VitViper
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Just wanted to share some insight into actual datalog pre and post I/C charge temps (intake air temps) using the factory intercooler and increased boost pressures. I've seen some claims that post I/C temps rise rapidly in the course of a single pull by as much as 30 degrees... this is false. I have yet to see this in many hours of our own testing, and on customer cars. Here's a plot from one of my loaded Dynpack pulls -- as you can see, on our car, pre and post IAT's are fairly consistent, you'll see engine bay heat increases which causes the pre I/C IAT to climb at the end of the pull. We are running a roughly ~10 second dyno pull.
Here is what does tend to happen during repeated dyno pulls -- the intake (pre i/c iat -- "IAT") starts to heat soak a bit as overall dyno bay temps start to go up (our new shop dyno area doesn't have the same airflow as our old shop so I see this happen a lot and I'll need to pause from time to time to ventilate the area a bit). This also translates into the post i/c temps going up and heat soaking the intercooler.
What happens on street runs? Here's a birds eye view.
In all respects, the post i/c temps actually stay fairly consistent -- very minimal climb, they are in the 45 - 55* area, I don't see a big climb during runs. You can see the intake does like to heat soak a bit, just because of where it is located -- not a big deal as long as the post I/C temps stay down.
Why isn't the heat soaking replicated or similar to our dyno testing? Airflow. The car is sitting in one spot, and although I have a 7500cfm and a 2000cfm fan on the car (smaller fan is 7500cfm aimed at i/c radiator to keep the ECT & intercooler cool, bigger 2000cfm to ventilate the bay area and keep pulling in fresh air), it basically "bakes" since you just cannot mimic real world airflow through the front of the car into the I/C opening and through the engine bay.
So no, no 30* rise in temps in one pull, not even with increased boost levels. Definitely no way at stock boost levels (11-16psi). If you guys are seeing that in a 5 second dyno pull -- time to rethink your dyno area.
So what do you think we can expect of an intercooler upgrade in the future? I've had this chat with my friends at PRL a couple times -- and maybe even at further increased boost levels of 23-26psi we'll start seeing the need for an I/C? I'm currently running 23-24psi on our car day to day and haven't seen any need to replace our I/C yet.
So I honestly don't expect the I/C to be a big power maker, although if it doesn't heat soak during an extended dyno testing, it may let us do a bit more consistent dyno testing, instead of having to let the car sit for some time before doing a "final" pull to get a more realistic before & after test (IE, if we did a baseline at 60* post i/c temps, a 90* post i/c "final" run would actually be a bit lower, which wouldn't show true power gains for that test session). For street applications, will a replacement i/c be useful? I don't know. For track applications? I don't know... if IAT's hold like they are in my datalogs, at this time I can't see an I/C being a big factor. But as the platform grows, who knows?
Here is what does tend to happen during repeated dyno pulls -- the intake (pre i/c iat -- "IAT") starts to heat soak a bit as overall dyno bay temps start to go up (our new shop dyno area doesn't have the same airflow as our old shop so I see this happen a lot and I'll need to pause from time to time to ventilate the area a bit). This also translates into the post i/c temps going up and heat soaking the intercooler.
What happens on street runs? Here's a birds eye view.
In all respects, the post i/c temps actually stay fairly consistent -- very minimal climb, they are in the 45 - 55* area, I don't see a big climb during runs. You can see the intake does like to heat soak a bit, just because of where it is located -- not a big deal as long as the post I/C temps stay down.
Why isn't the heat soaking replicated or similar to our dyno testing? Airflow. The car is sitting in one spot, and although I have a 7500cfm and a 2000cfm fan on the car (smaller fan is 7500cfm aimed at i/c radiator to keep the ECT & intercooler cool, bigger 2000cfm to ventilate the bay area and keep pulling in fresh air), it basically "bakes" since you just cannot mimic real world airflow through the front of the car into the I/C opening and through the engine bay.
So no, no 30* rise in temps in one pull, not even with increased boost levels. Definitely no way at stock boost levels (11-16psi). If you guys are seeing that in a 5 second dyno pull -- time to rethink your dyno area.
So what do you think we can expect of an intercooler upgrade in the future? I've had this chat with my friends at PRL a couple times -- and maybe even at further increased boost levels of 23-26psi we'll start seeing the need for an I/C? I'm currently running 23-24psi on our car day to day and haven't seen any need to replace our I/C yet.
So I honestly don't expect the I/C to be a big power maker, although if it doesn't heat soak during an extended dyno testing, it may let us do a bit more consistent dyno testing, instead of having to let the car sit for some time before doing a "final" pull to get a more realistic before & after test (IE, if we did a baseline at 60* post i/c temps, a 90* post i/c "final" run would actually be a bit lower, which wouldn't show true power gains for that test session). For street applications, will a replacement i/c be useful? I don't know. For track applications? I don't know... if IAT's hold like they are in my datalogs, at this time I can't see an I/C being a big factor. But as the platform grows, who knows?