Hypothetical Question/discussion

Xtreme

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May 23, 2005
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Ok- What whould the effects, if any, on your car if you could cool you're intake charge air temp to say, 0 degrees F? Would you make massive power, would you throw a piston through your hood? Would it do anything harmful, or would it be awesome? Just curious, since my buddy raised the question to me, and I couldn't really answer him. I know that cool air is more dense, and that makes more power, but is there a threshold to it, or a limit of some kind? I'd just like to satisfy my own curiosity. Thanx
 

Stretch

Tallest MK3 driver ever!!
Mar 30, 2005
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It would make your car awesome. That's why drag racers ice their intakes/what have you so that they can squeeze every pony they can out of the small things, such as intake charge temperatures.
eric
 

americanjebus

Mr. Evergreen
Mar 30, 2005
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You mean temp of air going into the intake or 0 degrees in the manifold??

i'd say about the same as driving arround montana in winter in -10 degree weather. after the turbo it'd heat up to about 10 degrees or more but still cold as hell and no ill effects. it wouldnt be that much more dense if it was just generally colder. depends HOW you make it colder too.

i always played with the idea of refrigeration chamber that ran off freon gass somewhere allong the ic pipes.
 

Demianu27

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Dec 22, 2005
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Stretch said:
It would make your car awesome. That's why drag racers ice their intakes/what have you so that they can squeeze every pony they can out of the small things, such as intake charge temperatures.
eric

LOL

let's all put ice on our pipes and cause the condensation to get sucked into the engine..........smmmaarrrrt.

colder air is better, but anything below typical cool weather temperatures won't give you as much of a hp gain as you might think.
 

Stretch

Tallest MK3 driver ever!!
Mar 30, 2005
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Well you don;t HAVE to use ice. You could use dry ice, or like americanjebus said you could incorporate the ac lines and pump freon to cool the charge. That would be trick.
eric
 

jimi87-t

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Oct 12, 2005
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The freon would not be able to keep up with the amount of air going in to the engine. But you could use a system that is already available, tested, and used by many turbo guys (and gals). Spray co2 onto your IC, (you can use nitrous, but co2 is safe and less $$ to fill) you can pick up kits at summit. Duane is running a kit, see his pics on his site.
dei-080130_32_w.jpg

dei-080102_w.jpg
 

7M-GTE

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Apr 2, 2005
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jimi87-t said:
Right, but you could use "DEI's" air intake charge cooler. It freezes that bubble to cool the air.
dei-080110_w.jpg


that actually looks like a good idea... put these into your IC lines... maybe as an elbow... or two?...
 

figgie

Supramania Contributor
Mar 30, 2005
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americanjebus said:
You mean temp of air going into the intake or 0 degrees in the manifold??

i'd say about the same as driving arround montana in winter in -10 degree weather. after the turbo it'd heat up to about 10 degrees or more but still cold as hell and no ill effects. it wouldnt be that much more dense if it was just generally colder. depends HOW you make it colder too.

i always played with the idea of refrigeration chamber that ran off freon gass somewhere allong the ic pipes.

Ford does this with their Super Charged Lightnings!
 

figgie

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7M-GTE said:
that actually looks like a good idea... put these into your IC lines... maybe as an elbow... or two?...

problem

jsut as with Crabs

put TOO cold an intake then you start going from cooling to creating ice shards ;) Trust me you don't want that :)
 

Xtreme

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May 23, 2005
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to follow up my original question- so what would the difference be going from say...60 deg F in your intake manifold to zero deg F? 10 hp, 20? How about if you could cool the manifold charge to -50? What would happen then?
 

Bullz_EyE

ToP DeaD CenTeR
Jan 26, 2006
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As a general rule, for every 10 degree (Fahrenheit) drop in temeprature, there is about a 1% gain in horsepower. My grey matter is used up for today, you do the math.
 

IJ.

Grumpy Old Man
Mar 30, 2005
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So using that formula I could gain a whopping 13 HP if I could drop my intake temp to 0!

Not to mention the cost complexity and weight of a system that would be able to do this........:3d_frown:

This goes back to what I posted in another thread these aren't class race cars where every HP gained could mean a win they're big old heavy ROAD cars...

Sort of reminds me of Jamie on MythBusters, if there an easy way and a hard way he invents an even harder way!
 
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N

NDBoost

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WRX STI's use somewhat of a similiar setup except they spray a water/methanol solution across the top of the intercooler. I was looking into using Co2 when i ge a bigger turbo setup and a true FMIC
 

Bullz_EyE

ToP DeaD CenTeR
Jan 26, 2006
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San Diego, CA
Here's where it get's interesting. Taking that general rule, the more power you make, the more there is to be gained by an intake temp drop, in theory anyway. Hypothetically you have a vehicle and each and every time you bring it to the dyno the ambient intake temp is magically 75'F. Each time you add a stage of tuning bumping you up in HP. You manage to drop your intake charge to 0'F. Here's what you might see.

250HP Dynoed @ 75'F
268 @ 0'F (+18)

350HP (+26)

525HP (+39)

705HP (+52)