Ok, I don't know a ton about intercoolers but I was wondering. Would a big front mount intercooler make a significant difference in the performance or is the stock "aftercooler" enough for a mildly modded street balt? It seems that the SS/SC has enough room for one but would it do anything?

 

Wouldnt not do ****, we dont have a centrifigual(spelling) supercharger, the cooling system on it now is just fine.

 

exactly my thoughts

 

the stock is fine!

 

What he said...

On your vehicle right now is an aftercooler. Basically what your aftercooler does is act just like your radiator in a way, it's an Air to Water cooler, the water is used to cool the compressed air from your supercharger (just to simplify what it does).

The reason you CAN'T use an front mount intercooler like you see on turbocharged applications is because of the physicality of things. A roots type supercharger sits on top of your manifold and the opening is downwards so it can go to your manifold and into your cylinder head. Because of this, there is no way of routing some type of piping all the way to the front of your car and back up to your manifold...it's not gonna happen. The front mount intercoolers are air-to-air intercoolers, they use an cooler air charge to cool down the hot compressed air.

You CAN do this on a Centrifugal (yes you spelled it right ) supercharger setup because it is not located on the top of your motor like a roots type and it runs off your camshaft and not your crankshaft like the roots type chargers. Because of where it's located, you have room to make some type of custom piping for an front mount intercooler setup if you wanted to.

Hopefully this makes sense to you, if you have anymore questions, just ask.

 

off topic but what ever happend to blondesschick from NY with the purple custom paintjob and the wide body design? she had a FMI on her car last pics i saw.

 

Show me a picture and I'll tell you if it was really an FMI or an aftercooler.

 

Good to know!! i was thinking of buying one but THANKS NJHK!!!! good info.

 

No problem

 

Both the centrifugal and Roots blowers run off of the crank. The camshaft also runs off of the crank. It depends what kit you buy and how you want things laid out - this will determine what kind of serpentine belt system you use and how you will route your piping.

 

Do you mean badgrl....

 

Think stage 3 offers a 2 pass intercooler

 

yes they mean me....blonde ss girl...bah

 

um.... you CAN do a front mount intercooler because Grand Prixs do it ALL the time and they have the m90 blower that sits on top of the motor...... my buddy that has a prix and live 5 seconds away from me has one.... and im pretty sure that the after cooler is just a short stack intercooler..... It all looks the same to me when I look at the both of em on our cars.....

 

well we have the intercooler in the manifold and the aftercooler in the front bumper.... or is it the other way around?, by the way I saw a post on here about be-cool making a bigger aftercooler for us soon.... check into that.

 

i know its hard to see. i need to get more pics. i will though so dont ask ...lol
you will all see them when its all done. ill post like 100 pics.

 

the IC core is on the manifold and the actualy IC is int he front bumper

 

You CAN do front mount heat exchanger and yes it would make a substancial difference with the goals being adding capacity ( stock we only hold 2 quarts ) and getting the stock heat exchanger away from the hot ass radiator . When my funds allow , Im gonna switch to a 03-04 cobra Afco heat exchanger . Its about mimmicks the size of our front lower grill , just wider . To add capacity Im gonna put a fuel cell in the trunk and use a higher flowing pump and plumb the lines back up to the heat exchanger under the car . With the mods I plan with the SS , I dont see myself ever exceeding a set up like that .

Pending on your fabbing skills , setting up something like I would find pretty easy to do . 3 friends of mine use air to water coolers , we set them all up this way with great results .

 

Badgirl, your IC is for the Turbo though, correct?


For those asking though, yes you could upgrade to a larger heat exchanger and tuck it behind the front grill to get that look. We already have a Ht exchanger in there, but it is sandwiched between the radiator and the AC condensor.

And yes we would certainly benefit from a larger or more efficent heat exchanger. At least those running smaller pulleys would. Just ask anyone running the 2.5" pulley what their IAT2 temps look like.

Just like Silver SS/SC was saying ppl are starting to look to Cobra ht exchangers, and IIRC there is a way to modify out aftercooler unit to double pass instead of its stock single pass config. They talk about it in the GM cook book

 

Yep, if you modify the stock heat exchanger from single to double pass and add a reserve fluid tank, you would have plenty of cooling power even with a 2.5" pulley.

 

changing it would just be a watse on $$

 

couldn't you have some kind of functional "ram air" hood or scoop but really use it to cool down your engine bay/supercharger instead of what it is typically used for?


i could be totally retarded, but it's something i thought about before.

 

guys on the RL forums are already experimenting with cobra heat exchangers, thus increasing the capacity of fluid, and since the heat exchanger is a front mount, cool air will keep it chilled. below ambient is expected when blasting co2 on it too! even lower temps can be achieved when switching from 4 pass to 2 pass, check out the RL forums for all the info. these forums wont allow links to there!

 

Im a local in the Houston area and i've been working with LFP on a heat exchanger and it won't be too long!

 

i was talking to a Be Cool radiators rep at thier car show and they where planning on doing a new cooler for us, he said something along the lines of wider spaced cooling fins 1/2 inch thicker and bigger tubes, and also moving it to the front. ill keep you guys up to date as i find stuff out.