists. I'll try harder not to mess up now that I know what the problem is.

 

I was never a big fan of a larger top mount, because they reduce the amount of air flow available from the scoop. I've looked in some scoops and only saw the side of the IC. How is the air coming through the scoop going to flow through the IC if it just smacks into the side of it after it enters the scoop?

Anyway, what inimmini posted...
"The problem with these big hoizontal top mounts is that while they have a lot of surface area for heat transfer with outside air, they also have a boat load of surface exposed to hot underhood air, which is most troublesome when the car is stopped. The worst part is that the additional IC size extends backwards towards the hottest part of the engine: over the cyl head and towards the header."
...is very true, and there's not a lot you can do about it.

You also stated how much heavier the Alta is than the stocker, which doesn't help.

 

Well if you stop and get out with in a couple of seconds, it should be warmer than the outside air, but not much. Letting it sit there for even a minute, it will heat up to temps close to the under hood temps. Which is hot! But this holds true for all intercoolers on the top of the engine.

But if your car was under a lot of load (big hill, full throttle....) then you stop, well your IC was just trying to cool down 250+ degree temps. So it will be hot on one side, and cooler on the other.

But as long as you are moving, your IC is cooling the air going through it!
Which IC did you get the classic TMIC?

Yes, larger surface area is good and bad. But the IC sticky back closer to the hot part of the engine doesn't matter if you are moving down the road. there is lots of air flow going through the engine bay and the Extra Inch or 2 taller our IC , doesn't put it hanging off the back of the vavle cover. If it did, then i would say it might make a difference. But again only while stopped.

The surface area of the parts exposed to heat, tanks, and back IC header plate, has very very little effect on heating up the charge air. Our tests prove that the Classic IC cools better than stock, and this is how it gains HP. In contrast if you have our V2 intercooler, it cools worse that stock, but is much less restrictive. Both are a trade off, both give you the same basic HP gain.

Weight isn't a huge deal. It is a bar and plate core so the charge tube plates are thick aluminum. This may sound bad, but the thicker aluminu sucks away more heat than thinner does. So when the plates are cold, they work much better than a thick plate. Its like on a header that you are trying to keep heat in it, a thicker tube, is not optimal.

If you were cruising down the road under no load, then you stopped an instantly opened the hood, and it was still hot, then i would check your hood seal. Also check that the plastic part of the factory IC diverter was removed from the hood.

Lastely if you modded your SC bypass valve to be shut all the time, that also will cause more, hotter air to run through the IC.

Hope that makes you feel better about your purchase.

 

I have the old style ,classic, top mount, I bought used here, I could post pics. Now I don't think that I have underhood temps soaking into the boosted air at speed .I checked the seal and it had about a 1/4" gap between the seal and the hood,in the back and drivers side, shimmed it up by using "O" ring material and small vaccuum hose in the seal slit. I'll call Eric at Patrick and let him know later today.It helped tremendously, as I now have 123*F on the hot side and 71*F on the cool side after a hard run(but not three hours), shot with a temp gun on the horns. You have to shoot the temps. right after you stop ,as the cool side will get warm sitting there . Very happy now, the mods have really helped (and it helps that it's not raining, not much traction with rain !) . Alta should have a better seal setup, the back of the seal is straight across and the hood that it seals against has a curve, the metal lip should have had this curve in it and the rubber would have followed it. The rubber is not enough. Or a metal adjustable slide affair with a rubber seal on top that you would adjust high but not tight then close the hood ,sorry bonnet, and the slides would adjust the seal to the proper compression on that particular car.
Wow thats a big statement about your V2 not cooling better than stock . A whole bunch of people with the latest ,greatest,DMIC,s are going what? I always knew that the classic top mount was better

 

There is enough room on the trim seal to push it up a bit to help it seal. We used to make it taller, but some people had issues with it hitting the hood. This was caused by engines sitting higher from motor mounts, bad motormounts, strange SC pulley installations, and the Automatic customers.

The statement about it not cooling as good as stock is true of our V2. Nothing there to hide. Check our past posts and data. Even though we made a revision to that core we first tested, it still give you an idea how it works. The revisions made it cool even better with virtually no different pressure drop.

Making HP is not always about cooling. It helps, but also less restrictions gain HP. Both make similar power by doing 2 different things. So what you have is not bad at all. In fact it is a great choice for those in hot climates.

But if someone is looking at the most HP, and might us a Water injection system, the V2 is better. As the cooling of the charge air is helped with water injection.

We never tried to say our new version cools better, and i hope no one got that impression. But we were pretty public about our results, so i hope no one is mad. They still made 10WHP though!