From what I’ve read over the last few months, it sounds like there are several ways of increasing the efficiency of the stock R53 intercoolers. I’ve seen people painting them with special coatings, people adding aftermarket diverters for them, people adding thicker insulation in order to seal them to the hood scoop, and I saw a post once where someone pulled off the intercooler and added a bunch of heat insulating tape to the underside of the intercooler and also to the top of the motor in order to insulator the intercooler from the heat radiator off of the motor (I can’t seem to find that thread?).

Out of all of these different methods of improving the efficiency of the stock intercooler, which ones work, which don’t…..and which ones improve the efficiencies the most?

If I had to guess, I would think that insulating the underside of the intercooler with heat reflective tape in addition to an aftermarket diverter would be the best options.

Anyone have any info, done any tests to see what actually works, and what doesn’t? Is it even worth it to try to improve the stock intercooler? What the best “efficiency increase” you can get with some simple mods? I think I read somewhere that the ALTA diverter was supposed to reduce intake temps 5-10 degrees. To me that doesn’t seem worth it…..I can’t tell any difference from when the outside air temp is 80 vs 75 (for comparison of a 5 degree drop). BUT….I sure can tell a difference between an outside temp of 95 vs 70….but that’s a big 25 degree drop.

Anyone have that link to the thread about insulating the bottom of the stock intercooler??

Any info would be great! Thanks!!

 

Just thinking out loud.

I would say you have to do a combination of all of these. I would be curious as to how much to tape is actually working though. There would be a good way to reduce some of the heat directly blow the intercooler but the ambient air temperature under hood is already pretty hot so the tape would do little against that.

 

Get a bigger hoodscoop....
More airflow....
Then make sure the diverter is doing its job....check the foam sealing...or go aftermarket.
putting anything under the ic will lower airflow, and be counterproductive.

 

Where can you get a larger hood scoop? I'm guessing it involves cutting up your hood?

 

M7 or Voltage both make good Bolt in Hood Scoops.

 

Thanks for the info.

I checked out the info on those aftermarket scoops, and according to their data.....with the same ambient air temp....the outlet air from the supercharge is about 3-5 degrees cooler going into the motor.

So is that even worth it? 3-5 degrees cooler? I would think that in order to notice anything as far as performance goes, you would need at least a 10+ degree drop.

What kind of improvements do the aftermarket intercoolers...or GP intercoolers give?

 

don't forget the extra drag the new scoop will produce.

 

Your best bet is to do a search - lots of threads on this over the years. DFIC were all the rage for a while, and coating comes up now and again. Not a lot of real data on this, though I think Dr. Obnxs tried back to back datalogs. Lots of variables - airflow, HP, pressure drop, etc. Can't really test them on a dyno since you're lacking real world airflow.

 

Thanks for the info, I'll try doing some more searches and see if I can pull up anything. From most of the stuff I've read, it seems like the stock intercoolers are about as good as they are going to get. Sure, you can run a little more air through them (aftermarket diverter & scoop), but you don't gain much.

 

The stock ic is very light...so low mass...this makes it heat sink fast, but it also cools off just as fast...
In realworld driving it seems to be the best compermise....the GP is the same basic desgin, with two more rows attatched for more capicity....only real drawback than $$, is that it must be removed to acess the sparkplugs, etc. Other ic have come and gone, but the tried and true is the oem/gp with a bigger scoop....some of the bigger scoops can actually help the car look a bit more agressive, and for a pretty simple, basic way to lower temps, seem to be a decent $$ for the buck...on a scanguage, just loke the gp ic....basicly no drawbacks. Be sure to replace the hood mounted diverter/modify it if getting the gp, or the air will not go where it needs to go...most folks like waymotorworks sell the ic WITH the parts you need. Cooler intake temps are more about keeping the hp you have under adverse conditions....like hot days or lower speeds....but any ic, even water cooled can heatsoak...just remember, in general, the more mass, the long to heatsoak, but the longer it will take to recover once you start moving....
A few different desgins have been made over the years...some look really cool...but many find they made less hp due to preasure drop...if you see an old early alta..looks coo...huge...but underperformed..the m7 looks great...can see ot through the scoop, but the person i knew that had one switched to the gp....and never looked back..fpaid for most of the gp when he sold it. Just remember the rule, mods that work stay on mods that dn't are sold...

 

The stock I/C is remarkably efficient. Much more so than the aftermarket vendors would like you to think.







I'm not saying it's perfect and it will certainly heat soak eventually, but I'm not sure any of the top mounts can do much better (or have proven it).

 

Stay away from the M7 scoop- The bolts pull out because they're not flanged & the fiberglass is full of poc marks/air pockets.

 

when i get home, i have a really good article i will link. someone DID do the Math on some of the concepts that you have mentioned (diff ICs, coatings, ect). it was pretty interesting facts, and good reading.

basically, the GP is the "best". Next best, is to in fact use one of the special "high temp coatings". that was supposed to reduce temps from 5-10 degrees if i recall correctly.

you next steps, will be:
water sprayer (can be harmful to injectors and other bits below the IC)
C02 sprayer (only lasts a "few" sprays, so, IMO = pointless)
general "shielding" (ive seen in auto-zone, they have heat mats that shield parts, i thought about covering the engine myself)

there is another thread, i think i started, about using fans, AC compressors, and other bits for improved IC cooling. i was looking at this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-Univeral-...235cc5&vxp=mtr

in an attempt to mount it below the IC, and have it kick on when sitting at idle. Dont believe there is enough room between the IC and the engine however.

another thought i had, was to go Cryogenic! and to use liquid nitrogen, or helium, and wrap cooling lines around the SC horns. that would be bitchin, but probly highly expensive. yet another alternative that is still "under debate" is to use a mini fridges AC compressor, and somehow use its system to cool the IC, Horns, or even make a "chill box" out of or near the regular air intake.

so many ideas... so little money! :(

 

Doesn't anyone make an FMIC? Because I feel like that would trump all of this.

And if not... why not?

 

Best way to make stock intercooler more efficient?

Run meth.

 

Back "in the day"...(boy i must have been doing this stuff for ALMOST too long), it was tried...several times...
the large smount of piping needed to get the fmic to the front and a custom cooler (think maybe helix, or another vendor had pics of one they were trying at some point), it simply did not work well enough...lag isdues from the ertra colume of the pipeing, leaks, cost...
some looked promising...and it looked as if it would reduce/eliminate heatseak...tried a few times....things like the actual placent of the SC output, and subsquent intake from it, so perfectly placed in the current setup from a packaging standpoint were major issues, needing lots of custom work.....the old pain vs gain equation kicked in...most figured if you were going to do that much repiping/reengineering, you might as well go to the twin charge (turbo with a SC)....
the threads should still be around is you use the google site search, but i bet most if not all the pics are gone due to dead links...

 

Saw a very cool *looking* FMIC on a car at Laguna Seca years ago. In addition to pressure drop, they had a hell of a time with the connectors coming loose. It did look awesome though...

 

I guess there's just already so much jammed in there. Too bad, though. FMICs are, of course, great looking additions to any car.

 

kinda like, This!...

 

That's too simple of a solution for these engineers