My latest "toy" is a Vortech supercharged '99 RT, that will be turbo'd in the near future. Until then I will be racing it with the blower. Since I live in the Phoenix area - it's almost always really hot. Add heat with the blower and my IATs are astronomical - especially at 15+ psi of boost! To combat this I decided to build an air/water intercooler system that's quite similar to the one I built for my turbo'd 4.7 Dakota. Since the airhat gets SO very hot, as does the TB, so obviously the air charge is going to be very heated also. I decided to incorporate a way of cooling both the intake charge, air hat AND the throttle body at the same time.

Here's what I came up with:




(initial mockup pics)

It's a series of finned tubes that chilled water is pumped thru. This chilled water is chilled by my AC system when driving on the street, and by an additional radiator in an ice chest when at the track. The water is pumped form a 2.5 gallon reservoir thru the heater core and then to the intercooler. If you set the AC controls to "heat" but run the AC compressor - it chills the water in the heater core at an unbelievable rate! The finned tubes all have restrictors welded in the "out" end of them to slow down the water in the tubes and ensure that all the tubes are always filled with water. The sizing of the restrictors is based upon the water pump capacity.







On each side of the intercooler "core" is the water supply and return tanks, which also work to extract heat from the TB by completely surrounding the TB and providing more surface area for a "heat sink".

Here's the latest pics after welding. I apologize for the quality. For some reason it wanted to add it's own "special effects".





I spent all weekend at the Truckin' Nationals making runs with it installed and it appeared to work as planned. I'll get some IAT readings the next time out and then I'll be able to tell exactly how efficient it is. The truck ran right in the high 11.70s to mid 11.80s most of the weekend with mph in the 117-118 range.

CBE Racing Equipment
(crude but effective)

 

Looks killer man. Those are some awsome welds too

 

That is an awesome set up. I wish I had the skills to do a project like that.

 

I saw this first hand this weekend and I must say, the setup is very impressive. Duner is incredibly modest about it, but I seriously think he should sell this. It's far more simple and effective than any of the others I've seen around. You don't even have to mess with the refrigerant lines at all. All the Radix, L's and other centrifi guys were icing down there blowers and some had huge fans in front to cool the truck off. Duner just let the pump run the water through the ice chest, while the air hat was cold to the touch. I can only imagine how cold it gets with the AC on with the truck idling!

 

Thats a nice setup! BTW, where do you get those cooling fined tubes?

 

 

That's gorgeous!! I'd like some info on the finned tubes, too.

 

http://www.energytransferinc.com/finned.htm

http://www.fintube.com/index.htm

http://www.heat-voss.com/fintube.htm

I thought about using this stuff myself when I get around to building an intercooler but I think the stuff is pretty pricy, that is unless you have other means of acquiring the materials.
You may be able to find something similar at an air conditioning or aluminum recycling center.

 

I'm surprised more people aren't interested in this setup.....its thier loss I guess.

I guess since it doesn't fit the radix it doesn't matter.

 

Thats right... make one for the radix and we'll love you!

That is pretty damn sweet, though. I can't wait to see the numbers!