Has anybody put cooling fans on their ATI intercoolers (twin intercoolers).

They are pretty useless on a dyno or idling waiting for the xmas tree.

Is there a way to get some minimal airflow through them without impacting the airflow when driving normally?

UD

 

seems like a good idea, ill let ya know when i try it out

 

I'm running a single fan on my setup(front mounted 3-core). I'll probably mount it to draw air through since the tranny cooler is going in a different place now. I plan on hooking it up so that I can have it on while in the staging lines.

 

What good does that do in the staging lanes? I could see the benefit on the dyno, when the intercooler is actually cooling hot air. Sitting idling in the staging lanes however, a blower really isnt compressing any air, so its not generating heat.

 

I'm thinking that it will draw air through the cooler, thus cooling it off. Whether it works, ehh I'll find out.

I may try something else too. Just a matter of how much time and ingenuity I have.

 

i have often thought about this too. not sure how you could tell if its really helping.

 

if you turn them on while waiting to stage it will at least eliminate heat soak. im definately gonna try them out, what do you have to loose

 

Yep already did this. I used 2 - 8 inch fans and had to mount them on the bottom of the intercoolers and made them suck instead of blow. You have to cut off the aluminum angle iron peices that the flaps mount to then I just used the "zip tie" connectors that come with the fans to secure them. I first tried to make them blow thru the intercoolers but found i was getting alot of blow back. Then I tried sucking and stuck my hand on top of the intercoolers and you could feel the air moving thru. Mounting on top of the intercoolers was impossible due to space. I would have rather mounted them up there and sucking. This setup does a real nice job. Much better than the flaps.

Bill

 

Black97Z,

Not much cooling takes place from the direct flow of air thru the intercooler. An incredible amount of air would be required to remove all of the heat from compression constantly. The heat sink is the actual metal in the intercooler itself. Getting the metal in the intercooler to as close to ambient as possible in the staging lanes will aid in keeping the IAT's as low as possible during the quarter mile. IAT's will go up as the heat sink starts heating up.

Bill

 

I used two street bike fans that I bought off of ebay for $20. They are around 7 inches. Seems to keep the intercooler, cooler to the touch.

 

The fan idea is a good idea to remove heat soak, but I think it will be hard to remove enough heat to significantly remove heat from the intercooler at the staging lights.
Lots of people are using nitrous spray bar kits, as it vaporizies at about -88*C. A bar runs across the intercooler with holes in it pointing towards the intercooler, and when you need to, just press the button and it chills that intercooler very well.
Another option is if you don't like the idea of wasting that expensive N2O to cool off the intercooler, CO2 can be used instead and it vaporizes at -78*C, which isn't really much warmer than nitrous, and will cost you much less in the long run.

Check over at www.turbobuick.com and look at the Alchol, Nitrous and Propane board, they have lots of helpful stuff about this.

Hunter

 

I agree, but if your fans are on all the time when your not in boost it will be preparing the intercooler for its next round of heat transfer.

Why would one want to flick a switch at the staging lights and turn on a fan and try to cool down the intercooler in a few seconds. Its not going to happen.

N20/Co2 would be nice, but its kinda like forced induction vs Nitrous. The bottle can run out, but my fans will always have air to push.

 

I agree, but if your fans are on all the time when your not in boost it will be preparing the intercooler for its next round of heat transfer. Everytime air hotter than ambient passes thru the intercooler its heating it up, The fan will aid in keeping the intercooler as close to ambient temp as possible.

Why would one want to flick a switch at the staging lights and turn on a fan and try to cool down the intercooler in a few seconds. Its not going to happen.

All the spray kits for the intercoolers I have seen utilize a constant spray at WOT via a microswitch. N20/Co2 would be nice, but its kinda like forced induction vs Nitrous. The bottle can run out, but my fans will always have air to push.