Front mount intercooler!!??!!
Instructor
Joined: May 2013
Posts: 248
Likes: 3
From: Central Minnesota
To add to this well put assessment,
back in the late 80's there were early blower experiments that encountered these same problems. Placing the heat exchanger was not the issue...placing the heat IS.
The best and slickest solution that was the least offensive was this:
close the lower nose area under the radiator as best as possible and seal off the engine bay as much as possible including the battery side covers left and rt side.
Now, utilizing small 3 or 4" computer cooling fans, mount a row of 2 or 3 in each side of the hood along the fender area and cover with a small but "attractive" grill.
The voltage drain is/was minimal, the effect of pulling the high pressure super hot air, OUT was quite easy for the series of small but efficient fans, since the engine bay was of a higher pressure, these fans worked quite well. They ARE 12v as we would need.
The air that exited via these fans was/is scalding *** hot and the benefits were very obvious. The engine bay has to be sealed to create a higher pressure area to assist the small fans is removing the hot air. The radiator fans and forward motion generates the higher pressure air inside the engine bay compartment.
I saw this, and actually felt the effects of these little fans and I can assure you that you could easily make toast in front of those things !
No other practical method of sucking that super heated air OUT of the engine bay exist.
back in the late 80's there were early blower experiments that encountered these same problems. Placing the heat exchanger was not the issue...placing the heat IS.
The best and slickest solution that was the least offensive was this:
close the lower nose area under the radiator as best as possible and seal off the engine bay as much as possible including the battery side covers left and rt side.
Now, utilizing small 3 or 4" computer cooling fans, mount a row of 2 or 3 in each side of the hood along the fender area and cover with a small but "attractive" grill.
The voltage drain is/was minimal, the effect of pulling the high pressure super hot air, OUT was quite easy for the series of small but efficient fans, since the engine bay was of a higher pressure, these fans worked quite well. They ARE 12v as we would need.
The air that exited via these fans was/is scalding *** hot and the benefits were very obvious. The engine bay has to be sealed to create a higher pressure area to assist the small fans is removing the hot air. The radiator fans and forward motion generates the higher pressure air inside the engine bay compartment.
I saw this, and actually felt the effects of these little fans and I can assure you that you could easily make toast in front of those things !
No other practical method of sucking that super heated air OUT of the engine bay exist.
I don't care if my car appears stock or not, because it clearly isn't and will never be again. So it all depends on if you want to appear stock to retain the stock vette look or go my route and do whatever it takes to reach your goal. I vote for the latter option, but most people prefer the stock look.
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 1,465
Likes: 12
AS previously stated, you CAN stack up intercoolers, tranny coolers, wine coolers, whatever you like, in the area ahead of the condenser inside the nose area of the air box.
There is LOTs of room to work with....
here is the problem.
When you add heat that has only ONE exit thru the condenser then thru the radiator, you are "compounding" heat accumulation. You can ONLY run 2 things out of all the things that are up there....Ie: engine, a/c. OR eng & blower . You CANNOT run engine, a/c, blower all at the same time very hard or you will over heat quickly.
Each heat exchanger adds its own amount of heat. That heat goes directly to the next exchanger which sends its combined collection of heat to the last exchanger, the radiator. By the time all that has reached the radiator the air temp entering the rad is already 200+ degrees. Soooo, there is next to zero temp differential...so no heat exchange. No exchange, no cooling effort.
The ONLY known solutions are:
a fan system that produces hurricane force winds thru the multiple heat exchangers
or
you simply turn off something
or you baby it while you drive with more than 2 things generating heat.
Yes, there is LOTS of room in the nose. Just not lots of wind...
Cooling a 230 degree radiator is hard enough when its 105 outside. Imagine what happens when the outside air is 200 degrees? Stacking heat exchangers is the exact same thing. Give the same result, anyway....
You MUST keep a decent temp differential between ambient and generated heat before any exchange is possible. My guess as to that number....? I'd say it has to be at least 80f to have a chance. Otherwise, the lower THAT number the HIGHER the airspeed MUST be to compensate.
That means if you only have a differential of 75 degrees then you'd have to always have a 100mph wind blowing thru the nose....
hard to do.
There is LOTs of room to work with....
here is the problem.
When you add heat that has only ONE exit thru the condenser then thru the radiator, you are "compounding" heat accumulation. You can ONLY run 2 things out of all the things that are up there....Ie: engine, a/c. OR eng & blower . You CANNOT run engine, a/c, blower all at the same time very hard or you will over heat quickly.
Each heat exchanger adds its own amount of heat. That heat goes directly to the next exchanger which sends its combined collection of heat to the last exchanger, the radiator. By the time all that has reached the radiator the air temp entering the rad is already 200+ degrees. Soooo, there is next to zero temp differential...so no heat exchange. No exchange, no cooling effort.
The ONLY known solutions are:
a fan system that produces hurricane force winds thru the multiple heat exchangers
or
you simply turn off something
or you baby it while you drive with more than 2 things generating heat.
Yes, there is LOTS of room in the nose. Just not lots of wind...
Cooling a 230 degree radiator is hard enough when its 105 outside. Imagine what happens when the outside air is 200 degrees? Stacking heat exchangers is the exact same thing. Give the same result, anyway....
You MUST keep a decent temp differential between ambient and generated heat before any exchange is possible. My guess as to that number....? I'd say it has to be at least 80f to have a chance. Otherwise, the lower THAT number the HIGHER the airspeed MUST be to compensate.
That means if you only have a differential of 75 degrees then you'd have to always have a 100mph wind blowing thru the nose....
hard to do.
I will be going to a vented and cowl hood this winter so hopefully that will take car of any heat issues under the hood. It never gets hotter than 80 degrees where I live anyway and usually when I have the car out its in the 60s lol. so that 105* weather isnt a issue
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 7,638
Likes: 326
From: Greenville SC
You could get two smaller ICs like Procharger does for the C5, and put on each side in front of lights, and remove driving lights to allow air flow. Not sure if enough room though.
Anyone make an air to water IC for C4?
I remember Mid America or someone used to make a set of 3 little PC fans to go in finder wells like someone mentioned, but many years ago.
Anyone make an air to water IC for C4?
I remember Mid America or someone used to make a set of 3 little PC fans to go in finder wells like someone mentioned, but many years ago.
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 30,847
Likes: 293
From: Boston, Dallas, Detroit, SoCal, back to Boston MA
You could get two smaller ICs like Procharger does for the C5, and put on each side in front of lights, and remove driving lights to allow air flow. Not sure if enough room though.
Anyone make an air to water IC for C4?
I remember Mid America or someone used to make a set of 3 little PC fans to go in finder wells like someone mentioned, but many years ago.
Anyone make an air to water IC for C4?
I remember Mid America or someone used to make a set of 3 little PC fans to go in finder wells like someone mentioned, but many years ago.
seemed to really like it
1st Gear
Joined: Oct 2020
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Still for sale?
here's some pics. Is yours a passenger side blower setup? That's what this setup is currently setup for. I also have some blower discharge piping. If any of you guys want to pick it up, I'll sell it for
$400. I bought it used for over $700 back in 2006 and never got to installing it. New it cost about $1300 to have made.
$400. I bought it used for over $700 back in 2006 and never got to installing it. New it cost about $1300 to have made.
Is this still available?
