I'm gonna lay money on it needs better intercooler in the tub. My KB was the same way, crazy high IAT while in high boost but would cool right off after you let out of it. Like the air just blows through the cooler faster then it can pull the heat out of it!

The water would warm up and melt frozen water bottles in my reservoir, but was only fairly warm after the run, not HOT like you would expect if it truly was dumping that much heat into the cooling system.

 

Can you please explain this again, only using the "common core" math process! "lol"

 

Smokeshow I agree with everything you said except what is in red. Slowing the pump down to allow more heat to transfer into the water sounds like it would work in theory... but what you are really doing at that point is letting warmer water sit in the IC longer. It would make the IC even less efficient. In my mind you can not make an IC any better than having cold water rush through it at all times. It may not heat the water very much, but that's not the concern. What it will do is keep the IC cooler, and that's the name of the game. The focus is for the intercooler to transfer heat into the water, sure, but that shouldn't really be measured by the temp of the water coming out of it. As you pointed out, faster flowing water won't be as warm, but I guarantee it keeps the IC cooler.

I think what is important is that based on your flow and IC size you have a point of diminishing returns in HEX size. You need to stay above that point or IAT will suffer for sure, but going way over the top big will result in very small gains. To that end, upgrading one OR the other will result in minimal gains at best. You need both. More pump shortens the window you have to cool the water in your HEX resulting in less than optimal results. More HEX will keep the water slightly cooler, but the limp dick pump most kits come with still leave the water in the IC too long and it heat soaks too much. I would HOPE (I can't say I'm confident however) the kits are designed with a HEX that is above that point of diminishing returns given the pump's flow capability.

 

Lets try pictures!

 

Yeah that is definitely true. I was focused on what transfers the most heat. There seems to be a paradox though...if you're not heating the water as much, how is the IC cooling the air? Richard where's that spreadsheet??

 

I made a picture, isnt that enough from you people!?

You have to think about what the water is really doing...it is transfering the heat from the intercooler to the hex. If it was perfect and instantaneous the hex would heat up at the exact same rate as the intercooler.

If the intercooler cant absorb heat fast enough to control IATs, or the hex cant reject heat fast enough to keep the water temp close to ambient those are separate problems.

The more conductive (higher the heat transfer) you can make the water the better. Typical ways to do that are with a bigger temperature difference (use ice or refrigerant system to cool the water) or increase fluid turbulence (higher pump pressure). Increasing flow is generally always a good thing as it increase heat transfer. The whole line about not giving it time to cool off in the hex is wrong. Thats not the waters job, thats the HEX's job. The only time more pressure/flow is bad is if the pump is adding signifcant heat to the system (see my picture above).

 

Hx and intercoolers move heat differently.

One uses water to absorb heat.
One uses air to absorb heat.

 

I only run A/W systems. They have their pros and cons like most systems do.

I have learned a lot with My particular set up, its very simple yet very effective. I have run it in a towing application with a 5.3, T70 and 10 lbs of boost, and now slightly modded in my current set up at 1k hp. I have a GLOWSHIFT brand dual sweep temperature sensor on my intercooler. It measures the IAT INLET and OUTLET of the Intercooler. Its AMAZING at how much the intercooler can drop the IAT's I have heard measuring the water temp works well too, but IMO thats not what we are concerned with, its the IAT's
I have a smaller Intercooler, its the Frozen boost 600hp core, in and out on the same side. I have learned that the Heat exchanger, the pump, the intercooler dont do squat unless you have good water CAPACITY. My current holds 3 gallons and works extremely well. These temp readings are with the HPscanner with the IAT right behind the throttle Body. 90 degrees ambient and I have seen at most 170 degree IAT. 70 degrees ambient and its around 130 ish. 50 degrees out and it maybe 110. That is at the top of a quarter mile pull. With a bigger Intercooler I am sure it would be better, but like most of you with space limitiations, just UP the system Capacity. You need a good pump, too slow and too much heat transfer, then the HEX cant shed enough of the heat. Get the biggest HEX you can fit, or a smaller one with a puller fan. The fan is the key. It makes it so much better. I run a 14 inch puller fan. When I am done with a pull, I shut the engine off, let the system work, and it pulls it right down to Ambient temperature or a few degrees less. Its ready for another pull then. I tried a bigger crazy high flow fan and didn't see a big enough difference to justify it. The new thing now is with an A/W system, under normal driving you shut it off. You only turn it on when you do a pull or put it on a hobbs switch. If you had an ice tank this could work well with adding ice, it wouldnt circulate and melt the ice instantly. I am going to try the on off set up next year, I can report back. Under normal driving, My intercooler inlet and outlet are 20 degrees different. When the amnient drops a bit I can get lower than ambient temperatures. at 30 -40 degrees out I have seen the Intercooler Frost up on the outside. It makes BIG power then. LOL.

I have a Custom tank that's got 4 layers of Bedliner to Insulate it, The tank holds 2.5 gallons. I have a big RULE bilge pump IN the tank, from the tank, it pumps it right the the Intercooler. If you want to run ice, then the IC gets the cold water RIGHT away. from the IC it goes to the top of the HEX then the bottom of the HEX it goes all the way up to the Tank and just dumps ABOVE the water line.

BTW I have an Aftermarket Honda civic aluminum Radiator (2 core) that is my Heat exchanger with a 14 inch puller fan behind it. You can be stopped and the system will cool vs a system with no fan. HUGE benefit to add a HEX fan.

Any questions? Ask away.

 

 

Just an update to this... I was able to get three temp sensors installed in the system and logged with the HPT EIO. Sensor 1 is in the coolant resevior, Sensor 2 is in the hot side (inlet) of heat exchanger to measure temps exiting IC and Sensor 3 is in the cold side (outlet) of the heat exchanger measuring temp drop across the heat exchanger itself.
Well the consensus is my coolant system basically does nothing. Granted these are not lab grade sensors but I believe they are accurate enough to give reliable data. All three sensors remain within a few degrees of each other and the coolant continuously gains heat. I will add some screenshots of logs and add quantitative data later as I still have some more tests I would like to run.
So now my options are spend the cash on a new HE and IC or remove the cooling system completely and spray a ton of meth on it.