engine area cooling

[lakis1982]

Hello,

i'm close to fit my turbo aircooled engine in my karmann ghia and i am thinking about the ideal cooling of the air-air intercooler that I have.

My intercooler will be installed right below the grills of the engine hood



Is the main purpose of those grills to extract warm air from the engine bay to the outside ?? Or the opposite which means to bring fresh air inside to the engine bay area ???

Could you suggest which of the two options below i should follow ??

1. Install fans on the intercooler that will flow air from the intercooler towards the outside through the grills

2. Install fans on the intercooler that will flow air towards the intercooler coming from the outside through the grills..


Thanks in advance..

[risk]

The vents are where your engine fan draws in air to cool the motor. Putting an intercooler there will essentially be like robbing peter to pay paul. All that hot air coming off the intercooler will be drawn in by your engine fan.

Have you considered a water to air intercooler?

[lakis1982]

as far as i know water to air intercooler are less efficient.. I wouldnt prefer that option..

I also have an external oil cooler mounted in front of the vehicle with two fans attached on it.. Do u still think i will have colling issues with the engine ?

[bug66]

as far as i know water to air intercooler are less efficient.. I wouldnt prefer that option..

I also have an external oil cooler mounted in front of the vehicle with two fans attached on it.. Do u still think i will have colling issues with the engine ?

Are they? Mine got so cold with water running through it, I almost couldn't touch it..

[bug66]

as far as i know water to air intercooler are less efficient.. I wouldnt prefer that option..

I also have an external oil cooler mounted in front of the vehicle with two fans attached on it.. Do u still think i will have colling issues with the engine ?

Are they? Mine got so cold with water running through it, I almost couldn't touch it..

Some pro's and con's stolen from enginebasics.com:

Air to air:

Pro’s
1. Requires no power to work and therefore is easy to set up.

2. Requires no liquids to work and therefore no chances for leaks .

3. Doesn’t suffer from heat-soak as long as the intercooler is seeing good airflow.

Con’s
1. Efficiency is only as good as the ambient air temperature.

2. Efficiency is only as good as the amount of airflow the intercooler see’s.

3. Cannot be mounted anywhere, since it must be mounted in a location to see airflow.



Air to water:

Pro’s
1. Really good efficiency, so the size of the intercooler can be smaller.

2. Efficiency can be exaggerated by using ice, or other chemicals to produce normally un-realistic temperatures for short amounts of time.

3. Can be mounted anywhere along the charge piping route.

Con’s
1. Requires a lot of other accessories to work.

2. Because it is more complex, it naturally causes more opportunity for problems, like leaks.

3. Can become heat soaked when used for long periods of hard driving and become terribly in-efficient.

[petew]

All of us are suffering from the same issues really when comes to intercooler setups.
1. Rear mount engine hence lack of good laminar air flow.
2. Trying not to screw up the car's classic lines.

So we're left copying Porsche or some other racers. I went water to air and I've had few little issues. Radiator position is critical. Above the trans = severe heat soak on hot start. Cramming the radiator in the front meant more engineering but now it works well, ie. 10-15deg above ambient most of the time. In Australia where it's often close to 100f in summer I'm happy enough and I switch my pump on at 65% throttle or above 100kpa of manifold pressure (ie. Any boost). That said I reckon the car would benefit from water injection or some way of keeping engine bay temperatures down.

I'm rabbiting on a little here, but I guess what I would say is ANY intercooler is better than no intercooler. You could look into plumbing extra cool air ducting into the engine bay to supply more engine cooling if you want to run an intercooler under those grills.

OR you could use a water to air unit like I have. Expect complexities with air supply and removing heat from either arrangement.