Patrick G

iTrader: (14)

The East Coast Supercharging kit is great and it makes a lot of power. But in the C6, that thick intercooler is blocked by the front bumper assembly and less than 50% of it gets fresh air though it.
To make matters worse, the IC next to the bumper also means that very little air gets to the top half of the AC condenser or radiator. It's blocked.
And because the factory shroud is scrapped, a lot of the incoming air goes around the IC, condenser, and radiator. If you have elevated cooling temps and poor intercooler performance, I have a solution.


Cut out the front bumper between the airbag sensors then rebox it for strength.


Now you have about 3" of clearance between the bumper and intercooler.


Now you can actually see the entire intercooler and the air can get to it.


Here's the bumper with it boxed and welded.

But opening up the bumper is only half of the solution. Now you have to capture the air that gets around the sides of the IC, condenser and radiator.


First you mock it up with cardboard (see the white boards on each side?)


Next, you cut it out in sheet metal.


Both sides shown.


Here's what your side panels will look like.


Here's the finished product with the air cleaner and IC reinstalled.


Another view.



Here's the proof. My coolant temps used to hover in the 220f range going down the highway until I changed the tune to run the fans all the time. After the fan change, the temps would stay between 208-212 going down the highway. My trans temps would follow suit. Now, my coolant temps are 181-185f with the AC blowing. If I do a long WOT pull on the highway, the temps will go up to maybe 189, then they'll drop back down to the low 180s after a minute or so. It would NEVER do that before. The IAC temps are MUCH better than before. I'm going to redyno this soon and hope my IATs stay lower longer. I'm trying to get this thing ready for the Texas Mile and I won't get a very good trap speed without good airflow going through the intercooler. I hope these photos show you how you can make a big fat intercooler work on a space-confined C6.

Mike@Diablosport

iTrader: (2)

Very cool setup you came up wit there Patrick.

Not that many guys willing to cut up their C6, but I have a feeling this will become a more popular mod as these cars age, and should be a must for anyone making big power on the street.

Patrick G

iTrader: (14)

Did some further dyno tweaks on my 93 octane, no meth tune. The reduced IATs helped increase my power to 744rwhp/709rwtq (was 719/653). I make peak power around 5900 rpm, then at 6400 rpm this little supercharger starts running out of airflow. Did a 6800 rpm blast in 3rd and 4th gear which gets me above 160mph and the highest my IATs got was 169f. That's way better than before. They would have been 190-200f at the same rpm and speed before.

ramairetransam

iTrader: (18)

nice work . this should be a sticky

Camaro99SS

iTrader: (4)

Nice work Pat! Who knows you may have saved the rings from getting fried running that hot beforehand. If my n/a setup ever reached 220, I wouldn't have even given it more than 1/4 throttle until fixed.

white01ss

iTrader: (37)

I'm with you on that. I like a cool running engine too.

But, you don't want it too cool or the oil won't get hot enough to burn off water in the oil that accumulates naturally from condensation. Oil needs to get up to 212* to boil the water out. Most modern cars run 220* all the time so that isn't bad. It's when it gets up to 235+ that you should start getting worried.

Bad Chad

iTrader: (94)

Thanks for the write up Pat, I just finished Anthony's Z06.