Probably not very big. I had a stock IC laying around so I decided to mess with it. Using my friend's horizontal band saw, I cut the inlet and outlet enough so I could pull them back, and then he welded them up. When mounted back in the car, the angle lifts the back of the IC so the air has more room to flow out the bottom. Compared to how it was stock, there's a much bigger gap back there now. Here's how it looks...

 

Looks great.. Makes sense... seems it would be more efficient that way.. hmmm...
thanks for posting!

 

The flip side is you have less volume above the IC for air to enter.
I have done this already without cutting, with my GRS IC.

What I'm about to type isn't black and white and here's why. I improved the rear seal on the GRS diverter. As I had mentioned in another thread. I had dropped the IC back down but had forgotten to correct the seal gap. Prior to the drop I had a good seal and had done A LOT of numbers gathering oon inlet/outet temps.

After reinstalling the improved diverter I immediately noted improved efficiencies. This would be improved efficiencies over my early runs with a good seal and the IC elevated in the rear. The variables that make this more my subjective thoughts than hard data are;
I improved the rear seal but just as important is that ambient temps are up 10º+ from when I did my earlier logging.

I read my inlet/outlet gauges constantly as I drive. I have a very good "feel" for what's normal for my car.

My 2¢ is that it is better to have the additional volume above the IC rather than below.

I really wish you had some before and after temp readings. I'd like to see my thoughts seconded or at least have a different data set to take into consideration.


Very nice work though and have fun.

 

I wish I had before and after temps too. If you noticed in the first pic that I cut the stock diverter so that it no longer sits over the IC outlet "horn", I repositioned the foam seal accordingly so that it seals the top and sides only. On a hard drive, you can barely touch the IC inlet horn while the outlet horn feels like I never even started the car. I'm sure some of that is because there is air hitting it now.

 

Good stuff. I like the wires too.

 

k00l!

 

That, or the fact that the air hitting the inlet horn is straight out of the super charger (hot) and by the time it passes all of the fins of the IC it has cooled down considerably at the outlet horn.

 

I have to think that allowing the air out from underneath the IC has to help.

 

And if you could do this via a low pressure area under the IC it would be even better! Now, that would be a challenge, but given the lengths NAM experimenters seem willing to go to, and what they come up with, why the heck not?

cheers,

 

How could we accomplish that?

 

I wasn't disagreeing with you. I agree

I was just also adding that the temp of air has a lot to do with it too!

 

We were discussing over in the Intercooler thread about maybe an Under-IC diverter that directs air out from below the IC.

IMHO, the reason there is so much pressure under there is because the air gets slammed through the IC into a completely non-flow area.

The fuel bar and intake manifold... well pretty much anything under there looks like it was designed with the least air flow possible.

So, if there was a way to direct air OUT from under the IC, that, I think, would relieve a lot of the pressure.

I was thinking something as simple as a scoop... maybe just flipping the stock diverter upside down (I know that design won't allow that, but a similiar design)

I've already had some plans in mind, I'll probably post them over in the IC thread that I started.

 

I have been following that thread, very interesting reading.
While I was looking at the way my IC is now, I thought about making some sort of pan for the bottom of it that will isolate it from the engine while providing a path for the air to follow.

 

And might a bottom pan be more effective if it also provided insulation from the engine?

 

But that also makes you wonder, doesn't the intake manifold benefit from the cooler air flowing from the hood scoop after it passes through the IC?

So would you really want to insulate and, in turn, keep the IM hotter then if it was without insulation?

 

So maybe a pan under the back half of the IC? So some of the air will still flow onto the IM while some will have a path to follow.

 

I don't want to duplicate posts, so just point you to this post :
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...9&postcount=26
It clearly shows what we are talking about here: all that stuff that gets in the way of air exiting the IC. Your mission Jim: find a way of cleaning this up to get hot air out and IC exit flow in...
cheers,

 

I think that all the air that enters from the front of the car will be looking for the path of least resistance, and that some will find it's way up under the IC. I believe that issue was covered in the "IC Airflow" thread. If there was a pan isolating the IC from all this crap...

... the air would still find it's way up here, but will have to travel under the pan just like it did before my mod, but will not be able to impede the air coming through the IC.

 

Shop vac's have a tool that have a thin wide opening. If someone were to mimic this shape and attach a hose running down to the air flow on the underside of the engine conpartment, the passing air over the lower hose end should create a vacuum, thus pulling some of the hot air from the back/lower side of the IC. Make any sense?

 

Makes good sense, Joel. Thanks for chiming in. I was talking to Peter from M7 at the Dragon and he told me that there is a pretty good suction/draft out of the engine compartment to under the car.

 

Hey!! I already posted that

I stole if from the old side draft vents that used to be run before the PCV valve was implemented.

As k-huevo pointed out though, doing this without trapping heat is the trick.120-180º air coming through you IC is still going to be much better than what would get trapped if the were no flow.


Suggestion though folks. This really should be continued in shrankrabbit's thread. Or have a mod merge the 2.

 

I had heard that also. Reason for the suggestion and I think by adding a hose down and back there will be a siphon effect. Could say how much. Depends on sixe of hose, placement and speed. But if you can decrease pressure at the underside of IC it should help. Just don't block the back lower side of the IC if you're 10 to 12 mm's away there should be clearence to allow air to go thru unimpeded, but still get sucked out when under speed.

 

There should be scavenging of the hot air in the engine compartment to the bottom of the car already. yes? no?
A hose would provide it's own path, but as JS stated, length and size come into play.
Man, I wish the DFIC were more affordable.

 

I actually find this to be fun. I enjoy that I'm not the only one who has considered this. Everything I've stated here was thought of before I ever heard of the DFIC.
Even so there are aspects of this that are relevant to the DFIC and I can guarantee you that people are now or soon will be working to improve the DFIC. Most of them with home brew ideas like ours that of course a vendor will capture and sell back to us for a profit, their profit.
New Improved DFIC v2 now with Inconel fin stock and ceramic tubes.

Let's keep brainstorming

 

If you look at the pic I posted above(originally posted by LOTF in his VGS thread) the grey plastic line going to the PCV can be re-routed under that aluminum IC bracket that it runs in front of now. Same goes for the other side with the injector harness. With those two out of the way, there will be a little more room for a pan/heat shield there. What would be nice is if I can make it "dump" right in front of the plug wires.