I did some more intercooler testing today.
After chatting with a few more people, just to get differing opinions, I am now 100% convinced that the car doesn’t have enough air flow to the intercooler to warrant a denser core. I think the standard intercooler worked best in my last tests, as it is quite free flowing and it doesn’t slow down or restrict what limited amount of airflow that actually does manage to get to the intercooler.
So the aim now is to increase the airflow.
Following my last tests, my IC is fed by the roof scoop and the two side scoops into the standard IC shroud via 3" hose.
I wanted to try a 211 intercooler shroud. As we know they are fed from 2 naca ducts in the top of the rear bodywork via 4" pipe.
So I got a 211 shroud and some 4" pipe and went to Bruntingthorpe.
The test route was from our car park which was by the end of the main straight, around the back of the main straight via the twisty track that is probably about 2 miles long, then gun it down the full 1.7 mile straight, then cruise around in 6th at 70mph to let it recover and then gun it again through 4th, 5th and 6th down the full straight and then back to the car park to try something different.
The different scenarios we tested were:
Just the roof scoop
The roof scoop and the 3" side pipes
Just the 3" side pipes
211 intercooler shroud with 4" side pipes
I took a reading at the start of the straight on the 2nd lap and then a reading at the end of the straight on the 2nd lap at the point I came off the throttle.
The temp reading was taken from the air temp sensor the ECU uses via our laptop from the Syvecs software
The ambient temperature for all the tests was between 11 and 12 degrees
The results were as follows:
Just the roof scoop: 23 degrees - 63 degrees
The roof scoop and the 3" side pipes: 14 degrees - 44 degrees
Just the 3" side pipes: 14 degrees - 50 degrees
211 intercooler shroud with 4" side pipes: 13 degrees - 37 degrees
The conclusion is the roof scoop doesn’t do a lot and the 211 shroud and 4" pipes fed from the side vents is the way to go. 2nd best is to feed 3" pipes into the sides of the standard intercooler shroud. You can’t fit anything bigger in there, in fact 3" ones are quite a squeeze.
The only other mod I had done is to put a baffle inside the 211 shroud to direct the air onto the intercooler, as in standard form, it is just an empty hole with no direction plates. I made these with some bits of thin ally and sickaflexed them into place. I will take a pic when I take the shroud off to fit it properly.
Below a pic of the 211 shroud installed. Temp install with gaffa tape. it wont be like this when I have done it properly.
The other upside of this is that all us Elise Coupe owners can now take our roofs off, with no adverse effects to the charge temps.
Expect to see more of this from me:
