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Refrigerated Air Intake

2K views 23 replies 13 participants last post by  awdRocks 
#1 ·
So I was trying to fall asleep last night, when I thought...I wonder if instead of relying on short bursts of nitrous, I could just intercool or perhaps build a fridge box to cover my air intake? I know I would need a vent to allow air in for the engine to breath, but I think the biggest problem would be finding the materials i need (old mini fridge, some duct work, and some fiberglass to surround it. I would just like to know if this has been done before and if there is any merit behind the idea. At most im thinking I would need to get a super duty alternator, but im not sure. Ideas welcome!
 
#2 ·
The power to run the compressor (whether mechanical or electrical) is greater than the power improvement caused by lowering the temp of the air going into the engine. :thumbsup:

"Conservation of Energy" comes to mind. ;)
 
#4 ·
Well he may have something. The ac compressor turns itself off at WOT. At the strip it may be an advantage. Think about it. Your siting at the light and your intake temps are around 35 of 40 degrees. Well when you take off, even if only for a fiew seconds, you intake temps are cooler than it would be even with a CAI. The problem is how would you set it up?
 
#5 ·
powering the compressor would be a prob i think. hey, maybe you could rig up and ice-maker that recycles it's own water (built-in to the airbox??) and the ice would cool the air. that'd take less power to run. just a thought, although very far-fetched
 
#6 ·
dont forget about added wieght into the engine bay because you wanted to get a slightley cooler intake...and some people have something similar. ice wraps. packed onto the intercooler, or supercharger, and if your not boosting, the intake.

probably adds 10lbs, and drops the intake temp to a certain degree. think of it as a really good heat shield. but that air is still probably too fast to get cooled nough to justify a bunch of ice packs or a fridge.

i always wondered if youd see any good results from adding a small intercooler to the intake and having a filter on the inlet, and the intake tubing on the outlet. then ice the crap out of that, and the air will be cooler! but you might have crappy throttle response.
 
#8 ·
yeah...my sc actualy doesnt sound too much different from a ricer...i can no cats or resonator, and apparently a blown set of magnaflows...farty.
 
#10 ·
yeah, i dunno, ill probably get really bored and build it one day. I also had an idea to affix a leaf blower to the intake (already been done, doesn't help much). I guess when you lay there until 4am trying to sleep these crazy ideas just creep in. Maybe one day a good one will end up here on the boards!
 
#13 ·
btw an easier idea but still pointless for a low output na3.8 would be to...

1) buy an heater core
2) have the intake routed thru the heater cores fins probally before the maf after the maf it would cause a prob
3) then build or buy a water to air intercooler ice water box
4) get a shurflow water pump
5)run a line to the pump and to the core then back to the box
6)this will recirculate cold ice water thru the heater core which will extract heat from the air as it passes over the fins
7) most likely a waste of time but go ahead and try it anyways
 
#16 ·
i always wondered about haveing an old people bottle of o2 in my car, and putting it into the intake. more o2 is like colder air
 
#17 ·
The new lightning was supposed to have something like that, in which the AC air would be housed for a short time then when you pressed a button it would be released into the air intake but I doubt that it is going to make it into production.
 
#19 ·
Putting the evaporator in the intake would be a huge restriction, I think it would more than cancel out any air density it would add.
 
#21 ·
Yes, the <i>stock</i> evaporator would be a restriction, but if instead of the evaporator you used coiled copper or aluminum tubing then I could see that working to some degree. Just wind some of that tubing around a new, metal intake tube, insulate it from engine heat, and that should do it.
 
#23 ·
well on the subject of cooling ideas. There is:

air-to-air
water-to-air
co2-to-air
injection

The first three all involve heat exchanging. Which is a very efficient idea. Air-to-air requires quite a large exchanger since the outside air is, well, outside, and really not that cold. These do help with power adders, but it takes a lot of force to push air through these things. People with boost usually see 2-3psi drop in boost. Using this in a naturally aspirated scenario would decrease power.

water-to-air is more efficient than air-to-air and the nice thing about this is you can virtually put it anywhere. There are usually 4 components to this system. The heat exchanger, which is mounted where it can get outside airflow, the pump, the reservoir, and the intercooler. The intercooler can be mounted anywhere between the filter and the cylinder heads. Some people incorporate them in to the intake manifold itself, where it sits between the throttle body and the heads, and air passes by it at this time. Others make a box, similar to the stock airbox, where air passes through it at this time, and then enters the intake, enabling you to use a stock intake manifold. The reservoir can hold ice, water wetter, whatever you want. It is then pumped through the heat exchanger and through the intercooler, rgeatly decreasing intake charge temperatures while maintaining efficiency, since a smaller intercooler can be used.

Co2-to-air can be a good naturally aspirated power adder, and of course, works very well with power adders. It works by placing an aerodynamic 'bulb', similar to a teardrop shape, in the airstream. There is a small steel line that runs in to and out of this bulb and passes co2. When Co2 turns from liquid to gas it gets to freezing temperatures. The bulb frosts over, the air passes around it, and is instantly colder.

injection can involve gas or liquid. Gas being nitrous, and liquid being water, or more commonly, methanol. Nitrous is pretty obvious in its workings. But do realize that nitrous, by itself, is not combustible. It only adds to combustion what air does, just in a denser sense. And since nitrous also gets cold when turned from liquid to gas, while addingcombustability in the chambers, this is a pretty common power adding setup for boosted vehicles, since it cools the intake temps and also gives a boost in power. Liquid is done by injecting water or methanol in a very very fine mist in to the airflow. Methanol also becomes cool when evaporating from liquid to gas, but on a smaller scale, since it is naturally a liquid to begin with and does not require compression to become. This would be the most efficient of all of these options, since it does not obstruct the airflow, pressure drops are minimal and boost is maintained.

-Thomas
 
#24 ·
Meth/water injection and be done. Not to mention you can even retune for some extra timing if you want.
 
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