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So thinking about it, I think I am going to add in the heat exchanger after the supercharger back in to the loop. From what I can tell, the turbos intercoolers were the same temp as the bulk water in the cooler. They arent really doing anything until I am in boost, however the SC intercooler is always soaking up engine heat which will eventually heat up the water, and unfortunately an insulated cooler doesnt loose any of that heat. A whipple sucking in compressed air and outputting close to 30psi is bound to be very hot. I can turn off or slow the pump way down but I still dont think that would do it, the heat has to go somewhere. I plan to put a temperature sensor on the SC outlet to see what the water temp is under various conditions. If the SC outlet is above ambient, even with ice in the cooler, then heat exchanger will help regardless.
So thinking about it, I think I am going to add in the heat exchanger after the supercharger back in to the loop. From what I can tell, the turbos intercoolers were the same temp as the bulk water in the cooler. They arent really doing anything until I am in boost, however the SC intercooler is always soaking up engine heat which will eventually heat up the water, and unfortunately an insulated cooler doesnt loose any of that heat. A whipple sucking in compressed air and outputting close to 30psi is bound to be very hot. I can turn off or slow the pump way down but I still dont think that would do it, the heat has to go somewhere. I plan to put a temperature sensor on the SC outlet to see what the water temp is under various conditions. If the SC outlet is above ambient, even with ice in the cooler, then heat exchanger will help regardless.
i've been thinking about this too, and the one thing i'm not sure about is if you have a heat exchanger out front, won't it reduce the ice's ability to cool the coolant to sub ambient temperatures?
Possibly, but thats why knowing what the water temperature is at different points in the system is important. Heat always flows from hot to cold. I am assuming the hottest water in the system is the line coming out of the SC intercooler, I have some parts on the way to confirm and test this. This is also why I have the heat exchanger on the return side and not the feed side. As long as the water coming out of that port is hotter than ambient, than the heat exchanger will help by reducing the temperature closer to ambient. Ambient is the best you could achieve if the heat exchanger was 100% efficient. In this case it may be the difference in returning 85F water vs 120F water.
Now if the water coming out is still colder then ambient, then yea it would be acting to warm up the bulk water temp. As the ice melts the bulk temp will obviously go up and I can always keep the pump off to preserve the ice for when I need it. If I can get a couple runs out 5lb of ice that will be pretty good to me.
Well went to the track last weekend and ran 3 times. Trans works. Engine is being weird, any time I put it in drive at idle and idles horrible and doesnt want to stay going, havent had time to look at it yet. Main thing was turns out the igloo cooler doesnt seal very well so when I launched I was loosing some water out of the lid. By some I mean like a gallon even with it strapped closed After the 3rd time the track official was like what the hell do you have back there and pretty much said I was done for the night. Probably for the best until I can figure out why it was missing.
The heat exchanger did keep it cooler I think, water didnt get as hot as it did the other day, but man this thing soaks up some heat like crazy. It will easy eat ice like the freaking cookie monster. 10lb bag might drop it 10F or so and melts in minutes. Gonna have to take a **** ton of ice for it to be useful. I didnt expect it to heat up this quickly honestly.
Plan B for the cooler, I am going to make an aluminum box to fit inside of it, so you will still only see the cooler, but inside will be a real tank that wont leak. Drew it up and had a local guy cut it out of 1/8 aluminum. Probably couldve gone much thinner but whatever, thing is crash rated at this point. Volume is right at 9.5 gallons or so. There are some races this weekend I am going to try and make.
May 21, 2020 | 02:42 AM
After the 3rd time the track official was like what the hell do you have back there and pretty much said I was done for the night. Probably for the best until I can figure out why it was missing.
