Has anyone considered adding a second A/C evaporator to help cool the intake air charge? Seems to me like a lot of time and money is invested into air/air and air/water cooling systems that all would be inferior to the benefits of using R134a to cool the intake. Any drawbacks that I'm missing here?

 

it would be complicated, expensive and only be good for short bursts.

ford had something like you are sugesting on their concept lightning. it used the ac to cool a liquid then when the truck was under boost it would pump the cold liquid thru the air to water intercooler. the ac actualy shut off at wot so it was only using the stored cold liquid. they said it was good for something like 40sec at a time and then needed 15 minutes to recover.

i think it is a bad *** idea and probably worth 50+hp for on any warm day, not worth much on a 50deg day.

 

I was thinking more along the lines of placing the evap unit where the intake air could blow directly through it, just like your A/C system works. Using the air to cool the water, and the water to cool the intake air I think would be less effective than cooling the air directly with refrigerant. Am I way off base here? What if you set it up like Tahoes and Subs that have rear A/C, but instead of using the rear evaporator, you route those coolant lines to your intake cooler.

Perhaps the amount of heat generated by high boost would overwhelm the cooling effects of the evaporator. Why didn't I study harder in thermodynamics!!!!

Nice truck BTW. I really enjoy watching all of the videos you guys make.

 

I have been toying with this idea as well. I was thinking or wrapping the intercooler hoses around the A/C condensor or the lines leading to it. Reduece the size if the hose at that point to get as many wraps as possible. Do this after the heat exchanger and right before it goes into the intercooler. Run the A/C on a hot day and have your PCM set up to shut off the compressor at WOT and you can be cooling your water the whole time your driving. The effects would be short lived and may over work your condensor as the water lines around it build up heat. Maybe you could tap into the duct work of your A/C and re-route the cold air with some flexible dryer hose through the engine bay and in front of the heat exchanger, so when the A/C is on it is pumping cold air directly onto the heat exchanger. I have not tried to apply my ideas, yet. I have a Tahoe so Maybe I could reduct the rear A/C as an intercooler A/C?

 

for you forward thinking gents

fyi:
http://www.decolabs.com/index.php?cPath=42

http://www.coolflow.com/index.html

http://www.killerchiller.com/

 

How come noone has tried any of these kits? I live in FL and I could use a super intercooler 9 months out of the year.

 

Ditto here in Texas.

 

It doesn't have the capacity. I'll try to get back to you tomorrow with some numbers. It would probably only be able to cool the air at idle speeds. I think a car's evap fan only puts out about 150 cfm (just guessing), and the A/C is sized for something like a 30 degree temp drop, using like 4 or 5 tons of cooling. The numbers that I will find out, for my curiosity too, is how many tons would it take to give a 100 degree drop at, where should I look, 750 cfm? For comparison, a house's A/C is sized to give 18 degree temperature differential regardless of size, and an airflow of 400cfm per ton. Look at the size of a central air unit that is cooling 800 cfm of air from 80 down to 62 degees, and then imagine how much bigger it would have to be to do what you want. The only possible way is with a chiller and air to water I/C, and they are still way undersized, if it was able to cool the air with 100% duty cycle, the compressor would be as large as the one that you would need for your idea.

 

You listed a lot of good rules of thumb for home AC sizing. But none of that really applies here when were talking about high velocity compressed air moving through relativley small duct work. The closest thing I can think of to this is the new high velocity ducts for residential aplications. But even then the air is not compressed and doesn't have the mass. Plus the 18*F split is for R22 or R410a. R134a used in vehicles now can reach a coil temp of 40*F. It operates at much lower temps and lower pressures.

As far as using the vehicles AC system. It isn't up to the task. I've even looked into the SUV's compressors and it's just not practical. They don't work at WOT and that's just not good enough IMO. A car's AC systems utilize R134a, which isn't the ideal refrigerant for the amount of deltaT you need here given the mass flow rate of a +300cid engine. However I have a remedy to that.

The links posted above are good, but by running the air directly across the coil you might have condensation issues that I wouldn't want to mess with. Don't get me wrong its great for a one shot deal, but those methods are less than desireable for constant use. I wouldn't rely on them.

1SlowHoe, wraping the refer lines coming off the condenser coil isn't going to do you any good. That refrigerant is not "cold". If you're going to go that route you need to use the lines after the expansion valve. The flexible duct isn't going to work too well either in keeping the temperature you need, plus it will probably burst when pressurized.

The only one around here that I know of that has any real experience with this is duner. I'm sure he'll chime in here soon enough.

But I'd stay tuned kids, because I have a nice little IC idea that'll strike your fancy. I just need the time to R & D it.

 

What time frame do you expect to have your idea marketed? It's still 90* here everyday but should be cooling off soon. I would be interested in something like this before next March/April.