I was curious if anyone has made any homemade intercooler sprayers for a MCS? I don't know anything about how sprayers work other than spraying water onto the surface reduces temperature of the air...thereby increasing the effectiveness of the intercooler. If I'm feeling adventurous, would it be an okay idea to try and make a little water spray device for my intercooler?
Are there any downsides to this that I should be aware of?

Thanks for the help,
-Andy

 

You can't hurt anything just spraying distilled water on your IC. Usually what people do is route the bottle for the windshield washer fluid over to the IC and just fill that with distilled water. Downsides, you either don't have windshield washers anymore, or you have an ugly tank somewhere in your car . Alta sells a diverter that has a built in sprayer if you're feeling slightly less adventurous.

 

Hello Nick,
Thank you for your help. That's exactly what I needed to know! And, importantly, you mentioned distilled water! I hadn't thought of that, but that would be a critical element to this project. You certainly don't want a buildup of calcium in there.

The idea of the rear windshield washer sounds good. Is there a way to spray without the rear wiper engaging?

Another question: I'm not sure where the air going into the intercooler actually travels to...so does adding water to this air hurt anything down in the pathway? As I understand it the IC is trying to increase the density of air by making it cooler...which means that air must be traveling into the engine and adding watervaper into your engine sounds very bad. Any thoughts there?

 

I think you are confusing water injection with an intercooler sprayer.
The IC sprayer just sprays onto the surface of the IC. Water injection sprays into the intake system.

 

Ah, I see I think. So spraying on the surface of the IC results in no water vapor entering inside the engine systems? Sorry for all the uneducated questions. I'm trying to learn this stuff but it's not making a whole lot of sense to me yet. :-)
_ANdy

 

Yep. The intercooler is just a radiator that uses air to air rather than water to air. Spraying water on the intercooler shouldn't get water into anything problematic unless your dumping garden hose-like quantities of water. And even then it shouldn't cause any particulat problem. Just don't spray huge streams of water into the intake.

 

Looks like others have partially answered your questions, but i'll try to fill in the gaps.

I'd think that you would use the headlight sprayer, the windshield bottle is for the front and rear sprayers, and I wouldn't want to not have a front windshield washer.

The intercooler doesn't actually intake any air. It's just like a radiator. The air flows THROUGH the intercooler, in one side, and out the other, cooling off the air that comes out of the supercharger. You can spray as much water as you want at it, it's not going to hurt anything.

If you're thinking about water injection, that's a whole different ballgame, and you generally mix the water with methanol. There are a few threads on here about that.

 

This picture is taken off an Evo forum, but you can get the idea.

 

Bster: Isn't the Aquamist system a water-meth injection system, whereas the OP (although confused) may be asking about an external IC water sprayer like the Alta one?
There's a guy in the NM MINI club who used to have a 5 gallon water jug in the boot hooked up to the Alta sprayer and a micro switch under the accelerator pedal. When he floored it that sucker would pump so much water onto his TMIC that the excess would come *out* the hood scoop!
To be honest, ICs on the MINI are quite effective especially when you focus on the "approach" or the temperature differential between ambient and IAT measured in the intake manifold. Still, almost nothing you do to cool the air hurts when chasing the illusive one degree lower IAT!

 

Are we still working on that?
Seriously, i'm hoping to get to that project this weekend.

 

Awesome ideas, thanks guys!
Yeah, hooking the IC sprayer up to the front headlamp sprayer would be a much better deal I'd think. I hate those sprayers anyway...always going on and making a mess out of my clean car! But now the question is to figure out how engage the headlight sprayer pump without the windshield wipers being initiated, too! I think that's too complex of job for me, and I'll probably just end up building a little system on my own that takes care of what I need.

Also, it's good to know the IC is just a radiator for cooling the air...and not the actual airinlet for anything. That makes sense to me now.

It'll probably be pretty easy to find a little 12 volt water pump at any hardware...or maybe even autopart store.

Thanks for the assistance,
-Andy

 

If your car has the headlight washers, then it will have a separate reservoir and pump on the drivers side, you should be able to run a separate dash mounted switch to activate the pump.

 

Good thinking! Thanks!
Hopefully not voiding the warrantee too much. :-)

 

Sorry for the confusion Doc! Yes that is the latest Aquamist HFS-5. A far superior pump and system as compared as some of the Mini's product.

But what I meant to highlight was, you could mount a water tank and any kind of pump from the makes of Shurflo, Coolingmist, etc etc, and have the hose routed to the IC and Oil cooler. Attach a nozzle (ones that mists, not squirts) or two at the coolers, and purchase a pivot water sprayer module. Voila! A perfect water sprayer that works.

And for those who intend to do only water injection (like myself) instead of water /meth injection, a second hose can be plumbed out of the 6 quart tank.

Obviously this won't be the cheapest project, but.. it's going to be the coolest.
Hope that clears the confusion!