Starting to fab up the intercooler parts for my set up.
Going to make a bullet style that will go under the passenger side door in place of some of the STS charge piping. This is one of three bulkheads with 3/8 diameter holes for the air-flow to travel, the chamfer leads will be blended together better than this cut simulation shows.
It will be used with a heat exchanger as big or bigger than the Radix's.
3/8" ID tubes with cool the charge shedding heat through coolant that I may also send through my air-conditioning heat exchanger for track or hot weather use. Going to use a Cyclone/Typhhon or Lightning pump.
The outer diameter of the bullet housing is 6" diameter aluminum pipe with a .25" thick wall, going to be somewhere around 30"-36" long with ends funneling down to the STS charge pipe diameters.
I'm going to need someone to weld up all the aluminum but I think it should work well.
I know I could buy some off the shelf parts but testing and fine tuning is half the fun...I say that now.
Let me know what you guys think.

 

I calculated the area of the STS charge pipe and at 2.5" ID it works out to 19.635 area. With 123 .375 diameter tubes the area total for those works out to 13.5792 area.
Anyone think the area drop will cause a problem??

 

I'm a little confused. So far it sound's like you're going to have 3 plates with 3/8" holes in them sealed inside a 6" tube. Where exactly will the water be coming into play with the tube?

Oh yeah, how long are you planning on making this?

 

There will be a ton more surface area though. So, even if you had enough area, the added surface area would really slow things down wouldn't it?

 

The cooling fluid will be intoduced on one end through a fitting welded to the OD of the housing, travel through and around the charge pipes, and exit at the other end out another welded on fitting.
The center bulkhead will only be tacked in place and will have slots and or holes for the fluid to travel through slightly restricted so it actually can take some of the heat out of the charge pipes through heat transfer.
The coolant will be pumped through the whole system with the Sy/Ty or Lightning pump.
The length will be betweeb 30-36 inches, depending on the final measurements of what will fit without having the whole assembly hanging too low or causing ground clearance or UGLY factor issues.

 

Kind of like this guys only bigger and using round tubing instead of a traditional intercooler core.

http://www.tbyrnemotorsports.com/dod...kinduction.htm

 

I'm asking about the drop insurface area of the charge id area. from the 2.5" id pipe to all 123 of the .373" id pipes.
There will be a huge increase of heat shedding area, but a drop in flow area, from what I hear and know the area or restriction drops in a traditional intercooler core too, this is why you see a psi drop, as well as restrictions caused by bends in the intercooller set-ups.
This bullet style will be the most straight through flow I can think of with the amount of surface area needed to shed heat efficiently.
Plus I will not need but a couple of tubes made and a couple more silicone couplers to plumb this into my system.

 

Same design as PWR barrels.



I can tell you from experience we tried a few on some low boost setups and they don't work to well, but they are nice for packaging.

 

You sound concerned with decreasing the charge air flow area, but at the same time you're increasing the surface area of the aluminum the charge air comes into contact with. The more the air touches the aluminum walls, the more deltaT you'll get, but with that comes and increased pressure differential. Nothing is free.

BTW, I really don't think 30-36" will be enough, but I'm not sure what kind of T out your looking for.

 

The cross-sectional area of a 2.5" ID tube is 4.9sq. in. The cross sectional area of 125 3/8" ID tubes is 13.8 sq. in. That will slow the charge way down through the cooler and give plenty of time to transfer heat. You must have a piece of 6" schedule 40 pipe laying around. That is the only reason I can come up with why you are using such thick walled tubing. You definitely don't need any heavier than 16 ga. Are you thinking thick for road debris protection? If you insulate it, and cover the insulation with light gauge aluminum, it will still weigh much less than sch. 40 pipe, and have ding protection, too.