custom liquid intercooler question!!!!

[Tom Tom Turbo]

I have a 23 row Mark Jackson stock location intercooler that has been boxed for liquid and has fittings in the bottom to run the feed and return lines. I also have a 250 lph Shur-Flo pump and an Earl's 2.5"x12"x9" heat exchanger for this system, my question is....do I need to mount a tank in the trunk that holds maybe 2-4 gallons of water, or should I just fill the intercooler with water and run it?

 

[callmeebryan]

With my experience with liquid intercooled setups... the more water in the system the better, unless the car is a track only car... in which case you would be draining it out after every pass and refilling with ice water anyway.

Any by more water, i mean also use atleast 1/2" tubing, ideally 5/8" tubing. And obviously, the larger the heat exchanger, the better.

 

[Tom Tom Turbo]

the IC has -10AN fittings welded in the bottom of it....will that be sufficient? I am projecting 11.50's....but the car is still going to see mostly street duty. Should I install a switch for the pump, so when I'm just cruising around the pump isn't running or will the IC not work at all that way?

 

[callmeebryan]

the IC has -10AN fittings welded in the bottom of it....will that be sufficient? I am projecting 11.50's....but the car is still going to see mostly street duty. Should I install a switch for the pump, so when I'm just cruising around the pump isn't running or will the IC not work at all that way?

Alot of kits out there utilize a map sensor trigger to turn the pump on at a set amount of boost. I didnt like that idea. I had a switch inside the car to turn the pump on and off.

You have to be careful with how you mount the LIC aswell. You want to pump water into it from bottom to top. If you have a LIC that has IN and OUT fittings right next to eachother you'll still be ok. Just make sure you are utilizing gravity so that the water does NOT get stuck in the LIC when you have the pump turned off.

One thing people always do wrong with streetable LIC setups is they do nothing to prevent water from sitting in the LIC. Especially with the kind of LIC you have, make sure that you have those fittings facing the ground. What will happen is that when the pump is turned off, your turbo is still throwing warm air even though its not spooling like crazy. The water thats sitting inside the LIC will get warm, and then when you turn the pump on it will (1) partly mix with cooler water from the reservior as its exiting, which will also warm up that cooler incoming water... and (2) send warmer water to the reservior early, which will warm up the reservior water faster than you want. This is why i always had my pump running whenever i was running the car (wasnt my buick, but still the same thing). Make sure the pump you have is a "circulation pump" thats made for continuous operation.

More water the better. Keep that in mind. Also, the larger the reservior the better. Think about it this way... Take 1 fluid cup of boiling water and dump it into a bathtub of ice water. You wont really notice a difference in overall temperature. Now take that same fluid cup of boiling water and dump it into a small pitcher of ice water.... you'll notice that the ice cubes will melt quickly. Simply put, the more water in the reservior, the better job it will do in keeping that water cold over a long period of time, and also fight against warming up.

The key to a LIC system for street use is keeping the water in the system as cool as possible as long as possible. This is done by having a high flowing pump that can produce decent water pressure, an efficient heat exchanger thats as large as you can fit, and a reservior that can hold more than double the capacity that the intercooler can hold.

 

[Tom Tom Turbo]

I was wrong....the intercooler has fitting on the top and one on the bottom, with an allen head cap to drain the system. In this case, would I want to pump in from the top and return from the bottom, that way the pump doesn't have to try to push the water up through the IC? Also, should the pump be mounted close to the heat exchanger, close to the tank, close to the IC?

My initial plan was to mount the tank in the trunk, the pump along the passenger side frame rail, the heat exchanger up front by the radiator, and obviously, the IC in stock location. Finally, should I run this system with a 50/50 mix of distilled water and anit-freeze, or would adding some water wetter help....and should I use some sort of an in-line filter, in case I put ice in the system, I don't want to suck a chunk of ice through the pump and damage it.

 

[callmeebryan]

I was wrong....the intercooler has fitting on the top and one on the bottom, with an allen head cap to drain the system. In this case, would I want to pump in from the top and return from the bottom, that way the pump doesn't have to try to push the water up through the IC? Also, should the pump be mounted close to the heat exchanger, close to the tank, close to the IC?

My initial plan was to mount the tank in the trunk, the pump along the passenger side frame rail, the heat exchanger up front by the radiator, and obviously, the IC in stock location. Finally, should I run this system with a 50/50 mix of distilled water and anit-freeze, or would adding some water wetter help....and should I use some sort of an in-line filter, in case I put ice in the system, I don't want to suck a chunk of ice through the pump and damage it.

Ok, now with the fittings on opposite sides of the tank.... you'll obviously be mounting the LIC in the stock IC location.... This means you will have one fitting facing the ground, and one facing the hood.

Being a biology major in college, i have been taking alot of chemistry labs. Long story short, we use condesor tubes to catch condensation from a boiling liquid. Water us pumped through the tube to cool the rising vapor out of the boiling vial.

You always want to have the flow of water through the LIC from bottom to top, against gravity. This will allow the IC to completely fill up with water until it has nowhere else to go besides out the top.

This is more reason now to have a dash mounted switch to operate the pump. You'll want to have that pump running atleast 10-15 seconds before you make a pass so that the LIC will fill up with flowing water. Also, after you make a pass, i would usually leave the pump running for a good 5-10 minutes to prevent heat soak.

It doesnt matter where you put the reservior. I would suggest having it in the truck for better weight distribution. As long as your pump is good enough to hold pressure with that much line while maintaining flow, you'll be fine. -10an is a good size, but running braided hoses for this is really unnessesary. I just used black rubber garden hose bought from home depot.

Make sure the tank is easily drainable. I had a release valve (a plumbing fitting) on the bottom of my tank, but my tank was mounted in the front of the car and i would just drain it into an oil pan. You'll want to have the drain at the lowest point in the system (obviously) so that all of the liquid drains out.

When you are at the track, you'll want to change the water between each runs with new fresh ice water. Distilled water is the BEST to use, as it has the highest specific heat out of any readily available substance. Dont use antifreeze at all, unless you are afraid of the water in the lines freezing (which shouldnt happen unless its below freezing temps outside).

The pump should be mounted underneath the reservior. Have a line coming from the bottom of the reservior into the inlet on the pump. This line should feed straight DOWN to the pump, so that the pump always has a supply of water.

Reservior->Pump->Heat exchanger->LIC->Reservior

Any questions let me know!