Although the photos a from my personal 2016 C7 Stingray with the Magnuson 2300 Heartbeat supercharger, the lessons learned can apply to any C7 Z06. One of the biggest issues with a supercharged engine is properly cooling the air charge. An air to water intercooler is very efficient as long as the IC bricks are properly sized and have an adequate supply of cool water going across them. The OEM 1740 supercharger has really good intercooler bricks and so does the Magnuson HB 2300 supercharger seen here.

The problem is getting adequate amounts of cool water through the IC bricks with enough reserve behind it. Here's the Magnuson kit as originally installed. Notice the hose arrangement and the small fill reservoir at the bottom of the photo.

Here's the IC piping. Notice how you have hoses for the passenger side IC brick T off of the driver's side. The hoses are small 1/2" lines and the passenger side doesn't get as much direct flow with the T arrangement vs a proper y-connection.

Another problem is reserve capacity and flow direction. The OEM supercharger and the Magnuson intercooler capacity are only around 1/2 gallon of fluid total. My solution was to add over 2 gallons of additional fluid capacity and reverse the direction of flow. You see, when you add a large water box, you have the ability to add ice for race days to REALLY cool the air charge. But in the factory arrangement, the flow would go from the water box, to the pump, to the heat exchanger, into the engine, and back to the water box. If you were running ice, the cold water would get warmed up by the heat exchanger, then goes into the engine, then hot water out of the IC bricks would flow into the ice box and melt your ice quickly. The ideal solution was to reverse the flow. Let the ice water go into the IC bricks first, then the hot IC water goes into the heat exchanger so it will remove some heat, then the pump will put the cooled down water back into your ice box. This is a much more efficient way to cool the air charge.

Now you need extra flow. The stock Z06 pump is barely adequate for the stock engine and even the Varimax pump lacks volume and pressure needed for a higher boost application. Enter the Stewart EMP Pump which was then sped up from 12000 rpm to 36000 rpm. This improves the flow to over 8 gallons per minute.

Next the outlets from the IC bricks needed to be modified to accept a much larger #12 hose vs a 1/2" hose.

But with bigger hoses, you need a proper ice tank built. Not just one with an inlet and outlet facing each other and no way to mix with the cool water, but one with proper baffling and piping to allow the mixture to be redistributed across the ice. Check out the magic inside the water box. The water comes from the heat exchanger to the bottom of the box at the front, goes into a pipe, then is sprayed across the top of the ice to ensure good mixing of the cool water in the tank. The outlet has a screen to ensure that no large ice particles enter the intercooler bricks.

All installation and fabrication of the connectors, lines, and water box were performed by Kevin Kesterson of M2K Motorsports. The results were amazing. Without changing the Magnuson heat exchanger or modifying the bricks, my IAT temps now only rise 1/3 as much as they did before during a 1/2 mile pull. My water temps went from 80 degrees to 110 degrees in a 160+ mph pull where they used to rise to around 170f with the previous arrangement. Pulls with ice performed the same, but the ice water rose from 45f to 75f in the same pull. Hats off to all involved in this great project.

Here's a short video showing the vast amount of coolant coming from the heat exchanger being mixed in the water tank before it's sent to the intercooler bricks.

Nice methodical approach to solving a problem. I like that it wasn't just a single band aid fix.

Is this going to be available as a kit? Outstanding work!

Another problem is reserve capacity and flow direction. The OEM supercharger and the Magnuson intercooler capacity are only around 1/2 gallon of fluid total. My solution was to add over 2 gallons of additional fluid capacity and reverse the direction of flow. You see, when you add a large water box, you have the ability to add ice for race days to REALLY cool the air charge. But in the factory arrangement, the flow would go from the water box, to the pump, to the heat exchanger, into the engine, and back to the water box. If you were running ice, the cold water would get warmed up by the heat exchanger, then goes into the engine, then hot water out of the IC bricks would flow into the ice box and melt your ice quickly. The ideal solution was to reverse the flow. Let the ice water go into the IC bricks first, then the hot IC water goes into the heat exchanger so it will remove some heat, then the pump will put the cooled down water back into your ice box. This is a much more efficient way to cool the air charge.
________________________________
Why didn't GM run it this way?

What size is that Y fitting: Single/Dual sides?

It would be nice to have an insulation layer around that tank to stop radiant heat from the motor and exhaust manifolds warming the metal.

Similar to Patrick G, Kevin at M2K did our water tank and utilizes the same baffles, internal piping for even distribution, etc...and then we ceramic coated it and added insulation to the tank itself to further reduce any thermal losses from radiant or ambient heating. This is in the car as well, but their attention to detail is always on point. Over 14GPM through this setup using the Stewart EMP, 1" hoses, A2W intercooler, and Custom Chiller HX.

A properly designed setup is much more important than simply having capacity. Flow rates are where it's at...but so many use a POS Rule pump because it's cheap and claims to flow numbers that it can't back up.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...6d371de995.jpg

I am curious as well... any thoughts?

Very nice job by the OP! Very sweet!

Any piggy back harness that go into stock OEM plug so you don't have to butcher stock wire/cable to new IC pump?


And there is three wires going to stock pump, 1, 4 and 5 ...
4 is ground, but why two identical wires going to 1 and 5 ?

anyone know ?



TIA


Rune

My theory is that with the reverse flow direction YES , it will take chilled ice from the tank a more direct route to the bricks then to the charge cooler then to the tank . Yes in my opinion this will keep a colder charge air temperature /IAT cooler but only for a finite amount of time . Especially in warmer climates . The standard way GM engineers designed the flow direction will not keep it as cool initially , but overall would keep the IATS cooler in a colder environment for a much much longer time .

in my opinion dual coolers would work the best !!! Cool the charge on the way to the bricks and cool them again as the flow leaves the bricks .
im working on such a set up now . Patent pending…