2007 Exige S Intercooler Air Flow Study

[Smoky]

Originally Posted by Ade

Nice work, 2 things I would add, first have a stainless heat sheild made to go between the IC and the engine to remove the heat soak from the engine, second the problem with making the roof scoop into the air filter duct will come about when you try to remove the old ducting from the clam, it is bonded on. I considered this after I fitted my charge cooler and then dropped it after fitted the Lotus Sport uprated airbox as I felt that mod would then have no benefit.

That's great except I've been waiting for Lotus (via FVMC) to get back to me. I've been begging, pleading with them to let me spend my money there. They seem to have earned all the money they can handle, because Lotus doesn't seem to want my money, or to sell me parts. They never call back. Not once in 3 months of asking.

When you say "bonded", what do you mean? I thought it was just adhesed/glued to the surface, which would seem reversible. Are you saying it is not reversible, and the ducting is permanent? That seems odd. Or maybe we're talking about different things?

[xtn]

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[apk919]

Originally Posted by ...m...

...i'm interested to see comparative data using side scoop intakes...i've wondered how cool the air really is coming into the exige roof scoop by comparison to other points along the body - i know that when i put my hand out the roof of my elise at speed, i can feel all that radiator heat in the laminar flow licking up and over the roof...

The meter I'm using is logging temperature (and a few other parameters) in addition to air flow. There's some interesting data there, but since it's downstream of the intercooler it won't show the temperature of the inlet air... it's a complex combination of air heated by the intercooler and convected/radiant heat from the engine. I might yet try to extract some information from this data as well.

I'm planning on taking airflow/temperature data from the side scoops as well. This scope of the project is beginning to grow...

[apk919]

More interesting info... for those of you that want to see the temperature of the air that's passed through the intercooler. Note that this is not charge temperature (although I'd love to log that as well... maybe in the future).

Here's a graph of downstream intercooler air temperature and vehicle speed over time. There are some very interesting things happening here... but this is just raw data and I haven't done any analysis...

EDIT: Outside air temperature was about 86 degrees F

[xtn]

Now that's a very interesting dataset. It appears that once you're at roughly 40mph or more that the post-cooler can get to and stay in the range of 102 plus or minus a couple degrees. So 15 degrees warmer than the presumably ambient pre-cooler air.

Except that presuming the pre-cooler air is ambient is probably a mistake, what with all the warm air coming off the radiator and flowing right up the windshield into the scoop.

xtn

[apk919]

Originally Posted by xtn

Now that's a very interesting dataset. It appears that once you're at roughly 40mph or more that the post-cooler can get to and stay in the range of 102 plus or minus a couple degrees. So 15 degrees warmer than the presumably ambient pre-cooler air.

Except that presuming the pre-cooler air is ambient is probably a mistake, what with all the warm air coming off the radiator and flowing right up the windshield into the scoop.

xtn

That's true... plus the temp sensor is only a few inches away from the valve cover... note how the temperature shoots up at the end of the dataset when I've shut the engine off in the garage...

I'm thinking of rigging up something to allow me to put the airspeed/temp sensor in the Cup roof scoop just behind the inlet grill... that would generate flow/temp readings vs. car speed without the other problems... and should show whether the radiator air flow is affecting inlet temperature in a significant way

[Smoky]

time to decrease temp across speed per temp drop would make for some interesting comparisons. Looks like you have the data for it already (that was about a 40 min drive, if I read correctly). Plenty of stops/gos in there too. Those kind of comparisons would be good benchmarks for comparing differences in heatsoak/dissipation for other intercoolers.

At the end, was that just sitting at idle, where the speed=0 and the temp continues to rise?

Might I recommend you connect with Thomasio from rls? It would be great to throw his rls intercooler into the mix of your data collection. I think a lot of people would benefit from the knowledge of how changing the intercooler does/does not impact heat soak and charge temp.

And also, of course, to test Shoco's side-intake cooling kit. What a difference that would make for folks to see the end results of these kits.

[apk919]

Originally Posted by Smoky

time to decrease temp across speed per temp drop would make for some interesting comparisons. Looks like you have the data for it already (that was about a 40 min drive, if I read correctly). Plenty of stops/gos in there too. Those kind of comparisons would be good benchmarks for comparing differences in heatsoak/dissipation for other intercoolers.

At the end, was that just sitting at idle, where the speed=0 and the temp continues to rise?

Might I recommend you connect with Thomasio from rls? It would be great to throw his rls intercooler into the mix of your data collection. I think a lot of people would benefit from the knowledge of how changing the intercooler does/does not impact heat soak and charge temp.

And also, of course, to test Shoco's side-intake cooling kit. What a difference that would make for folks to see the end results of these kits.

One of the things that's hard to see in the graph is engine load... obviously when I'm accelerating the supercharger is working harder, increasing the flow and heat of the charge... I think you can clearly see some of that heat being transferred to the cooling air. At the end the engine was off, not idling... you can see the effect of the latent heat in the engine block without coolant circulation. What's displayed is about 15 minutes of data... the samples are spaced 2 seconds apart.

There are so many ways to take this study at this point... I'd like to exhaust the "fettling" first, since that's the simplest and cheapest mod to increase intercooler efficiency. After that, side scoop ducting, different intercoolers, etc. would be interesting routes to follow.

What I'd also like to do is get my datalogging OBD-II reader in the mix. Then I can log coolant temps, engine load, MAF sensor readings, etc. Lots more work to do...

[charliex]

I have a datalog for the trip from las vegas to los angeles, i keep meaning to post it up, most of it is just freeway constant but there are some traffic and hill climbs, let me find it and post it.

[apk919]

Originally Posted by charliex

I have a datalog for the trip from las vegas to los angeles, i keep meaning to post it up, most of it is just freeway constant but there are some traffic and hill climbs, let me find it and post it.

Cool... what parameters did you log?

By the way... it seems someone else has attempted to combine roof and sidescoop air into the intercooler: Elise.ch :: Connexion

[Smoky]

Originally Posted by apk919

Cool... what parameters did you log?

By the way... it seems someone else has attempted to combine roof and sidescoop air into the intercooler: Elise.ch :: Connexion

Can you post that post here? The forum requires registration, which then requires admin approval. So we can't see the details. Looks interesting though.

[apk919]

Originally Posted by Smoky

Can you post that post here? The forum requires registration, which then requires admin approval. So we can't see the details. Looks interesting though.

Oops... I think I messed up the link... try this: Elise.ch :: Voir le sujet - Intercooler Exige S 2008

It's the same as the linkback at the bottom of the page... you don't need to be registered to view it.

[Pestodude]

Anybody read French...would love to know if it works!

[EricH]

I just spent hours translating it for you -> HERE

[robains]

Glad I'm not the only one that has dented their IC with that stupid placement of a hood latch. It would be 1000X better if they had simply attached a small locking arm to either side of the hinges -- it's like the chassis design team and the body design team came from different pubs!

[Jack]

Originally Posted by robains

Glad I'm not the only one that has dented their IC with that stupid placement of a hood latch. It would be 1000X better if they had simply attached a small locking arm to either side of the hinges -- it's like the chassis design team and the body design team came from different pubs!

Too many standing starts.

Just get the Euro shock setup for the engine lid....

[shay2nak]

Andy are you going to order the RLS intercooler? Just wondering if you did and if so, it would be interesting to run the same tests on it.

[apk919]

Originally Posted by shay2nak

Andy are you going to order the RLS intercooler? Just wondering if you did and if so, it would be interesting to run the same tests on it.

I'm not ordering it at this point... first I'd like to push things as far as possible using the stock equipment... and right now I'm not acquiring data that could be used to compare the efficiency of the intercoolers (to do that properly I should be logging charge temperature, both before and after the intercooler).

[L 33 HAW]

Do you have any data with the roof removed completely? (i presume this will be difficult though as the air flow and turbulance over the gap where the roof would be would make it hard to gather accurate readings) or even with the canvas roof from the elise fitted?

[apk919]

Originally Posted by L 33 HAW

Do you have any data with the roof removed completely? (i presume this will be difficult though as the air flow and turbulance over the gap where the roof would be would make it hard to gather accurate readings) or even with the canvas roof from the elise fitted?

I haven't yet but I'd like to... I don't have a soft top (or the grommets for the support ribs), so it would just be a "topless" test. I think I'd still be able to calibrate the sensor for that configuration, so I don't think additional turbulence would affect things too badly...