Reducing intake take and engine bay temperatures

[weeJohn]

The insulator blocks heat transfer from the head into the mani but once the engine bay gets up in temp it saturates the mani. I dont think there is much weighting on the map for intake temp adjustment, the Power FC does have the facility to remove timing above a certain temp but there is nothing really for normal temps.

Its good to get cold dense air in but, a 7 degrees drop in intake temp will give a 1% power increase @ the flywheel.

 

[dark_knight]

the best way to keep engine bay & intake charge temps down is to keep moving, preferably in the rain.. at night.. lol

 

[rage]

i've been tinkering with the bay temps aswell.

raising the bonnet a bit and removing the rubber strip helps a lot to dissipate the heat from under the bonnet.

also noticed that the radiator is blowing a LOT of hot air under the bonnet.
so i'm thinking of moving the radiator underneath the car. removing the spare wheel hub space and installing a large rad underneath the car with 2 fans on it.
think it would help a lot to reduce temps. will post pics of the build when i get started on it.

 

[Paul_JJ]

the best way to keep engine bay & intake charge temps down is to keep moving, preferably in the rain.. at night.. lol

It depends where u live Starcraft! My father hit a deer once on his very old car in the winter once -) He smashed the front of the car and the radiator. It was dark winter night with -30C temp outside and he was about 20 miles from home. Guess what he made it home with tottaly smashed radiator. He had to stop every 5 minutes and put some snow on the engine/radiator.

Regarding the topic - my mechanic said that if you make your turbo to run as high pressure as possible (he run 4.2 bar on his Garret), and put a manual boost controller just before the TB, because of a very high flow the temperature will be very cold.

Well, I said to him - but the turbo won't last very long -))))) He replied depends on the turbo. He built 420 Bhp Drag Beetle with the car weight of 378 Kg, running 4.2 Bar -)))))

 

[dark_knight]

@ rage: are you talking about the front or the rear of the car when saying you will put the rad under the car..? i would defo love to see that build started.. so you are saying raising the bonnet helps..? does it help mostly when in motion or more when stationary..? i'd read about the pressure zones on the hood and at speed, a raised bonnet may not help much since the rear is a low-pressure zone that will work to suck in air, not expel -- as from the under-the-bonnet. it's defo worth a try.. it must mess your engine bay with water though when it rains..? or does it not..?

@ Paul_JJ: hehe.. yeah. you are right. i live smack in the tropics so our days are sweltering and our nights warm, unless it rains..

 

[dark_knight]

radiator exhaust air re-flow

& now that rage mentioned it, is it possible (within our cramped engine bays) to redirect the radiator exhaust air to flow underneath the car..? i'm thinking more like having a thin metal sheet panel bent to direct expelled radiator air past the front of the transmission and under the car. haven't taken another glance at my engine bay to know whether this is even possible so just thinking out loud..

 

[Rev]

The insulator blocks heat transfer from the head into the mani but once the engine bay gets up in temp it saturates the mani. I dont think there is much weighting on the map for intake temp adjustment, the Power FC does have the facility to remove timing above a certain temp but there is nothing really for normal temps.

Its good to get cold dense air in but, a 7 degrees drop in intake temp will give a 1% power increase @ the flywheel.

Thanks for clarifying -

Intake temp issue I am experiencing usually goes as soon as the car moves so is not a timing issue for driving but would be different with stock sensor which has some delay I guess to smooth out the temp changes at idle.

 

[dark_knight]

if only our car vendors didn't build these cars so 'cheaply' and give good bits all round.. but then again, they wouldn't cost in the 2,000 pound price range either.. so, oh well..

 

[rage]

@ rage: are you talking about the front or the rear of the car when saying you will put the rad under the car..? i would defo love to see that build started.. so you are saying raising the bonnet helps..? does it help mostly when in motion or more when stationary..? i'd read about the pressure zones on the hood and at speed, a raised bonnet may not help much since the rear is a low-pressure zone that will work to suck in air, not expel -- as from the under-the-bonnet. it's defo worth a try.. it must mess your engine bay with water though when it rains..? or does it not..?

@ Paul_JJ: hehe.. yeah. you are right. i live smack in the tropics so our days are sweltering and our nights warm, unless it rains..

raising the bonnet helps a lot .when driving and stationary. as the radiator blows hot air under the hood it also pushes it out the back more easely.
i'm thinking of removing the spare wheel area, rewelding a flat sheet in it's place. that way i'll free up a lot of room underneath the car at the back. will place the radiator at an angle with 2 fans on it to direct the hot air out the back.

i've seen this on another car and got me thinking.
this is where i saw it. not gonna cut up the rear bumper though
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ysf471mdITk


good for temps in bay
looks nice and clean at the front
moving a wee bit of weight from the front to the back.

will be running alu pipes underneath the car for the coolant i think.
also much easier to move the coolant bottle to the rear. again cleaning up the bay and moving yet another kg to the back of the car.

i'll prolly start a project about this sometime at the end of the winter

 

[dark_knight]

rear rad

looks very interesting and sounds like a worthy project to take some time on your hands. hope you'll get some protection for those coolant pipes coz you don't want to go over a bump and gash your lines then wonder why your temp needle seems to be climbing on its own accord..
sounds doable all the same. quick question though, with all your 'silly' mot and traffic regulations, won't this get you flagged down all the time..?

 

[rage]

as far as i can tell it's perfectly legal to do this.
but it will prolly get some frowns at the mot's
but i'm used to that. in fact, i find it funny to see the mechanics with big questionmarks over their heads when they open the hood.
the starlet turbo is a very rare thing in the netherlands. turbo cars in general are rare here.

 

[dark_knight]

unexpected

@ rage: tru tru..
my best moment a couple of months back was when i went to a local tire shop that were having a free clinic day and they were also giving out some other free checks like battery, lights etc. so, first time i check in, the mechs thought it was a WRX in the building coz of my straight-through exhaust.. only to see a puny starlet.. hehe
then you should have seen them trying to find my relocated battery.. it was an epic laugh. they liked the car though and thought it was very mint.. despite having dead dampers all round.. lol.. thanks to their fancy machines that measure bounce rates and ish..

 

[gorganl2000]

Plumb in a water injection system in the intercooler pipe upto the throttle body.

have you tried this?...or know any starlet experiences with it?
plain water does seem to work wonders in terms of reducing your intake temps
plus if u add meth to the mix, you get further benefits

 

[AdamB]

have you tried this?...or know any starlet experiences with it?
plain water does seem to work wonders in terms of reducing your intake temps
plus if u add meth to the mix, you get further benefits

Not on a starlet no, but on a previous 2.0 turbo engine I have.
In my opinion its the only way to further reduce the intake temps, or spray c02 onto the intercooler. However water is free from your tap lol.
It is possible to add other mixtures, alcohol, meth etc if you want to see great benefits, but you can only run 1 or the other in terms of water/meth, unless you run 2 injection systems.

When I ran it on a 2.0 turbo engine it was primarily used to cool the charge to keep the engine safe rather than for power increase. Although it is easily possible to use it for power increase just be increasing boost pressure as it allows for higher boost to be safe.The only problem I had was that the jet kept getting blocked, so be sure to run distilled water.

 

[dark_knight]

that's a good point -- keeping the engine safe rather than for performance gains. i like that..

 

[gorganl2000]

Not on a starlet no, but on a previous 2.0 turbo engine I have.
In my opinion its the only way to further reduce the intake temps, or spray c02 onto the intercooler. However water is free from your tap lol.
It is possible to add other mixtures, alcohol, meth etc if you want to see great benefits, but you can only run 1 or the other in terms of water/meth, unless you run 2 injection systems.

When I ran it on a 2.0 turbo engine it was primarily used to cool the charge to keep the engine safe rather than for power increase. Although it is easily possible to use it for power increase just be increasing boost pressure as it allows for higher boost to be safe.The only problem I had was that the jet kept getting blocked, so be sure to run distilled water.

well i always know people to use distilled water...lol
and true...distilled water is relatively cheap
water by itself also gives performance benefits from allowing cooler intake temps...hence higher boost and timing without detonation....within reason

 

[Rev]

Rear radiator

looks very interesting and sounds like a worthy project to take some time on your hands.

It's been done before ! Sucks air out under the car and gives supurb down force for even the trickiest of corners .

The Brabham BT46 "B" variant of the car, also known as the "fan car", was introduced at the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix as a counter to the dominant ground effect Lotus 79. The BT46B generated an immense level of downforce by means of a fan, claimed to be for increased cooling, but which also extracted air from beneath the car. The car only raced once in this configuration in the Formula One World Championship—when Niki Lauda won the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp. The concept was declared illegal by the FIA before the car could race again. The BT46B therefore preserves a 100% winning record. Source > wiki