Intercooling Eaton?

[lastyear4gt]

Just wondering. I have been watching the build up of alerob888's intercooler kit and I was thinking about a few different options.

What about an air to air intercooler like a turbocharged car runs? Just wondering if that would be sufficient? My gues is probably not until you get to the point of boosting 12PSI+

The other option I was thinking of is a combination between the spearco intercooler that alerob888 is running, and a air to water intercooler like the cobalt ss supercharged utilizes.

With the cobalt ss, there is a rad for the SC in front of the engine rad. The electric coolant pump is right at the inlet to the sc rad, and the coolat cools the intake air via a small core that mounted in between the sc and the intake manifold. My brother has a cobalt, and this system seems to work really well.

So, what about doing the same style cooler as alerob888, but doing the seperate rad at the front of the engine rad, and an electric coolant pump between the two? This could keep the coolant even cooler, and eliminate the long span for the coolant pump to labor over. As for the external coolant reservoir he used, the cobalt doesnt have one, all the coolant it needs is stored in the sc coolant system.

[AaronGTR]

Um, the cooler he is using IS the same as the cobalt SS. They all use seperate radiators in the front for cooling the intercooler water. The only real difference is the cobalt has it's intercooler built in between the SC and the intake manifold, where as we don't have the space or casting to do that so it has to be remote mounted and re-route piping to it. Most aftermarket systems also have a reservoir tank in the circuit for more liquid capacity so they can absorb more heat and making it easier to drain and change the water. Only drag cars use only a reservoir and not the extra radiator, because they aren't running long enough to need it and they only use the reservoir to fill with ice water and cool extreme boost levels to below ambient air temp.

Air to air intercoolers are not very efficient for roots superchargers because you usually aren't running high enough boost, and the long piping and intercooler volume decreases boost pressure and throttle response. Since a turbo boost controller and wastegate takes it's vacuum/boost reference from the intake manifold after the intercooler it will make up for the lost pressure across the intercooler by leaving the wastegate open and continuing to spin the turbo until it reaches the desired pressure. The supercharger is completely dependent on engine speed though and can't adjust for that. You'd have to put a smaller pulley on to make up for pressure loss, and most of the people with eaton kits are already spinning them at the top of their efficiency range. You can't just keep spinning it faster and faster. You'd need to go up to an M90 blower to move more air.

[lastyear4gt]

Hey thanks for clearing that up.

Regardless, I have to get the charger installed and running first and then Ill look at an intercooler. In the mean time thanks aaron, and Ill probably be calling on you during the install if I have problems, if thats ok with you.

[AaronGTR]

Sure, no problem. It's a pretty easy install really if you follow the directions step by step. I've been thinking of a few possibilities for an air to water intercooler setup different from whats been done before, but if I do it the way I'm thinking of I'll want to use the phenolic UIM spacers from 60degreev6 and I'm not sure if I'll have enough hood clearance then. I'll be looking into it more next summer. :)