intercooler behind the grille - pros and cons?

[waynos 0]

i have been looking through some galleries and i came across corradonald's rado, stunning motor with some trick touches. Hes got a front mounted intercooler behind the grille (see pics - hope you dont mind me pinching these pics corradonald)

 

 

 

im liking this idea as i can keep the boost pipes nice and short. Is there any reason i couldnt do this on my g60? would it block flow to my radiator in such a way that my cooling would be compromised?

[paul20v 0]

a lot of manufacturers mount intercoolers in front of there rads , intercoolers have a high flow rate of air going through them so its not so bad,

and your also not blocking all the rad with it anyway.

[Toad 0]

That doesn't look ideal to me in terms of radiator cooling.

[CorradoVR6-Turbo 0]

You would still get plenty of air going past that aswell as cooling via the lower part of the bumper to rad,cant see why it would affect it mate.

[Riley 0]

Perfectly fine imo, the pipework could end up better too, possibly less distance/less angles. 8)

 

Charger side looks the hardest for piping up in a smooth/transitional way...

 

Neil.

[dirtytorque 0]

I have not seen any negative side effects from a fmic in terms of coolant temps Wayne.

[flusted 0]

I was thinking of doin this only yesturday :lol: Got a cossie intercooler like rileys and it fits perfect between headlights, would need to cut the slam panel re-enforcements though to fit :scratch:

[Yandards 0]

You wont see any higher coolant temps expect possibly at idle in traffic as the larger intercooler will reduce the air inlet temps, which in turn will keep engine temps down slightly and therefore reduce the load on the coolant system.

 

The other advantage along with being larger is that the rad fan will draw air over the intercooler in traffic.

[Riley 0]

I was thinking of doin this only yesturday :lol: Got a cossie intercooler like rileys and it fits perfect between headlights, would need to cut the slam panel re-enforcements though to fit :scratch:

 

Id incorperate the intercooler into the top and bottom panels to become the strength 8) Good strong brackets at each side top and bottom or sommet. I decided lower down in more dense air was better.

 

(And i wanted to do the silly number plate thing) :lol:

[g60karmann 0]

I now have a 1.6 golf radiator for the charge cooler it sits right in front of my g60 radiator and the water never gets past 98 degrees even stuck in traffic and when driving the water tends to stick around 80 degrees. There should be no problem with an intercooler of any size being in front of the radiator although I am thinking about getting a better fan for when I am stuck in traffic.

 

If you don't have one already an oil cooler is a must for keeping all temps down including water

[flusted 0]

I was thinking of doin this only yesturday :lol: Got a cossie intercooler like rileys and it fits perfect between headlights, would need to cut the slam panel re-enforcements though to fit :scratch:

 

Id incorperate the intercooler into the top and bottom panels to become the strength 8) Good strong brackets at each side top and bottom or sommet. I decided lower down in more dense air was better.

 

(And i wanted to do the silly number plate thing) :lol:

 

Can i copy to some extent? :hitler:

[Riley 0]

Hold on, just let me put this> [b:2b32kwke]

[Toad 0]

Sorry, I didn't make myself entirely clear, I have no issue with FMICs, oil coolers etc, but that example has the fairly large headers for the IC and the large bore piping sat in front of the radiator which will restrict airflow. Rather than just the core of the I/C, which air will pass through.

 

I feel that obstructions like that will impair the performance of a system. I realise that the grill and horns are in the way also, but the air has space between the obstruction and the radiator to diffuse and thus pass through the entire core radiator, the FMIC headers/pipework are a lot closer to the radiator, and won't let the diffusion occur.

 

It's also worth mentioning that if people are planning to fit FMICs like that, they should leave enough room to clean between the FMIC and radiator as grass and detritus builds up between them blocking the radiator cores, or make some way to tip the radiator back to get in and clean the space out.

 

Looking forward to my next flaming.... ;)

[boost monkey 0]

^^^ Good points Toad.

 

Putting anything in front of the radiator will restrict airflow, that is the law of physics (unless someone has made an ethereal IC? :lol:). Clearly, different people consider such quantities as "airflow restriction" in different ways. The anal engineers (like me :grin: ) will obviously consider anything in front of the radiator as a restriction to airflow (spiders web, piece of dust in the air) and others will think that stacking tons and tons of things in front of the radiator is fine as long as it doesn't overheat.

 

SO it's all opinions really, good job none of us share our cars and have to agree on plumbing huh! :norty: :lol:

[Toad 0]

Yeah, stacking radiator cores isn't too bad, as the air will get through, although I might be tempted to try uprating the fan, I'm used to seeing intercoolers, aircon, gearbox and engine oil coolers rammed in front of the main rads, but there is nothing solid in front of the rad core, and everything works swimmingly, until shite builds up in the gap between them.