Really?
I had no idea he was running one still.
I thought he and Tony Gomes had "scaled it back a little"....LOL!
They'll know what I'm talking about.
From the link I posted:
" The most efficient method of Charge air heat entrapment is folded fin, because louvered fin configurations &/or very close fin per inch ratios can be utilized, resulting in higher surface areas to "grab" the heat. Note that these also cause the greatest pressure drop. It really comes down to manufacturing quality & specifications between folded fin & extruded tube efficiency as they can give similar results. Some folded fins have holes to break up the air flow, some have louvered fins to channel the air & some are flat but they usually have higher fpi. ratios. Extruded tube dividing walls are either flat or have ridges running length ways for increased surface area.
One last thing to remember is the strength & repairability of the cores. The weakest core by a very big margin is the plate & fin core, we get allot of these through our workshop (including oil coolers of the same construction), but they are relative easy to repair as they mostly crack in the centre of the end tank concertina. They have to be hydrogen brazed as the heat from TIG welding is too concentrated, usually resulting in a weep at one/both ends of the welds. Bar & plate cores are weaker than tube & fin & the other worry is that Garrett paperwork says that it is acceptable to have leaks in the core, as long as it doesn't exceed 4 psi drop from 30 psi in 15 secs !!! We may have had a leak in a tube & fin core over the years, but no new intercooler has ever left our shop with a weep, let alone leak. Bar & plate cores are very difficult to repair leaks anywhere on them, but tube & fin are only hard when the leak is in near the centre of the core. This advice is from our shop, that is one of the few set up too repair properly as well as fabricate new assemblies - in fact there is not another shop set up anywhere near as comprehensive as us, for repairs !
COOLING CAPACITIES (following are two very contentious paragraphs)
As a general rule, with a level playing field (manufacturing quality, both fpi's, tube size, thickness, & a hundred other variables), bar & plate intercooler cores dissipate more BTU's than plate tube & fin & then tube & fin cores - per square centimetre. Please stop, go back & read that sentence again, as it is the most often asked question, but the most misquoted answer of all time. Please also note that it is very easy to change just one specification of a core to make it better than the other two, & it must be remembered right now that heat dissipation is only one parameter of overall intercooler performance. If there is enough area & volume available, I quite often recommend a tube & fin core to do the job, as
it will get the temperature down too within very close of the other two, but at less pressure drop & less chance of leakage.>>>>>
It seems that it is not as simple as picking one parameter and dwelling upon that.
I also notice that Spearco
now is offering extruded tube ics...perhaps there is something to the technology after all.
"
It seems that the whole bar and plate vs. tube and fin thing isn't as clear cut as most would have you believe.
The way i see it,the bar and plate dsign may flow a bit better internally,but the ambient airflow flow across the core will be worse at speed because of the outside shape of the tube.
An opening with square corners won't flow as much as an opening with rounded corners ... basic fluid mechanics.
Cal: any idea what kind of outlet temp' he's seeing?
Pressure drop across the core?
