C5z... Intercooler or nah?
C5z... Intercooler or nah? Need input on this... running a A&A V2Si kit on my C5Z... 3.6" pulley 10lbs. 222/230 114+2 cam, 317 heads setup for 10:1, longtubes no cats... alky meth kit single nozzle 15gph 100% meth.... car currently makes 646/590 like 11.2-5af and 18*... i'm super over how hot the car runs with the blower. I think the 4" thick FMIC just kills airflow thru the front of the car and the radiator just gets no love... I've got a 160 stat, fans set, water wetter with distilled water, new oem rad and cap and cleaned condenser along with the front bumper grill insert that allows air to come in the front bumper... with AC on, on freeway car will run 230 if I let it... and 196+ on surface streets during a cool night.
Anyways!! To solve this heat issue I think I want to **** can the intercooler, it'll save some weight simplify the front of my car and run a dual nozzle 50/50 (or stay 100% meth??) with my meth kit. I could return the front of the car to almost OEM and get rid of spacing the subframe down possibly as well (C5 BS)... What says you?
Anyways!! To solve this heat issue I think I want to **** can the intercooler, it'll save some weight simplify the front of my car and run a dual nozzle 50/50 (or stay 100% meth??) with my meth kit. I could return the front of the car to almost OEM and get rid of spacing the subframe down possibly as well (C5 BS)... What says you?
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Joined: Aug 2004
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Have you considered running a twin intercooler setup? maybe like a hybrid of the APS and procharger kits? That would remove the restriction directly in front of the rad.
Also what about installing the Tiger Shark front end? I think they look nicer than stock anyway.
You could also look to install some nice larger oil coolers below the head lights.
ECS also rerecords upgrading the fan writing on the C6s as it seems to be under rated. Really helps when the fans kick in. might be worth a try.
Vented hood would also help remove the heat. As would coating the headers.
Make sure the front end is as sealed as you can so air HAS to go through the rad. Don't worry about forcing it through the intercooler as you wont be pushing it that hard. But you do need to ensure that every once of air that enters the front ends HAS to go through the rad.
how about moving to the ECS smaller intercooler. This is only 35 inch thick and blocks about 2/3s to 3/4s of the rad. People have made well over 1000rwhp with it so it wont be a restriction.
Could also look to upgrade the rad to a larger unit. that should offer more cooling.
Just some ideas.
Also what about installing the Tiger Shark front end? I think they look nicer than stock anyway.
You could also look to install some nice larger oil coolers below the head lights.
ECS also rerecords upgrading the fan writing on the C6s as it seems to be under rated. Really helps when the fans kick in. might be worth a try.
Vented hood would also help remove the heat. As would coating the headers.
Make sure the front end is as sealed as you can so air HAS to go through the rad. Don't worry about forcing it through the intercooler as you wont be pushing it that hard. But you do need to ensure that every once of air that enters the front ends HAS to go through the rad.
how about moving to the ECS smaller intercooler. This is only 35 inch thick and blocks about 2/3s to 3/4s of the rad. People have made well over 1000rwhp with it so it wont be a restriction.
Could also look to upgrade the rad to a larger unit. that should offer more cooling.
Just some ideas.
I know I could spend $1k on radiator and fans and it'd prolly be ok if not better... but this is a design flaw, the way a C5 gets its air is already stupid but it works in stock fashion, throw a 4" thick IC that spans both the frame rails just kills airflow I think. And yes I could put a different front bumper on but no lol.. my point of this post was to see what you boost heads thought about deleting the A2A and using strictly meth and or water to cool it down... i'm on pump 91 gas as well.
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Joined: Jul 2008
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From: League City, Tx
Maybe on E85/dual nozzle meth you would be ok. Especially only on 10 psi..
The big radiator/fans won't help you much at idle if its real hot where you live. I battle this as well and I have the Dewitt's radiator/spal fans, open license plate cover, and all the other cooling tricks.. It will still hit 235+ on a 95* days idling with the AC on.... Just no air flow thru the radiator. Mine will cool down tho on the highway to about 205-210* after a little while.
Make sure your center air damn is in good shape and straight up/down..
The big radiator/fans won't help you much at idle if its real hot where you live. I battle this as well and I have the Dewitt's radiator/spal fans, open license plate cover, and all the other cooling tricks.. It will still hit 235+ on a 95* days idling with the AC on.... Just no air flow thru the radiator. Mine will cool down tho on the highway to about 205-210* after a little while.
Make sure your center air damn is in good shape and straight up/down..
What about a air to water ic? Or can you lay your ic down? I've seen people lay them down horizontal and still be able to get decently low intake temps. I mean maybe go with a intercooler that's not as thick. Your already running meth so that's great. I would look into air to water or laying the ic down. Just my .02
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Thats exactly what I did. I only run 9-10# and use water/alcohol kit so I figured I'd try it. Its always ran super hot on the freeway. I took the intercooler off and now it barely wants to get to 180 cruising on the freeway (I took my thermostat out too a while back). Running such low boost the water/alcohol kit takes plenty of heat out of the air. More boost and it isn't as effective though supposedly, it can only cool so much. Make sure you pull timing by air temp too so if the pump or anything else fails you won't grenade your engine.
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Verdad Gallardo Thats exactly what I did. I only run 9-10# and use water/alcohol kit so I figured I'd try it. Its always ran super hot on the freeway. I took the intercooler off and now it barely wants to get to 180 cruising on the freeway (I took my thermostat out too a while back). Running such low boost the water/alcohol kit takes plenty of heat out of the air. More boost and it isn't as effective though supposedly, it can only cool so much. Make sure you pull timing by air temp too so if the pump or anything else fails you won't grenade your engine.
So you're running 50/50? Why you pick that over 100%... dual nozzle? What nozzle sizes? Also... do you know your intake temps on and off the throttle? And I've got my tune setup that way now with a blended table IATvsTiming I think anything over 180 and it falls on its face... which I've done. Oops.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/forced-in...oler-pt76.html
The one thing that you have to tune around or figure out is the temp will spike anywhere from 160-180 on my setup BEFORE the water starts spraying. It was spiking to 180 and I turned the adjustment on the hobbs switch to come in a little earlier and it seems to only get to 160-170* now. You have to play with it and make sure it doesn't bog if you bring it in earlier(thats what she said?).
Ive been running Torco in my pump gas while I figure it all out so I'll have room for error.
EDIT: Not 210, only 180
Single M15 and 50/50 up to 70 alcohol/30 water. It seems like the 50/50 cools better than a higher alcohol content. Driving it around more hitting it over and over for about 5-6 seconds at a time the 50/50 water seems to go to 120* and stay there and 10-20% more alcohol will go to 130-135* and stay there. This is high gear pulls going from 60-120 or so on 95-100* days.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/forced-in...oler-pt76.html
The one thing that you have to tune around or figure out is the temp will spike anywhere from 160-180 on my setup BEFORE the water starts spraying. It was spiking to 180 and I turned the adjustment on the hobbs switch to come in a little earlier and it seems to only get to 160-170* now. You have to play with it and make sure it doesn't bog if you bring it in earlier(thats what she said?).
Ive been running Torco in my pump gas while I figure it all out so I'll have room for error.
EDIT: Not 210, only 180
https://ls1tech.com/forums/forced-in...oler-pt76.html
The one thing that you have to tune around or figure out is the temp will spike anywhere from 160-180 on my setup BEFORE the water starts spraying. It was spiking to 180 and I turned the adjustment on the hobbs switch to come in a little earlier and it seems to only get to 160-170* now. You have to play with it and make sure it doesn't bog if you bring it in earlier(thats what she said?).
Ive been running Torco in my pump gas while I figure it all out so I'll have room for error.
EDIT: Not 210, only 180
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Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 2,866
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I know I could spend $1k on radiator and fans and it'd prolly be ok if not better... but this is a design flaw, the way a C5 gets its air is already stupid but it works in stock fashion, throw a 4" thick IC that spans both the frame rails just kills airflow I think. And yes I could put a different front bumper on but no lol.. my point of this post was to see what you boost heads thought about deleting the A2A and using strictly meth and or water to cool it down... i'm on pump 91 gas as well.
I know the vette is probably one of he worst designs for FI in terms of intercooling. But you can engineer a solution if you work at it. There are several people that have. Some even road race their supercharged vettes so it can be done.
The problem I see with meth injection only is you whole intercooling is relient on a crappy pump. It's not pressure monitored and you have very limited ways of telling how the system is doing. Yeah you can rig up a light or buzzer if the pump fails but you have no way of knowing the performance of the system, ie, how much water/meth you are actually spraying. It's a very basic solution with no backup.
For me I would spend the whole time looking at the IAT gauge waiting for it to start to climb into the 200s. With an intercooler you don't have that worry.