New Liquid to Air Intercooler

[Mase]

Hello all,

Ive been asked to make a thread and post up a couple things I’ve been working on. A client of mine brought me his 07 Exige S that he tracks often complaining of the sluggishness half way through his track sessions. Our solution:

Liquid To Air Intercooler:

As most of you know the Exige S heat soaks quite badly while out on the track. Here in florida, we see some crazy on track ambient air temperatures. As of late, I’ve been dealing with many different mid engine force induction cars. They are usually more difficult to keep cool. The Exige is no exception.

Doing some more research, we found the airflow across the stock intercooler was just not sufficient. The cross sectional area/lack of velocity hurts the cooling of the intercooler. Even with a more efficient air to air core, you still shoot yourself in the foot with the lack of airflow through the intercooler. After designing a track worthy 600 whp turbo NSX, along with working w/ a 1400 whp twin turbo ford gt I learned a great deal when it comes to liquid to air intercoolers. Moving onto the lotus exige, it was much easier to implement a successful system.

Designing the Lotus Air/Water IC setup-

A few key things I wanted to make sure in the design process. We didn’t want to modify much with this car. The last thing I wanted to do is hack up anything up. This car is very small, and not a lot of room to work with. We were able to design the intercooler setup so not much had to be modified. Other liquid/air systems require you to disassemble the entire front end, drain cooling system, discharge AC system. I wanted to avoid all of that. Cost wasn’t a huge factor, but we were able to design it much cheaper than originally thought. The heat exchanger is plenty big and mounted to catch fresh air. The intercooler core itself needs not only to flow decent CFM, but have a decent coefficient of heat transfer. Last but not least, the capacity and velocity of the liquid is also important.

Next came the dyno testing. One thing I would like to note is the common occurance of skewed results in dyno testing. You see many dyno plots running around that are vastly different. Many times the dyno operator will cheat and let a car cool down, this is fine if you’re just trying to pull peak numbers. The cooler the car’s air temps, obviously it will make more power. A car will not fully heat up with just a few dyno pulls. To properly heat cycle the intercooler system, we ran the car hard for minutes at a time. The results were outstanding. The hottest the intake temps got on the dyno was a cool 117F. Before they were well over 170 degrees after full heat soak. Max power was 230 whp (car has a reflash/exhaust).

For further testing, we tested this past weekend at Daytona Motor Speedway. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate, and we dealt with a lot of rain. The car was not pushed as hard as usual due to wet conditions. IATs did not get over 115 degrees. Ambient air temperatures were down in the high 70’s. More testing will be done at road Atlanta later this month. However we are happy with the results so far, we will not be changing anything with the intercooler setup.

A few pictures of the setup:







Regards,
Mase

[ZAMMY1]

most interesting. what's an approximate weight penalty?
thanks, sam

[usurbrain]

How much does it cost? and How much more does it weigh?

[charliex]

looks neat.

[Mase]

Originally Posted by ZAMMY1

most interesting. what's an approximate weight penalty?
thanks, sam

I will measure everything. For the consistant gains, its worth the slight weight. We used aluminum charge pipes, so we saved a little weight over the cast charge pipes, but i will find total weight.

[Mase]

Originally Posted by charliex

looks neat.

Thank you,

I was going to talk to you about your reflash on the ecu. Whats the best way to contact you?

Thanks!

[GreatNeckLawyer]

Could this be added to a BWR Kit, and become the mythical "stage 2"?

I guess it would also require Charlie X's "magic" to re-turn the ECU to make more HP with the BWR Kit, no?

--- ANDY

[charliex]

charlie AT goth . am or 8I8 4O4 2395


as for power increase, you probably wouldn't see the same types of gains on the BWR/katanas as they are picking up air temps from the air box, where the S picks it up after the intercooler, this is where the massive power losses on the come in to play as it starts pulling timing very rapidy, with this type of intercooler you should get colder discharge so it shouldn't pull that timing as quickly, or as much.

the other benefit is the colder air which you will see a benefit on both types of systems but thats purely mechanical/chemistry and doesn't need a retune, though you might be able to run more advance, cooler is just better.


cheers

[Mase]

Originally Posted by usurbrain

How much does it cost? and How much more does it weigh?

Weight I will calculate.

Cost will depend upon how many we actually make. This one being the first, was a little more expensive. They will be even cheaper if more than one is made at a time. Target price should be under $1500.

[Mase]

Originally Posted by GreatNeckLawyer

Could this be added to a BWR Kit, and become the mythical "stage 2"?

I guess it would also require Charlie X's "magic" to re-turn the ECU to make more HP with the BWR Kit, no?

--- ANDY

It would not require a reflash, however, being a tuner myself. re calibration of the ecu is always a good idea.

This will just effectively allow the car to run cooler intake temperatures. you will not see the charge density decrease due to heat soak of the air to air IC.

I will look into the BWR kit. But this kit should be able to work with many FI applications. charge piping would probably be the only thing that may or may not be needed to modify.


Mase

[ZJChaser]

Originally Posted by GreatNeckLawyer

Could this be added to a BWR Kit, and become the mythical "stage 2"?

I guess it would also require Charlie X's "magic" to re-turn the ECU to make more HP with the BWR Kit, no?

--- ANDY

No. The manifolds will not work. Not unless you switch to using Exige S manifolds but then the BWR blower will not even line up properly

[Jack]

If possible, I'd love to get more info/photos on the exact mounting location of the heat exchanger. TIA.

[qball]

Very nice... How did you run the lines to the front?

Where in Florida are you?

[Casey]

Just thought I would pop in and vouch for the credibility of Mase......This man knows his S#@t....I see good things coming from this company.

[xtn]

subscribedededed

[skibum]

Originally Posted by Casey@ForcedFed

Just thought I would pop in and vouch for the credibility of Mase......This man knows his S#@t....I see good things coming from this company.

Agreed, Mase is regarded as one of the best tuners in the country as far as FI goes on the s2k. People drive from all over to get his tune.

[Stale_Hotdog]

Wow! Very interested! any ETA on when you'll have production units for sale?

[FLuXeXigeS]

+1^

subscribed

[Illumiloti]

where exactly is the heat exchanger mounted? Stacked with the AC condenser and the radiator?

[turbophil]

Mase,

You mentioned the car has a reflash. Was that one of Charlie's OTS flashes, PES, or standalone?

Nice work on the exhaust. Looks very clean

Best,

Phil