Hi everyone,

I really have the feeling the R53 engine performs different on different days..
This may sound obvious, since everyday is different in terms of air density, pressure, temperature...
But i really notice the engine feels 'peppy' one day and 'lazy' the other day, it's mainly throttle response...
I know that cold dry days make the engine happy, but i've had lazy moments when cold and vice versa, so i don't really understand!?

I have a 17% pulley + GP cooler installed (pulls a nice 1.1 barg) and i know the ignition gets retarded when the intake charge gets too hot...

Do you guys also experience this difference in performance or should i check stuff out?

 

The intercooler heat soaks rather quickly, even the GP cooler heat soaks due to engine design, but it recovers quicker than the stock intercooler.

But yes, these cars drive differently day to day as the weather and baro changes.

 

+1 for heat soak and the efficiency of the intercooler....
Cool fall and spring days are awesome with a mini's....winter is pretty good too!

 

Hmm okay, thanks for the quick response guys!
There should be a way for a more efficient intercooler or cooling system, right!?
Right now, the engines heat travels up straight into the cooler, don't know if this is the main culprit, the FMIC's we've seen didn't fair much better, right?

Can you imagine the power (and efficiency) gain if the boosted air could be cooled down to ambient temperature, would be a cool project!

 

You already have the most efficient intercooler on the market, if you want to cool intake charge moreso you'll need to look into water meth injection, which requires tuning to take full advantage if you decide to run over a 30% meth blend.

 

Yes, on the market, but i'm sure there is an even more efficient design.
If you look on the forums, the difference of ambient and intercooler outlet temperature, is approximately 30ºC, i think it could be better, water/meth is definitely an option.
Maybe something with a cooling medium, like CO2?
This could (in theory) cool it down to below ambient.

 

It's just the nature of boosted cars. Superchargers/turbochargers rely on cold, dense air to make maximum power. If the inlet air (ambient temp.) is hot, less boost will be developed because the air will be less dense even after intercooling. The effect is less pronounced in N/A cars because they don't rely on forced induction to make their full power.

 

CO2 is only sprayed on the intercooler, not into the intake, C02 does not burn with in a car engine, granted it would cool the charge, but only take up valueable o2 which does burn.


a co2 sprayer on the intercooler will definently get the temp of the intercooler to about -20 depening on how long you spray. it does help, makes it nice and frosty. but only lasts so long and a bit harder and more expensive to fill than just adding water/meth injection (which doesn't require a tune)


a water to air intercooler setup can work very well since they take longer to heat soak, but also recover much slower than an air to air


a front mount intercooler will provide the best cooling for a2a, but we have a fixed displacement of air, unlike a turbo which will provide until efficiency loss. while a front mount would be great, you would technically loose throttle response due to the longer piping. I haven't driven one, so hard to say what that would be


the GP intercooler is known to be the best, the airtec is supposed to be better.... but hard to test these things since a dyno is not accurate since your not moving at road speeds, you have a fan forcing air through.

 

Hmm, okay reading alot of useful stuff here, i think water/meth would be the easiest thing to do if you already have a GP/Airtec cooler.

Does someone know at what temperature (or what conditions) the ignition gets retarded?

 

I believe it starts at 50 deg C