Anyone considered relocating the chargecooler rad to below the crashbox?
I know Chris Randall has done something like this with his Europo. Could be a solution to sort the airflow out to the water rad on chargecooled cars…
There is no room if you’re talkin Pro-Alloy…The crash structure shouldn’t be compromised by cutting. If you want better cooling mount a A/A oil cooler in the rear with a cooling fan and then use the space for chargecooling…That’s what I’ve done along with an additional boot mounted engine radiator with puller fans…
I’ve got a 8x29" vertical mount cooler, two oil coolers now water and a Pro-Alloy cooler for my chargecooling…
With the GT3 front clam, there is no venting to the current oil cooler setup. I would have to fit a laminova instead.
This is one of the main reasons why I want to improve the airflow to the water rad so I can do this, but also improve the chargecooler - I’ve seen some of the calcs that a mate of mine did for the Europa to improve the chargecooler efficieny, so I’m going to try and incoporate some of his advice into the current system.
Moving the chargecooler rad did between the crashbox and front undertray seemed like a clever idea. You would have to cut a feed to it though in the bottom of the crash box.
Have you seen the pics of Gav’s GT3 crashbox? I think that is probably the way to go to optimise the cooling with a GT3 front end. But probably not as good as the OE crashbox in an actual crash.
Bemani did a bottom mount for their heatexchanger… Didn’t work very well since the incoming air chooses the exit of the least restriction and angle of attack…
[quote=N17VES]With the GT3 front clam, there is no venting to the current oil cooler setup. I would have to fit a laminova instead.
This is one of the main reasons why I want to improve the airflow to the water rad so I can do this, but also improve the chargecooler - I’ve seen some of the calcs that a mate of mine did for the Europa to improve the chargecooler efficieny, so I’m going to try and incoporate some of his advice into the current system.
Moving the chargecooler rad did between the crashbox and front undertray seemed like a clever idea. You would have to cut a feed to it though in the bottom of the crash box.
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Presumably you saw the Hofmann’s write up of their trials with various set ups for the Europa chargecooler? (on their website under Barcelona prep)
[quote=N17VES]Moving the chargecooler rad did between the crashbox and front undertray seemed like a clever idea. You would have to cut a feed to it though in the bottom of the crash box.
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Been done like this for a couple of years now by Simply sports cars in Australia
[quote=seriouslylotus][quote=N17VES]Moving the chargecooler rad did between the crashbox and front undertray seemed like a clever idea. You would have to cut a feed to it though in the bottom of the crash box.
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Been done like this for a couple of years now by Simply sports cars in Australia [/quote]
Cheers for that, never heard of them before.
They do indeed fit the chargecooler below the chargecooler. I noticed they also seem to be fitting the 1000cc injector dynamics that were putting on mine.
This is a undersider of a bermani car. You can see the ventilation cut into the front undertray with the chargcooler just above.
I think its a good idea, and certainly improves the airflow between the rads.
Yes, but that wasnt the only reason…plus it doesent look as clean with two extra holes in the front clam imho.
The current location of the chargecooler is not perfect. Restricts the flow of air to the water rad, and also absorbs any heat generated from it. The charegcooler efficieny can be much improved!
If I can relocate the chargcooler rad, then I can move to a laminova for the oil which inturn has its own benefits (not just that I don’t have to drill holes in my front clam)
Another option is to move the chargecooler to rad to the rear, but then I would have to sacrifice the boot!
Why not cut hols in the upright parts of the crash structure behind where the driving lights go and duct to the oil coolers unless you are already doing that to feed the brakes?
Gav
You guys do know that cutting extra holes in the crash box to vent air for the heatexchanger also reduces the high pressure build up that normaly passes through the radiator… You will hurt engine cooling not help it…
When I put back my radiators I am going to see what better options I have for locating the charge cooler rad, but to be honest I doubt there is enough to gain for a track car, maybe a race car where you are looking for tenths, but my car is not a race car so it is not worth it. One area I will concentrate on though is making sure non of the airflow is wasted with gaps between the rads and the crash box
I also see it a benefit for the road car�
I struggled to keep charge temps down the other year at Yorks drag strip. The problem I had was leaving the car to idle in a queue of traffic just heats everything up. If you leave the car at idle / low speed for any sort of time, then the chargcooler rad absorbs all the heat from the water rad - You only have to put your hand on the of the heat exchanger to feel the warmth. Just another benefit of moving it I guess.
The main reason I want to move it is to improve the airflow to the engines water rad and the chargecooler rad restricts this - Running around on track at 100 degrees is less than ideal
[quote=frank]You guys do know that cutting extra holes in the crash box to vent air for the heatexchanger also reduces the high pressure build up that normaly passes through the radiator… You will hurt engine cooling not help it…
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Thats the whole point… decrease the pressure, but increase the flow over a given surface area (the radiators).
If you are idling while in a queue then run the aircon, it turns on the rad fans 
Dude you missed the point…The cooling air will be directed away from the engine radiator through the bottom heatexchanger…
Use a proper amount of cooling surface area and a proper chargecooler water pump if you want to do things right…
With the chargecooler heatexchanger mounted flat the air has to make a hard 90* turn to flow through it…Totally dumb idea…At least the crashbox funnels the air up at an angle through the engine radiator, not the best design but it works for the packaging…
The S1 Exiges original oil cooler rad is mounted under the front of the crash box with holes in the crash box to let some air down there. To be fair they dont work very well in that position. Probably because the two poxy holes to feed the air down there aren’t very big and the radiator isnt very well housed etc.
I’m with Frank though, keeping your oil and water cool have to be the priorities. Surely the more pressure you have in front of the rad, the more air will go through it and the more heat will be taken out.
Plus to let the air out you have to cut holes in the floor and isnt keeping a hole-less flat floor one of the things that is worth trying to achieve.
Obviously rads rely on shed loads of air passing through them to do any cooling, so your drag racing example needs a different solution all together (those ice box charge coolers are pretty cool). I understand what you are trying to achieve though, by moving your charge cooler rad away from your hot engine rad.
We need the front of our cars to be like a Scania truck, so we have loads of frontal are to mount mahooooosive radiators!!
It is that age old problem of trying to get a highly modded car to be good at everything. To make a nice road car, also be a nice track and drag car is a very difficult thing to do indeed.
Using Ade’s theory of running the fans while you are in the drag queue, obviously this is going to draw air through the rads, but wouldn’t it also stop radiant heat moving down from the engine water rad to the CC rad???