Possible Intercooler Location?

[AirWolf]

I was looking at my friend's WRX, and I noticed that the hood scoop was being used to supply air to the intercooler. My question/thought is this: Would it be possible to use the Visteon Hood Scoop, and mount an intercooler above the engine, where the air would come from the hood scoop? I know that there is not much room, but I know that the intercooler/ radiator that cools the water isn't that thick, so maybe there would be a way to make it work. Another possibility would be to give the hood some more height, which could serve 2 purposes: 1) to allow for the intercooler to be placed above the engine (ala WRX) and 2) Allow more room for the turbo and associated parts.

Maybe getting room for both would be too hard and might not look that good, but if it were possible to put the intercooler on top of the engine and make the scoop functional, that would mean that you would not need an aftermarket front-end, and you would not have to mount the intercooler/radiator in front of the engine's radiator.

Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions?

[HangTime]

Not an expert, but of the top of my head...

WRX has a boxer engine layout (flat vs V) which allows for the increased overhead area in the hood to fit the intercooler.

The disadvantage of mounting to the hood is that you would get no airflow when not in motion and the heat generated from the engine would vent out the scoop past the intercooler. Positioning in front of the rad, you will get some airflow due to the cooling fan drawing air into the engine compartment.

Also, by the time you modify the hood, you might as well have modified the front end for the same cost (and look much cleaner IMHO).

[ChrisHightower]

The WRX uses a air/air intercooler and has quite a bit of space due to the engine layout (boxer) like HangTime said. The intercooler being used on our kit is water/air. The water radiator will be placed in the bumper in front of the existing radiator. There is only room for a piece of paper between the upper intake and the hood on my car. I imagine the Cougar to be the same way.

BTW, water/air is just as effective as air/air, until you introduce ice into the water supply. Then, the water/air IC becomes higher than 100% effeciency. :biggrin:

[Furious1]

That's right. And that is a track tip ;)

[AirWolf]

Thanks. After I made him go out and pop the hood again, I saw houg much work it would take to make something like that work on our car. With the water to air intercooler, is there a seperate reservoir for the water and ice? If that is that case, where is that going to be located, and what size is it going to be?

Oh my other question...if the radiator is mounted in front of the engine's radiator, are we going to have problems with keeping our enging cool, since some of the radiator's surface area is blocked by the intercooler's radiator?

[ChrisHightower]

There is another small reservoir for the intercooler water. We are finding out where to locate this. Now, if you decide you want to put a cooler in the water circuit, I suggest mounting it in the trunk. A simple diverter valve placed in the engine bay that switches the water circuit from "just radiator" to "radiator and ice".

The water radiator lets air pass through it, so it technically won't be blocking the engine water radiator. It won't effect cooling of the engine.

[Blackcoog]

So that is what my friend has on his Syclone. It is a cooler in the trunk rigged up with some piping and I guess if you dump dry ice in it it helps cool the engine for days at the track and when he runs 27psi of boost and over 400hp on that thing.