Intercooler Fans

[Lextreme II]

Just would like to show you FI guys my intercooler fans. I use one from the stock A/C fan and the other is a 10" electric fan mount directly into the intercooler.

They are activated at 180F. These fans (first two pictures) are great during heavy traffic. The last pictures is my radiator fan and its activated at 160F.

 

[Zuffen]

160degrees F seems to cool. An engine's efficiency rises with it's tempurature (the opposite to the inlet air) and I would have thought something close to 200 is what you want. The water should be close to boiling point.

 

[Peewee]

Yeah, my thermo's kick in at 94degC or 200degF.

I wouldnt want them any lower than that.

 

[V8Supra]

I think these are intercooler fans, not radiator fans. I think David is right with making them start earlyer. The 3rd pic is a radiator fan.

My fans come on at 82 degrees (c) and off at 76. I've got a colder thermostat in there too, its 72 degrees (c). (all from memory, its been a while since I've addressed them)

The stock thermostat is 76 degrees isn't it? So doesn't that mean the water temp should be AT 76 degrees?

Being at boiling point is irrellevant. Commodores run at 120 degrees c. They don't boil because of the pressure.

 

[Peewee]

Stock thermostat is 82 deg C.

Mine come on at 94, and turn off around 86/88 deg C.

This may change come summer.

But they only turn on when I am sitting at traffic lights.
At night they take about 3mins to come on, on a warm day they take about 30-45 secs.

 

[VWTurbo66]

Just a suggestion Lex, but you should try running your intercooler fans 100% of the time, and add water spray nossels to them. You can pump water from your windscreen washer tank, and use a pressure switch to switch on the water pump.

160 deg F (70 deg C) is too hot for making big power without the risk of pinging and it limiting your max boost value. Get it around 50 and your starting to get into the ball park. I dread to ask if that 70 degrees is at full boost or at 0 boost. I've seen air temps rise by 25-30 degrees C when the boost changes from 0-12lb, so your actual air temp might be approaching 100 degree's C ???

Have you seen the water to air intercooler kits that are availabe from PWR. They make these barrel water to air units that are very efficent and small so they will fit pretty easily. They allow you to remotely mount a couple of radiators (say at the back of the car), and then plumb coolentto the intercooler. And for a little extra excitement you can put an ice block chamber inline with the pumped water to drop the water temp to very low temps.

In race applications over here, the PWR rep told me of a car that pumps alcohol through the intercooler heat exchanger, and then uses dry ice to chill the alcohol. Yes its an explosive setup, but talk about a tempreture drop! allows boost levels like 45 PSI on 8:1 compression engines.

Cheers,

Ian.

 

[Peewee]

Ian

The fan's he has installed are purely for traffic.
Once he gets above about 30kph, the fans do nothing, so you wouldnt want them on.
The are purely to stop manifold temp creeping up while sitting behind other cars bumper to bumper.

 

[LTLRKT]

Wouldnt the fans actually restrict airflow to your intercooler?

 

[Zuffen]

Not really.

The fans will "freewheel" with air the flowing thru them once they turn off.

Technically the motors would be an air restriction but it's so minor it's not worth considering.

If you think about the thermo fan on your it radiator would be have the same effect on airflow.

 

[LTLRKT]

yeah but the one or two degrees difference they make on a radiator cant be compared to an intercooler.

1 - 2 degrees celc on your intake charge on full boost has a bigger effect than 1-2* on your water temp.

For what its worth, if your chasing power, every little bit counts. Why put something in there that takes away power. I know its minute but it still would make a difference??


Riste.

 

[Peewee]

If you are running an intercooler where in the event you put fans on, and you get an increase in intake temps, then you are not running a big enough cooler.

Basically you are running that intercooler at 100% capacity, and increasing the boost by 1psi would raise temps by a large amount

If you can see what I'm trying to get at.

 

[COFFEE]

Guys,
I think the idea was as Peewee said, merely to stop air temp increase whilst stopped at lights.
Personally i don't think it's an issue, unless your drag racing from light to light ?
As for the radiator, I am not sure what the optimum temp is nor the thermostat ?
I do know that the hydrualic fan is controlled by it's own controller, it activates the fan by opening a solinoid that allows the oil to flow, thus spinning the fan.
Whilst my thermos are activated by a Jaycar unit i am going to try using the factory item.
If it can switch a solinoid it can switch a relay !
This way the fans switch on and off at the optimum temperatures as the manufacturer designed it, no guessing.

Regards

Stephen

 

[Zuffen]

Guys,
I think the idea was as Peewee said, merely to stop air temp increase whilst stopped at lights.
Personally i don't think it's an issue, unless your drag racing from light to light ?

How else do you move from traffic light to traffic light.

That's why they put them there. So you can race between them.

 

[COFFEE]

Zuffen,
My apologies,
I must have read Lextremes post incorrectly !
I thought it said " These fans (first two pictures) are great during heavy traffic. "
Would you really have a run between traffic lights in heavy traffic ?
One that was serious enough to warrant the thought of thermo fans ?

I have had runs between traffic lights as i am sure many of us have a some stage.
In heavy traffic ? the only serious part of that is some idiot putting innocent others at risk.

I merely responded on the exact words of Lextreme.
In that situation i wouldn't think it worh worrying about.

Regards

Stephen