How does intercooler / AC not get water in it

[ACE51]

a simple general question. How does the IC on exige S and 240 etc not get water in the intake when driving in rain. Also how on any car does it not get water in the AC / bring air from outside in the system. I've always wondered...

[Demonized]

Originally Posted by ACE51

a simple general question. How does the IC on exige S and 240 etc not get water in the intake when driving in rain.

You mean into the roof scoop?.. The water would just get the intercooler a bit wet... Don't see how that could even be considered a problem.. it's made of aluminum.

[Thomasio]

Originally Posted by Demonized

You mean into the roof scoop?.. The water would just get the intercooler a bit wet... Don't see how that could even be considered a problem.. it's made of aluminum.

Roof scoop feeds the intercooler, and it does get wet in the rain. The heat flashes off the moisture pretty quickly. No worries.

[marcinr]

Water in the IC is no big deal, in fact, some cars have IC sprayers to cool them down since water evaporation works a lot faster than air.

As for keeping water out of the vents, there are drain holes before the air reaches the climate control system, and the air intakes often point down. A/C condensers build up moisture from humidity, so those have drain holes as too.

[vsop]

Originally Posted by marcinr

Water in the IC is no big deal, in fact, some cars have IC sprayers to cool them down since water evaporation works a lot faster than air.

Actually its water ON the IC, not in the IC. Water in the IC would be bad., it would restric air flow and IC performance and could cause damage to the engine if it was enough water.

And to the OP, the Roof Scoop just feeds cool air over the IC fins, the actual air intake for the IC is not fed by the roof scoop. Its just like on the Elise and Exige in that there is a airbox with filter.

Engines that have ram air setups where a scoop feeds air directly from a scoop to the air box have channels and drains to minimize the amount of water that can make it to the filter. I have seen engines Hydrolocked from driving thru standing water and having it sucked in thru aftermarket ram air/cold air intakes that were low on the bumper.

[xxguitarist]

Originally Posted by vsop

Actually its water ON the IC, not in the IC.

While on the outside, it does pass through the IC, just not the same side of the piping & fins as the air does. Semantics.

[jpryor27]

Its the same as air/water blowing over your radiator. The roof scoop air/water does not become internal to the system. As mentioned before, the scoop is not the air intake for the engine.

[Dragon]

They are both sealed systems. Nothing is getting in to the a/c and the only thing getting in the to the intake is coming threw the air filter. The condenser on the A/C and the intercooler are just radiators. Read the following from how stuff works to get an idea of the process. Just replace coolant with air for the intercooler and replace coolant with refrigerant for the A/C.

Radiator

­ ­A radiator is a type of heat exchanger. It is designed to transfer heat from the hot coolant that flows through it to the air blown through it by the fan.

Most modern cars use aluminum radiators. These radiators are made by brazing thin aluminum fins to flattened aluminum tubes. The coolant flows from the inlet to the outlet through many tubes mounted in a parallel arrangement. The fins conduct the heat from the tubes and transfer it to the air flowing through the radiator.

The tubes sometimes have a type of fin inserted into them called a turbulator, which increases the turbulence of the fluid flowing through the tubes. If the fluid flowed very smoothly through the tubes, only the fluid actually touching the tubes would be cooled directly. The amount of heat transferred to the tubes from the fluid running through them depends on the difference in temperature between the tube and the fluid touching it. So if the fluid that is in contact with the tube cools down quickly, less heat will be transferred. By creating turbulence inside the tube, all of the fluid mixes together, keeping the temperature of the fluid touching the tubes up so that more heat can be extracted, and all of the fluid inside the tube is used effectively.


Picture of radiator core:



Radiators usually have a tank on each side, and inside the tank is a transmission cooler. In the picture above, you can see the inlet and outlet where the oil from the transmission enters the cooler. The transmission cooler is like a radiator within a radiator, except instead of exchanging heat with the air, the oil exchanges heat with the coolant in the radiator.