AC & Intercooler

[JeRNuT]

I was thinking of how it sucks that the MSP has a really small IC. Well what if there was a way to hook up an AC pipe so that it blows on the IC. You can have it on so the IC stays cool, and when you want to go for a run just turn the AC off. Do you think this would be possible. It will allow the IC to get rid of heat soak faster

Jeremy

 

[Micah]

I don't think that would work. A/C works because it is a recirculating system. Even if you have your car using fresh air, you are still building up cooler air in the cabin. But I am sure you could try it if you wanted, hell if you do decide to try it, please post and let us know how it goes.

But for the trouble which would be involved, why not just buy a real intercooler instead of the tiny little crap they give you with the mazdaspeed. You might want to pick up some hard piping to replace the plastic.

 

[CRDMS1]

You'd get better cooling rigging up a simple water spray using the windshield washer resevoir (or an auxiliary). There are probably 1000 ways to do it from very crude to very elegant.

Peace...(hippy)

 

[chillinmcmillan]

Don't go cheap man, get a new IC

 

[Elderain]

Um, I'm dumb about this stuff, but wouldnt running the AC be putting more load on the engine, making it hotter, only to use the ac to cool it down, basically doing nothing? LOL Just sounds pretty innefficent to me. I think the water spray thing is cool, buy one of those push button starters, and hook it up to a spray thingy under the hood

 

[igdrasil]

fill the windshield washer container with ice, up to top, then add water, and use the squirters to spray the IC.

 

[Familia323]

I'm pretty sure the load that you place on the car from turning the air on would negate any effects from the cooling. Our cars seem to have a noticable difference when the air is running...

But if you really wanted to go about that, why dont you get the nitrous sprayers that hook up to the front of the intercooler and shoot nitrous in it to cool the air off. It's the more expensive way, but I'm sure it would work.

 

[melicha8]

Didn't they teach you in HS that energy isn't free. Think about it. You are powering a comprossor that requires energy input from the engine which drains horsepower. You then want cool you intercooler using the energy taken from the engine to make it more powerful. This idea would be all well and good if you lived in a world without the laws of physics. In a perfect world without parasitic power loss, or energy being converted into a non-useful energy. You would have no horsepwer gain because the energy going out would be the energy going in and there would be no net loss in energy. But unfortunately we don't live in that kind of world and the siuation you described would give you a net loss in horsepower. My advice would be to get a larger core or use the windshield washers as intercooler sprayers.

 

[Elderain]

Didn't they teach you in HS that energy isn't free. Think about it. You are powering a comprossor that requires energy input from the engine which drains horsepower. You then want cool you intercooler using the energy taken from the engine to make it more powerful. This idea would be all well and good if you lived in a world without the laws of physics. In a perfect world without parasitic power loss, or energy being converted into a non-useful energy. You would have no horsepwer gain because the energy going out would be the energy going in and there would be no net loss in energy. But unfortunately we don't live in that kind of world and the siuation you described would give you a net loss in horsepower. My advice would be to get a larger core or use the windshield washers as intercooler sprayers.

I meant to say exactly what he said, except I dont know all that technical :bs: lol, thanks for explaining what I meant

 

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

you know it is possible. there is a company that has air to water intercooler systems that uses your ac. they hook up the ac to the water chest (which is insulated). i don't know how it works exactly or what company (found them on google).

 

[MazdaProbeGT]

Didn't they teach you in HS that energy isn't free. Think about it. You are powering a comprossor that requires energy input from the engine which drains horsepower. You then want cool you intercooler using the energy taken from the engine to make it more powerful. This idea would be all well and good if you lived in a world without the laws of physics. In a perfect world without parasitic power loss, or energy being converted into a non-useful energy. You would have no horsepwer gain because the energy going out would be the energy going in and there would be no net loss in energy. But unfortunately we don't live in that kind of world and the siuation you described would give you a net loss in horsepower. My advice would be to get a larger core or use the windshield washers as intercooler sprayers.

You're assuming the power used vs. the power gained is linear. This may not be the case.

In order for you to fully disprove his logic, you would need cold, hard stats, not just physics babble.

Hook up to a dyno... test the whp under these conditions.

1) When A/C compressor is on.
2) When A/C compressor is off.
3) When A/C is on and being used to cool the IC.

Who knows... maybe the cooling of the IC may have such a drastic effect on HP that it overcomes the loss created by the compressor being on. You can't just say "no" based on Conservation of Energy laws.

I, for one, agree that the gains probably aren't worth it.... but I could be wrong.

 

[unwound]

You'd get better cooling rigging up a simple water spray using the windshield washer resevoir (or an auxiliary). There are probably 1000 ways to do it from very crude to very elegant.

Peace...(hippy)

this is exactly what i did:

i/c sprayer 1
i/c sprayer 2
i/c sprayer 3
i/c sprayer nozzles

they work off the stock washer reservoir and pump. they are activated with the stock wiper stalk.

the only thing that pisses me off is when i spray the i/c the wipers go across the windshield. anyone know how could get them to work without the wiper arms moving. any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

only cost me $20 in parts.

 

[JeRNuT]

I understand that with the AC on the will be a HP loss. What Im saying though is that I drive aroind with the AC on when its hot. If I take some of the cold air and duct it to the IC to keep it cooler. Then when I want to run, I turn off the AC and now I have a nice cold IC for about 1 min.

I am never going to try this because it is not cost effective, but I think it is something that could be put into a production car if it did work at all

Jeremy

 

[Dimitrios]

the only thing that pisses me off is when i spray the i/c the wipers go across the windshield. anyone know how could get them to work without the wiper arms moving. any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

only cost me $20 in parts.

why don't you purchase another wiper or other small pump and an additional set of nozzles (not necessarily windshield)? Then just wire a switch to your dash or something and run it that way? To "automate" the issue, I'd probably also run a relay and a temp. sensor to automatically engage the water injectors when the I/C gets too excessive...