[petemon]

Hi all.

I have a leaky chargecooler. I just bought the car and don't know anyone with parts connections so I could use some help.

A used OEM or good custom aftermarket would be great.

I did see the Alunox one, It's a bit pricey for me at this point and I'm a little concerned about it adding to the turbo lag.

Thanks y'all!

Pete

 

[89.5 Esprit SE]

What is the Alunox one going for?

A used OEM one sold on eBay a couple months ago for $400.

Randy

 

[QuadCam]

Where is it leaking? at one of the welds? or is the core itself compromised?

 

[G8nightman]

I installed the alunox chargecooler 0 lag.

 

[carbuff]

Check Brian's Hussie the S4 thread. It details his work on the chargecooler, perhaps yours can be repaired.


I think Travis replaced his chargecooler "innards" as well.

 

[Vulcan Grey]

Mine leaked internally, I replaced the whole box.

 

[petemon]

Travis - Thanks, good to know about the Alunox. I may opt to go with it.
Randy - I saw it on here, I think it was $1000-$1300 depending on whether or not you could get it as part of a group buy.

It' leaking internally, bleeds 30psi of air down to 0 in about 10 seconds on the bench. I did think about cutting it open to see if I could find/patch the leak but it seems pretty hopeless. I'll take a look at Brian's thread and keep checking eBay.

Thanks all!

 

[QuadCam]

You should be able to find a similar sized core to the original and weld the old end tank on it. That is if you are looking to keep it original looking.

If not, there are plenty of fab shops that can make a new intercooler for the esprit.

 

[Vulcan Grey]

I didn't buy an Aluminox. I got a chargecooler from an SE that had a damaged cover plate, and I put a Sport 300 plate on it.

 

[Vulcan Grey]

This ebay one looks like it could be made to work... possibly

800 HPS x Large Bar Plate Liquid Water to Air Aluminum Intercooler 16 5"X13X4 5" | eBay

 

[bharper]

I think I would be beating on g8nightman for a good price on the one he just took off!

Brian

 

[Vulcan Grey]

here's a cheaper one

Universal Liquid Water to Air Intercooler 16"x11"x4 5" | eBay

could be made to work like this larger intercooler maybe?

 

[petemon]

Thanks everyone!

I bought this one:

I thought it would be easy to block off the existing intake and cut a hole in the bottom of the plenum for the new one. The dimensions are a little tight but I think I can make it work without a lot of screwy bends and elbows. I'll need to figure out some bracketry but that shouldn't be too bad.

Before I bought that, I decided to try and repair the old one. I was hoping that I'd be lucky and only one passage would leak. I figured that if I blocked off the leaky passage that I wouldn't really loose anything given that I was adding a higher flow electric pump. I filled the passages with water and applied pressure to the air chamber. 4 out of 9 passages bubbled air...Bummer!
The interesting part was that there were several old pump vein parts (even after repeatedly flushing both ways) inside. The blades were blocking most of the water ports. If you look close you can see the indentations that formed over time by the pressure of the water on the rubber bits. It might be worth testing your cooler to see if it flows acceptably.
That's my old impeller on top with the hub next to it. The hub was detached but otherwise looked pretty normal when it was in the pump (except that it spun freely).

 

[MRDANGERUS]

4.5" thick chargecooler won't fit under the engine bay cover. You'll need 3.5" one.

Looking at the picture, there seems to be a conciderable corrosion inside the nipples and the core.
What year is this car?

IMO, chargecooler circuit is a perfect candidate for the water-less coolant liquid conversion.

[...]
Evans NPG+ C Waterless Coolant is the recommended coolant for all gasoline and diesel engines. NPG+ C is a stand-alone lifetime coolant that does not freeze, or boil over. NPG+ C controls detonation, cavitation, and is non-corrosive. Installing NPG+ C requires the radiator, engine block and heater core to be drained completely and then filled 100% with NPG+ C. NPG+ C meets or exceeds both the ASTM D 1384 corrosion test and the ASTM D 3306-94 specifications.


NPG+C Technical Information:
Boiling Point is 375°F @ 0 psi
Freezing Point at -40°F
Viscosity - 2.3cp @ 212°F

 

[QuadCam]

evans doesn't transfer heat as well as water, though.

Plus, the chargecooler system isn't one where you have to worry about boil over either. It is a much cooler running system than the engine coolant circuit.

 

[bharper]

I emailed Evens tech support, and they suggested NOT to use their product in a liquid to air chargecooler engine, as Andrew said above, the heat transfer is less than water/antifreeze. They will not tell you how much, but I expect it is more than a little.

Nice product, but not really what our cars need....

Brian

 

[MidLifeZ]

Would "Water Wetter" be a good idea? Supposed to have better cooling properties than water itself

 

[QuadCam]

there are a lot of opinions on both sides of water wetter.

There are some that say water wetter does exactly as advertised, and others that say it makes things worse.

It is a tricky subject.

they say that water wetter lowers coolant temps. OKay, but why is that? Redline says it is because it lowers the surface tension of the water molecules thereby allowing more water molecule to come in contact with the hot surfaces and pull the heat away from the hot surfaces.

The other side say that Water Wetter actually makes it harder to extract the heat from the hot components in the engine. Because the water isn't extracting as much heat from the engine, the water stays cooler......and that is why you see lower water temps on your gauge. Essentially, the coolant is cooler because it isn't pulling the heat out of the engine block.

I would love to knwo the truth. An anctually engline block and/or cylinder head temp gauge wouuld better show what is going on.

 

[89.5 Esprit SE]

there are a lot of opinions on both sides of water wetter.

There are some that say water wetter does exactly as advertised, and others that say it makes things worse.

The other side say that Water Wetter actually makes it harder to extract the heat from the hot components in the engine. Because the water isn't extracting as much heat from the engine, the water stays cooler......and that is why you see lower water temps on your gauge. Essentially, the coolant is cooler because it isn't pulling the heat out of the engine block.

I would love to knwo the truth. An anctually engline block and/or cylinder head temp gauge wouuld better show what is going on.

Well that statement makes zero sense in an engine that is running for any length of time. If you don't pull enough heat off of the engine, or specifically the combustion chambers, the temp of the engine under load will rise and eventually overheat. That will cause your coolant to also rise in temp. Also remember that different liquids and gases have different abilities to store thermal energy or BTUs. In other words air at 200deg has no where near the thermal capacity of water at 200deg, so a liquid that is able to absorb more heat per volume than another WILL have a lower temp if the number of BTUs are the same. It is my understanding that water has a larger capacity to store BTUs per volume than antifreeze. That is a major reason we don't run pure antifreeze as a coolant.

All the cars we drive also must have a cooling system that has a little too much capacity for cooling so that we don't end up with overheating in challenging conditions.

What Water Wetter claims is that it makes the water transfer heat faster/more efficiently.

The SE Esprits all have oil temperature gauges, which are a more direct way to measure engine temps, so we would expect to see higher oil temps with lower coolant temps if the original premise were true. My experience is that the two temperatures parallel each other....high coolant and high oil temp, not high oil temp and low coolant temp.

Also in the chargecooler system unlike the engine coolant system the lower the temp the better.

 

[89.5 Esprit SE]

Thanks everyone!

I bought this one:

The interesting part was that there were several old pump vein parts (even after repeatedly flushing both ways) inside. The blades were blocking most of the water ports. If you look close you can see the indentations that formed over time by the pressure of the water on the rubber bits. It might be worth testing your cooler to see if it flows acceptably.
That's my old impeller on top with the hub next to it. The hub was detached but otherwise looked pretty normal when it was in the pump (except that it spun freely).

This morning was a nice cool day in Florida and I took my car for a ride across the Sunshine Skyway at 8AM. The car ran fantastic and the power of the engine was clearly up compared to a typical hot Summer Day.

Of course I didn't break any laws, but it sure seemed that I made the 5 miles across the bridge in a lot less than 5 minutes.:no:

I have made the point before that the chargecooler system on the SE through S4S is often neglected, and probably does not work as efficiently as designed.

This clearly was a problem for you and you were basically driving a non-chargecooled car.

Remember that the chargecooled SE produces 40hp more than the regular Turbo, and a lot of those horsepower are due to a functioning chargecooler.

I also am a strong advocate for maximizing your chargecooler with regular maintenance, proper heat shealding, and proper coolant. And beyond that increased capacity with electric pumps and and larger chargecoolers. We have seen some SLOW cars with non-functioning intercoolers.

Randy