A friend of mine who is also a mechanic wants to start selling and fitting c02 sprays for intercoolers and has asked to use my '96 Type RA hillclimber as a demo car. I like the idea as I'm on the standard sti intercooler and get bad heat soak waiting in line for runs and a qucik blast of -78 degrees centigrade over the intercooler on the start line sounds better than a kick in the ****. Does anyone use or have any experience of these kits or could shed any more light on the advantages/disavantages etc? I wonder if they are as good as they sound then why do they seem so rare.

Any help much appreciated.

Rob.

 

Give it a go. They're rare because no-one else has got the gumption to try it. I'd say it might be a problem with a chargecooler as you might get localised freezing. But with an intercooler all it'll do is pull a hell of a lot of heat out of the air. Worth trying and I'd be very interested to see how you get on.

 

I think you might find that the boiling point of N2O is -88Deg C and 126.4Deg F

CO2 boiling point is -78Deg C which is 108.4 Deg F

But it should help cool things down, but is only really any use for drag racing as your bottle will soon run out

David

 

I stand corrected. I would only want it for a blast just before a run to chill the
intercooler not during as c02 in the air intake is bad so im told. Just to try and combat the 20 mins sitting in line in 30+ heat turning the intercooler into an interwarmer, and it's free so not much to lose really. Do you think this would suit the described application?

 

yeah, i've thought about this............

one bottle of co2
one regulator
a spray bar
and a bit of pissin about....

sounds like a good weekend

(also thought about cooling the induction pipework with said application as that gets quite hot too)

 

Well worth a try Rob.
'Cheap' too so why not.

I'm sure David will mull this over, but the stock Sti TMIC (V3 David) weight at a guess about 3 Kg of aluminium (ignore the Y piece casting)

The TMIC will heat soak to about 55 Deg C or greater waiting to take your turn on a hill.

how much gas do you need to apply to chill the TMIC even to Ambient of 20/25 deg C?

The Sti TMIC has thick cast ends so holds considerable heat, but can you reasonably ignor that and chill the fin pack only?

I had a thread running about 3 years ago in Projects on this very topic and the conclusions at that time was to go for FMIC!
You know what i did next....

Chat about it at Loton Rob?

Graham.

 

just make absolutely sure that your air filter is fully shielded as too much co2 will rob the engine bay of oxygen!

Other than that there are a few kits in the demon thieves catalogue

 

I gave the internal fin dimensions of the v3 intercooler to my mate who has had a spray bar welded to fit exactly inside the outer and lie directly on the cooling fins. He also intends to fit a digital intake temp sensor so i can see the advantages for his research as much as my benefit. He hopes a 10 second blast of c02 would reduce temps at a standstill from approx 45 to 15 degrees around 20 seconds before a run so as not to allow and oxygen displacement when the time come to launch. it would be ideal for the application if everything goes to plan, but i can't recall the last time anything went to plan regards subaru's so who knows. He hopes to have it fitted and running for Shelsley on the 19/20 of this month so we shall see.

I'll catch up with you at the weekend for more specifics Graham, I'll swap your umbrellas for an AtoZ of loton so I don't get lost on my way up, sound like a deal????

 

My induction filter lives in the wing just below the indicator so it is about as sheilded as it can get, bit worried about being attcked by marshals with extinguishers when the see smoke rising from the bonnet scoop though.

 

You won't need help from me Rob, Loton is easy, just a stretched-out Prescott!
It will be raining so you will be in a good position!

The C02 sprays are horrendously expensive and you can get a good FMIC for that without the cost of refills or trips to Halfords for c02 welding bottles!

All that weight too.

It could be very very useful at Shelsley though.

See you saturday with the brollies.
Graham

 

Why the consern over CO2 getting into the inlet..? Unless you're running an induction kit in the engine bay, then my consern would be the heat effecting this more so than the IC..!

 

Oh dear rain, at least i have 2 new brollies I found to help me deal with it. c02 set up for free is cheaper than any other IC no matter where mounted, the winter will bring the serious mods and bigger BHP, so for whats left of this season it should be fun.

 

sure it will rain? try this link Graham

http://uk.weather.com/weather/local/UKXX0296 .

Rob.

 

Loton has it's own weather structure I assure you.....
Tends to rain about 10.00am to 10.30 and about 2.00pm on

Think about our class times on race day!

I do expect rian showers across the weekend, but we may be lucky.
Kumho's are really good in the wet, and startline is evil.

Graham

 

In a previous life I have seen pipe freeze spray used on the intercoolers, but this was on cars where a spare intercooler could be picked up £20. A can of spray (pipe freeze spray)will cover the surface of an intercooler around 3 times and cost £6.00 from a Wickes/ B & screw. Lasts about 10 depending on outside/engine temps and location of the intercooler.

The thing that needs to be considered is that you will be cooling down metal then heating it back up in a short space of time and this could reduce the life of the intercooler.

 

Was going to do this on a mates scoob (got the electric valve and everything) and trigger it via his PSI3. We installed a water spraying system (very easy to do), and instantly his boost raised by .1 bar. Only issue we could think of was the price to keep refilling a co2 bottle (wasnt sure how quickly it would empty, but I guess it could be set to only fire at the upper envelope of his boost map)

 

The bloke whos fitting it is using paintball gun bottles of some description and can get them refilled for peanuts apparently. We shall see, the intercooler only needs to last till october so I'm not that fussed, winter mods will require a FMIC, but this should be a good cheap (free) mod until then, and provide some intersting info for other subaru owners.