Bumped into someone I know who recently picked up a Ram TRX. We got talking about superchargers; smaller pulleys, upgrading injectors and what not, and he was telling me about the "interchiller" mod he put on his TRX.

This is the first I've heard of anything like this, but evidently it's using the AC system to deliver freezing or below freezing coolant to the intercooler to lower IAT's.

After doing a bit of research, I'm surprised no one has attempted to make one for our R53's.

Has anyone heard of such a project, or is there a reason it wouldn't work / wouldn't be worth the effort?

 

2nd generation Ford Lightning pickup truck had a system like that. I believe it carried over to the Mustang SVT, and later the Ford GT. To implement you would need to build a secondary evaporator core that would fit into the space on the intercooler, and run new refrigerant lines. Then, you would have to make sure the AC compressor doesn’t switch off when you go wide open throttle. Conceptually, it wouldn’t be so hard to do, but in reality the cost would probably out weigh the performance. The AC compressor power require would sap some of the gains you would see. In a large American V8, there is plenty of torque to spare a few for the compressor operation. On the tiny 1.6 in the Mini, not so much.

With a properly designed meth injection system, you’ll likely see similar power gains. You could even rig up an intercooler water spray system and get some Adiabatic cooling gains with very little effort.

 

Many years ago, I recall there was a mod that re-routed the hose to the rear window washer in order to spray water on the I/C.