As most of you remember I posted a thread a while ago about fitting my Forge intercooler and opening up the mail slot air duct to give better air flow to the intercooler.
Well I have been playing again and thought you guys may like to look at what I have done this time
Basically the intercooler sits directly over the supercharger and block which between them give off a lot of radiant heat, this soaks onto the intercooler (especially at lower speeds or when the car is standing).
The answer has to be to fit a heat shield between them in order to reduce this problem…
So I designed this…
Its 1.5mm Aluminium sheet, 580mm wide, 230mm deep with a 45deg kick at 190mm.
I managed to get the pressing done for free by a chap I know, however he used an offcut which was quite badly scratched so as I am a gjob I spoke to another friend who got it powdercoated for free (do you see a pattern?)
I know that black is possibly a crap colour for a heat shield but I dont think it will have to much of an effect and it just keeps everything looking tidy and OEM imho.
As you can see in the following pics the kick helps to guide the heat away from the supercharger and keeps it away from the intercooler.
I was still very keen to make sure I did not stop the heat getting away and increase engine bay temps, also the the shield did not make access difficult.
It does need to come off tomorrow so I can fit some trim tape between the mounts and the heat shield as I have a slight resonation but I can see it so its an easy fix.
Would be glad of any thoughts and comments.
I did look at carbon, however I got mixed feelings as to if it would stand the heat, also cost and production were prohibitive.
I would like to get some way to take AIT’s for my car to see how it will perform.
When you say Andy’s installation, what are you meaning? is it the idea on Lotus talk? I have ordered some bits as I am going to add further ducting to my cooler, however I’ll keep the standard side pods and direct the air into the intercooler cowling rather than the duct on the car. This means the ducts are smaller but take a more direct route (less restrictive) and I think this will double the airflow to the cooler over the standard set up.
Coupled with the Forge core design my mods should keep AIT’s much lower than the standard set up. I just need a method to test it all out.
It will be interesting to see the results, probably wouldn’t fit my car as I can’t go any lower on the mounts due to no clearance with the brackets and no higher due to roof issues
Hi Neil, what mounts are you using? I am ditching the stainless mounts and going back to the lower rubber mounts Forge can supply? your not using OEM mounts are you?
With the lower mounts I do not seem to have any issues with clearance. The sheet is only 1.5mm thick.
I was asked on Lotus talk for some more photos so I will cross post my reply here, my intercooler has come back off tonight so I can trim tape my mounts to stop the resonation
Thanks for the info guys, I have just had the car in bits again so took some more photos for you.
Its interesting about the AIT’s, I took the sensor out of the intercooler as I am getting quite alot of oil blow by, I noticed this the first time I took out the old intercooler. The sensor has an oil coating on it, I am guessing this will not help the readings. Time for a catch tank?
Ok, for those who asked here are some pics from the right, you can see the dip stick is not a problem
Here is a pic from above the intercooler mounting brackets, you can see the intercooler sits right over the supercharger and inlet manifold!
Here is a pic from another angle…
and here is the same photo with the heat shield in position, as you can see it blocks radiant heat from the supercharger and inlet manifold.
and another…
I can’t see how it cant help and in 1.5mm ally sheet it’s weight is next to nothing.
I’m using the small rubber mounts Forge sent out, anything smaller and the bottom of the cooler touches the support brackets. In fact I had to insert a large penny washer under each mount to stop a nasty resonance.
(do you see a pattern?)
