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Air Conditioned IC?

The Fed

Old Guys Rule
Location
Florida
I'm thinking there could be a way to use the cold air from the A/C evaporator to cool a front-mounted intercooler. Could the A/C evaporator provide enough cooling to remove enough heat from the compressed air to make a difference? I don't think the A/C compressor draws more HP than you could gain.

It would involve modifying the A/C housing with a flap and insulated ductwork, which I think is doable. But it would need to work fast enough to be useful on the street and track.
 
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Floader

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Vermont
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m00se

Ready to race!
Location
Ottawa,CA
The Air-to-water or water/meth spray on the IC would likely be less hassle if your plan is to use at the track. Typical DX AC supplies air at temperatures between 45-55F. Your AC fan is probably designed to supply 100-200CFM to meet the cabin load. Apply this airflow to the intercooler and it is probably so minimal compared to the ram effect that I highly doubt the benefit would be worth the effort.

Don't forget you'd also need some sort of damper to balance the system or direct the supply air to the intercooler instead of the cabin.
 

Geomets

Ready to race!
Location
South-Eastern Europe
Car(s)
Golf mk7 GTI
I'm thinking there could be a way to use the cold air from the A/C evaporator to cool a front-mounted intercooler. Could the A/C evaporator provide enough cooling to remove enough heat from the compressed air to make a difference? I don't think the A/C compressor draws more HP than you could gain.

It would involve modifying the A/C housing with a flap and insulated ductwork, which I think is doable. But it would need to work fast enough to be useful on the street and track.

My friend, if you can achieve that, you'll go a step beyond Einstein and Tesla! No one has ever made a device to produce more E than he created in the first place. There is always loss of energy in-between and as is well known heat is trivial energy -I mean that is the last iteration of any energy produced in this universe. (I'm sorry for my English, it's not my mother language, obviously)
 

mr_blasto

Passed Driver's Ed
My friend, if you can achieve that, you'll go a step beyond Einstein and Tesla! No one has ever made a device to produce more E than he created in the first place. There is always loss of energy in-between and as is well known heat is trivial energy -I mean that is the last iteration of any energy produced in this universe. (I'm sorry for my English, it's not my mother language, obviously)

Those were my thoughts exactly, but I'd love to be proven wrong.
 

Jon B.

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
North Carolina
Car(s)
'15 GTI & '07 TBSS
http://killerchiller.com

Pretty much what the guy said above. They're marketed for A/W intercooler tanks. I almost put one on my lightning, but I live in the south and the tradeoffs for decreased air-conditioning performance and cooler IAT's weren't worth it to me.
 

mr_blasto

Passed Driver's Ed
http://killerchiller.com

Pretty much what the guy said above. They're marketed for A/W intercooler tanks. I almost put one on my lightning, but I live in the south and the tradeoffs for decreased air-conditioning performance and cooler IAT's weren't worth it to me.

Pretty interesting. From their FAQ:

Q: Since the KC piggy backs the vehicles AC won’t you lose horse power?

A: The AC system takes about 7 HP from the engine when engaged. Since the compressor kicks off at wide open throttle, and your IC fluid is your reserve, there is no power loss at WOT. Also the system will prevent power loss due to supercharger heat soak, and timing retard. Average gain back on a stock setup is around 40-50 HP, and more for a modified setup.

So if I understand this correctly, when you are cruising around, you'd be down some power from the A/C running when it otherwise would not be running, and you IC fluid would be super cold. Then you go WOT, power is higher than it would have been without the super cold IC fluid, but the A/C compressor isn't running so you aren't losing any power at WOT. The IC fluid hasn't warmed up dramatically because WOT is brief. When you are back off the throttle, A/C compressor is back on and cooling everything down and consuming some power when you don't really care. I can get on board with all that.

If I read it carelessly it looks like the A/C compressor costs 7hp, but the cooling of the IC fluid gives you 40-50, with a significant net gain. But I don't think that's how it works at all.

Scenario 1: mellow driving / AC compressor on / fluid getting really cold / net power to the wheels at given throttle level is lower than without the chiller

Scenario 2: brief wot / AC compressor off / fluid already cold, but becoming warmer / net power to the wheels is higher than without the chiller

Scenario 3: track (constant aggressive driving) / AC frequently off, but briefly on / fluid cooling for brief moments, but frequently warming / net power to the wheels is lower when throttle is not high enough to turn off the AC compressor and I SUSPECT the chiller wouldn't have enough time or efficiency to make a significant difference in IC fluid temps so net power to the wheels at WOT wouldn't be measurably different than without the chiller

It seems like if you are willing to consume more fuel for a given power level to the wheels while driving casually or idling to give yourself more power for brief pulls, then this is worth it all day long. There's no free lunch though.
 

bennybmn

Ready to race!
Location
Long Island
Yeah, the "no free lunch" of that is you're basically banking your HP over time by pre-cooling the fluid to use it all up at once.
 

mr_blasto

Passed Driver's Ed
And the HP being "banked" is greater than the HP that can be "used." It's costing you more than you're getting, but that doesn't make it a bad trade necessarily.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 
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