www.cp-e.com
Member
Our SPEED6 test bed with instrumentation attached.
When we started designing our front mount intercooler, we wanted to accomplish several objectives. First and foremost, we wanted to outperform the stock intercooler core in terms of overall cooling efficiency for a cooler air charge. Second, we wanted our intercooler to have a low pressure drop. Finally, we wanted to create a kit that was not susceptible to heat soak. The following is a small excerpt from our full intercooler validation paper which we will post in its entirety once we beguin taking pre-orders for the kit.
We've done a lot of testing on the stock core to find out exactly where its weaknesses are, and we wanted a benchmark for our core. Our electrical engineer took the week to come up with a datalogging box to record the pressure loss and temperature drop across both the stock and CPE intercooler cores. We had temperature a pressure probes at the turbocharger outlet and just before the throttle inlet.
Here's a shot of the stock core at idle using our Fluke thermal imager. Notice how the stock core distributes heat across the core:
We've come to find that the stock core does a good job at cooling down the air charge, but this thermal efficiency comes at a great cost, namely pressure loss. And since our K04 turbo is already working overtime, we really want all the generated boost to make it to the engine.
Designing intercoolers is not a straightforward task as there is a fine balance between pressure loss and cooling efficiency. As the pressure loss increases, cooling capacity generally increases as well. This is because as the working fluid contacts the walls of the intercooler passageways it creates drag which saps energy from the air. This drag results in an overall pressure loss across the intercooler core, but this wall contact is also where all the heat transfer takes place. So really, you can't have one without the other. The fine balance comes into play when you want to design a core that has a low pressure loss, but also cools the air charge effectively. This is the game we've been playing.
Like I said before, the stock intercooler does a good job at cooling the air charge, and we foud out why. Typically, intercooler designers will allow a certain pressure drop along the core, and is on the order of 1-2psi at most. We found a whopping 3.5psi pressure loss, so when everyone is pumping 17psi through the engine, the turbo is actually pumping over 20psi.
We also found that the stock intercooler makes a great heat sink for the engine (pissed) . Because the intercooler is made of aluminum, and we all know that heat rises, the hot engine sends most of its heat straight to the intercooler. We used our Fluke thermal imager to demonstrate this fact. You can see the scale on the right hand side of the picture indicates that the intercooler is the hottest part under the hood AT IDLE:
In other words, bolting on a bigger top mount intercooler may increase the overall cooling capacity, but everytime you come to a stop at a stoplight, the core will soak up all the heat in the engine bay and will take time to cool back off. This is far from ideal if you like toying with Camaros and Mustangs at stop lights. Compare this with our core at idle:
So we know a front mount is going to heat up less at idle since it isn't bolted to a hot engine. What about cooling efficiency? After some tweaking, we've gotten our core to outperform the stock core by as much as 10%. If you're looking for real world numbers, the highest tmperature drop across the core that we could manage with the stock core was about 75F. We managed a 90F drop with our core. We felt this is pretty substantial considering that we accomplished this with 1/3 THE PRESSURE LOSS COMPARED TO STOCK. In other words, the guys running stock top mount intercoolers are pumping about 2.5psi thruogh the turbo that they can't use, and they're running about 15F hotter than we are. So how did we increase the cooling capacity with less pressure loss compared to the stock unit? How about more fresh air! One benefit of a front mount intercooler is that you're getting a HUGE volume of fresh, cool air. More than the stock mount could ever recieve through its restrictive hood ducting.
We're almost ready to release the kit. And for the people who are going to whine about taking so long, we're truly sorry. The last thing we wanted to do was throw a kit together that performed worse than the stock intercooler. So is it really better than the stock core, or are people just following the, "Bigger is always better" adage? This is why we took the time to take the appropriate measurements. You know when you buy our kit that you're getting a throuroughly engineered intercooler kit that puts the stock core to shame, and will handle up to 450hp.
Finally, I have a feeling we're going to get flack for not posting any dyno numbers, and here's why. The purpose of an intercooler is to produce a cold air charge, which typically results in more power. But the efficiency of the core is dependent upon the airflow across it. We know the stock core is restricted by the hood ducting, so comparing two top mount intercoolers will have the same airflow. It makes sense that a bigger core will have more cooling capacity and make more power. But we don't have any airflow restrictions with a front mount. We can put a fan in front of it and dyno the car, but what does that mean? We may make more power than the stock unit, or we may not be able to simulate the airflow across the core at highway speeds. Do we increase the boost because our core has a lower pressure drop, for an apples to apples comparison? There are too many variables involved to get any usable data from a dyno run. So, we took a more direct route at determining the effectiveness of our core by taking direct measurements. We could just appease people by just keep increasing the airflow across the core until we make more power than the stock core, but that's not what everyone is here for, and that's not something CPE would do just to move more units.
I'll be on and off the boards all day, so if you have burning questions, feel free to post them up. Thanks for everyones patience!!
When we started designing our front mount intercooler, we wanted to accomplish several objectives. First and foremost, we wanted to outperform the stock intercooler core in terms of overall cooling efficiency for a cooler air charge. Second, we wanted our intercooler to have a low pressure drop. Finally, we wanted to create a kit that was not susceptible to heat soak. The following is a small excerpt from our full intercooler validation paper which we will post in its entirety once we beguin taking pre-orders for the kit.
We've done a lot of testing on the stock core to find out exactly where its weaknesses are, and we wanted a benchmark for our core. Our electrical engineer took the week to come up with a datalogging box to record the pressure loss and temperature drop across both the stock and CPE intercooler cores. We had temperature a pressure probes at the turbocharger outlet and just before the throttle inlet.
Here's a shot of the stock core at idle using our Fluke thermal imager. Notice how the stock core distributes heat across the core:
We've come to find that the stock core does a good job at cooling down the air charge, but this thermal efficiency comes at a great cost, namely pressure loss. And since our K04 turbo is already working overtime, we really want all the generated boost to make it to the engine.
Designing intercoolers is not a straightforward task as there is a fine balance between pressure loss and cooling efficiency. As the pressure loss increases, cooling capacity generally increases as well. This is because as the working fluid contacts the walls of the intercooler passageways it creates drag which saps energy from the air. This drag results in an overall pressure loss across the intercooler core, but this wall contact is also where all the heat transfer takes place. So really, you can't have one without the other. The fine balance comes into play when you want to design a core that has a low pressure loss, but also cools the air charge effectively. This is the game we've been playing.
Like I said before, the stock intercooler does a good job at cooling the air charge, and we foud out why. Typically, intercooler designers will allow a certain pressure drop along the core, and is on the order of 1-2psi at most. We found a whopping 3.5psi pressure loss, so when everyone is pumping 17psi through the engine, the turbo is actually pumping over 20psi.
We also found that the stock intercooler makes a great heat sink for the engine (pissed) . Because the intercooler is made of aluminum, and we all know that heat rises, the hot engine sends most of its heat straight to the intercooler. We used our Fluke thermal imager to demonstrate this fact. You can see the scale on the right hand side of the picture indicates that the intercooler is the hottest part under the hood AT IDLE:
In other words, bolting on a bigger top mount intercooler may increase the overall cooling capacity, but everytime you come to a stop at a stoplight, the core will soak up all the heat in the engine bay and will take time to cool back off. This is far from ideal if you like toying with Camaros and Mustangs at stop lights. Compare this with our core at idle:
So we know a front mount is going to heat up less at idle since it isn't bolted to a hot engine. What about cooling efficiency? After some tweaking, we've gotten our core to outperform the stock core by as much as 10%. If you're looking for real world numbers, the highest tmperature drop across the core that we could manage with the stock core was about 75F. We managed a 90F drop with our core. We felt this is pretty substantial considering that we accomplished this with 1/3 THE PRESSURE LOSS COMPARED TO STOCK. In other words, the guys running stock top mount intercoolers are pumping about 2.5psi thruogh the turbo that they can't use, and they're running about 15F hotter than we are. So how did we increase the cooling capacity with less pressure loss compared to the stock unit? How about more fresh air! One benefit of a front mount intercooler is that you're getting a HUGE volume of fresh, cool air. More than the stock mount could ever recieve through its restrictive hood ducting.
We're almost ready to release the kit. And for the people who are going to whine about taking so long, we're truly sorry. The last thing we wanted to do was throw a kit together that performed worse than the stock intercooler. So is it really better than the stock core, or are people just following the, "Bigger is always better" adage? This is why we took the time to take the appropriate measurements. You know when you buy our kit that you're getting a throuroughly engineered intercooler kit that puts the stock core to shame, and will handle up to 450hp.
Finally, I have a feeling we're going to get flack for not posting any dyno numbers, and here's why. The purpose of an intercooler is to produce a cold air charge, which typically results in more power. But the efficiency of the core is dependent upon the airflow across it. We know the stock core is restricted by the hood ducting, so comparing two top mount intercoolers will have the same airflow. It makes sense that a bigger core will have more cooling capacity and make more power. But we don't have any airflow restrictions with a front mount. We can put a fan in front of it and dyno the car, but what does that mean? We may make more power than the stock unit, or we may not be able to simulate the airflow across the core at highway speeds. Do we increase the boost because our core has a lower pressure drop, for an apples to apples comparison? There are too many variables involved to get any usable data from a dyno run. So, we took a more direct route at determining the effectiveness of our core by taking direct measurements. We could just appease people by just keep increasing the airflow across the core until we make more power than the stock core, but that's not what everyone is here for, and that's not something CPE would do just to move more units.
I'll be on and off the boards all day, so if you have burning questions, feel free to post them up. Thanks for everyones patience!!
You sold me on this kit. I currently have your battery kit and just purchased your CAI from josh last thursday and waiting for that. I live in michigan and it is mazda planet over hear. There are many 6's and 3's. I have always been fully against decals but would not mind at all branding cp-e on my vehicle. Are you guys in the sponsorship business yet? I am not looking for a discount although that would be nice 