BlackCamaroSS02

iTrader: (8)

Been hearing alot of talk about putting fins or something like that on the intake pipes and it will act as an air to air intercooler?? can someone PM or something and explain how the hell to do this. There are a couple ppl on these forums that are trying ways to intercool there STS kits and i am VERY interested in knowing what to do.

Thanks
~Tom

rozzyroz

sort of like a heat sink? i guess something like that could work if the fins protruded into the intake tube and into the air stream outside of the tube as well.

however, i wouldn't think it would be all that efficient.

personally i thought about putting an intercooler right where my lid used to be. i have a suncoast hood, so it would (should) get a good flow of air.

i hope someone in the know will chim in on this one.

slyws6

I've thought about this actually. The fins don't need to protrude into the airstream, with them being welded on to the pipe it adds more surface area for heat transfer into the outside air thus cooling the charge. I'm real tempted to do it to mine to see how it affects the inlet air temp. Figure you have 10 feet of pipe, attach a bunch of fins to it and I bet you can drop your temp significantly.

-Sly

LS1Sandrail

Given that the thermal conductivity of aluminum is several times that of steel, why not make the ducting out of aluminum? The STS system works pretty good at shedding heat from the compressor to the engine and it is steel, but aluminum would work even better.

You may not want to do an all aluminum duct. Perhaps it could still be steel where it comes up into the engine compartment where the difference in the temp between the fluid in the duct and the engine compartment is not so great anyway.

If the pressure loss isn't too great, you could make the straight sections of the inlet duct out of rectangular aluminum tubing and increase the exposed area of aluminum. Alternatly, you might weld some fins onto the aluminum tube in the straight sections of the duct.

Just my thoughts on the topic.

Phil

BlackCamaroSS02

iTrader: (8)

ok i am sorry but i am just not grasping this. Are you guys saying to just weld pieces of metal in the shape of fins on the side all the way down the intake pipe that goes up the side of the car? is that what you mean? can someone explain in more detail how that would help to cool the air temps...i am not doubting it will work i am just new to the whole intercooler/turbo thing kinda learning as i go with my kit. Also been talking to some other members that are thinking about putting FMIC on.

BlackCamaroSS02

iTrader: (8)

so basically what your are saying is its similair to heatsinks in a computer? there just fins that add more surface area for heat to disapate(SP?) into the air so that the fans can carry it out of the case. Kinda the same principal?

slyws6

Take 1 ft of 2.5in inlet pipe. Assume compressed air is passing through it, as we all konw when you compress air it creates heat. The air is passing through this 1ft of pipe, as it does it transfers a portion of it's heat into the actual pipe, the air passing over the outside of the pipe (ambient air) absorbs some of that heat, thus the heat transfers from the inlet air to the pipe, then from the pipe to the ambient outside air. Now if you welded on a 5x5in piece of metal to the pipe, you now have more surface area, thus the inlet air can transfer more heat into the actual pipe, more surface area means that the ambient outside air will pass over more surface or more metal, taking away more heat with it. It's simple really, the more surface area you have the more heat transfer you have thus the cooler the inlet temp will be.

-Sly

Wildman

The short answer is yes. All inter-coolers are just heat exchangers. Same as your radiator, air passes thru, taking some of the heat with it, thus cooling the fluid in the radiator. Same concept with the heat sink in the computer and the fins we are talking about in this thread. The negative side is a little more wieght.

Hope this helps,
Paul

TurboBerserker

iTrader: (1)

As I understand it (and I have talked to STS about a method of cooling several feet of pipe to below ambient) fins won't have much effect at all. Dave South says that only the air that comes into direct contact with the piping gets cooled.

The difference with an a2a intercooler is that the almost all the air touches some cool metal -- because of all the surface area in the IC. To get any real effect from the piping alone, Dave said you'd have to put in some major kinks, which would disrupt the airflow and cause more pressure loss, so you might as well put in an intercooler.

I dunno. I'm just a silly programmer

slyws6

TurboBerserker: Where do you work? I'm a silly programmer too, what languages do you use? lol anyway sorry to go off topic

-Sly

TurboBerserker

iTrader: (1)

Hey Sly,

I work at EA Tiburon, doing video game AI exclusively using C++ (but was a Java guru in the past).

How bout you?

slyws6

Work for the military currently but keeping my eye open for a job when I get out. I do Java (to include JSP, Java Servlets, Javascript etc), C/C++, Perl etc.. I prefer Java mostly

-Sly

ws6-speed

I think an IC in the stock airbox location is a great idea. Especially for those with ram air style hoods. If you did the !baffles mod on the hood you'd get some great airflow over the IC. I've been wanting to build my own STS style turbo for a while now, just need to get the funds together.

Russell