Thermal Plates LSA Blower Temp testing

[Jamob]

I pulled the trigger and order and received thermal plates for my LSA blower. I purchased the plates from Fasterproms for $375 plus shipping. With that said, I decided to conduct test for before and after installation. I've seen lots of discussions on these types for products but no real data collection to support the claims. I don't currently have a time frame but I will keep this thread active until i have concluded my testing.

Current Configuration:
LS3 6.2L (Stock bottom end and Stock heads)
LSA 1.9L Blower
2.75" pulley
9lbs of boost
91 Octane
ZL1 Blower Hat
Roto-Fab CAI
VMax ported throttle body
HX Expansion Tank (100% water with Redline Water wetter)
GT500 front mount Intercooler w/ 11" fan
160 degree Thermostat
Stainless works long tube headers
tuning Tubebytad
575rwhp 550TQ STD

Test Setup:
Datalog Cylinder head surface Temp, Blower Surface Temp, Lid Surface temp, underhood Temp, IAT Temp, Ambient outside temp

Tests: 3 runs each with a final average
Test 1: Daily drive Morning/Evening
Test 2: 5 min Idle from cold start
Test 3: 5 min idle after driving in normal conditions
Test 4: Heat soak test, after driving normal conditions, engine and HX pump off.
Test 5: 1/8 mile sprint
Test 6: Cruising after 1/8 mile sprint
Test 7: Idle after 1/8 miles sprint

Testing Equipment:
Thermocoupler and logger:
4 channel Thermocouple logger
K Temp. Range : -200~1370°C,-328~2498°F
Resolution : 0.1°C,0.1°F
Accuracy (under 18~28°C ambient temp.): ±(0.3%rdg + 1°C)

(Might be able to use a thermo camera)

Links

http://www.fasterproms.net/

http://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/...fo-inside.html

[cal45]

Subscribed

[GenF-GTS]

subscribed

[bayarea408]

very interesting...

[Jamob]

Received the thermocouple data logger and plan on taking base measurements on 8/20. The attached pic illustrates where I plan on taking temp measurements it's changes over time.

Channel 1: Engine bay temp (I want to have the overall temp of the engine bay and how it may or may not effect the other measurements.

Channel 2: Front blower near the vacuum tubing. (close to cylinder head temp probe)

Channel 3: Front of Pass cylinder head. (Close to blower temp probe)

Channel 4: Intake temp. (although we have ambient temp and IAT, i want to know the actual temp of the air at the air filter and how it differs form the engine bay temp.)

Ambient temp and IAT will be measured and logged through the ECU.

[Trackman]

In

[Dutchman427]

Let me know how you like them. I have the same ones. Mike @ Rapid was not too keen on them so we did not put them on as far as fitment. I am looking forward to seeing the results though.

[jessrayo]

Test 8: You and a buddy get out out of bed at 4 AM on a sunday morning and go to a good straight piece of well maintained road. Put your buddy in a spotter car two miles down the road on a cell phone and link through the bluetooth so you can have live hands free conversation. Do a two mile flat out wide open throttle burst..... this will show you the flaw in this product......many of your tests are not putting the supercharger in boost mode. When the engine makes the most heat is when the supercharger is providing boost, and to provide boost you need to be standing on it.

You don't even include a 1/4 mile flat out in your test list. I can tell you right now that the engine is hotter than the supercharger when the supercharger is not making boost so your supercharger will be cooler when it is cruising around town doing nothing. If you hit it for 4 seconds it will probably still be cooler. If you push the gas pedal for any real length of time the supercharger gets very hot and that product will be counter productive. Lets just say I logged intake temps while running a supercharger at the texas mile and had 4 passes above 190mph on the supercharger to verify my results. Supercharger is hotter than the engine when you stay on the throttle.

[Bigtime53]

Jess has been there and done that. He has tested more on his car with different things and knows what he is talking about. I understand the logic here on the spacers but it is really of no benefit I believe. I am going to watch this thread to see how your test turn out though. Thanks for taking the time to do this so we all can learn.

[Trackman]

I don't have any experience with a mile run so I can't comment on that. My logic tends to think it will help in 1/4 passes. Isolating hot engine coolant and oil temps from the blower that is being fed with cool air and water I think will allow a small window of time that might reduce heat soak. Durability of the product would be my concern.

[jessrayo]

Originally Posted by Trackman

I don't have any experience with a mile run so I can't comment on that. My logic tends to think it will help in 1/4 passes. Isolating hot engine coolant and oil temps from the blower that is being fed with cool air and water I think will allow a small window of time that might reduce heat soak. Durability of the product would be my concern.

I kind of think the 1/4 mile point is right on the fulcrum. I think the supercharger will actually be hotter after a full 10 second pass but it will start out cooler so it would probably help your overall time for 1/4 mile racing and cost you a couple of mph at the end. But if you ever run in the boost for more than a 1/4 mile or take the car road racing where it never has a chance to cool back down for a full 20-30 minutes the product will actually increase the intake temps because the supercharger is actually hotter than the engine block when the supercharger is making boost.

My point is if you run your car hard in the 1/4 mile or if you just hit the throttle every once in a great while to make a pass on the highway the product will help reduce you intake temps. But if you plan to run your car hard for more than a 1/4 of a mile or put it on a road racing track to run some laps then this product will not help you because the supercharger gets really hot when that bypass closes and the thing stays under load for more than 10 seconds.

[GenF-GTS]

Or you could run a combination of these plates and an interchiller and since the blower is isolated from the engine heat source the cold you are applying could get lower temps and the blower casing itself could retain the colder temps.

[2013 ZL1 #7860]

Originally Posted by jessrayo

I kind of think the 1/4 mile point is right on the fulcrum. I think the supercharger will actually be hotter after a full 10 second pass but it will start out cooler so it would probably help your overall time for 1/4 mile racing and cost you a couple of mph at the end. But if you ever run in the boost for more than a 1/4 mile or take the car road racing where it never has a chance to cool back down for a full 20-30 minutes the product will actually increase the intake temps because the supercharger is actually hotter than the engine block when the supercharger is making boost.

My point is if you run your car hard in the 1/4 mile or if you just hit the throttle every once in a great while to make a pass on the highway the product will help reduce you intake temps. But if you plan to run your car hard for more than a 1/4 of a mile or put it on a road racing track to run some laps then this product will not help you because the supercharger gets really hot when that bypass closes and the thing stays under load for more than 10 seconds.

A compressor running at 2:1 compression (even 4:1 or 6:1) with no combustion, creates more heat than a "compressor" triple the displacement running at 10:1 with constant combustion?

I think it is more likely that the blower is directly attached or adjacent to the hottest parts of the engine (heads and exhaust manifolds) and sits above these. The heat of all the underhood parts goes sky high after running the car hard for an extended time. Just idling with the hood closed the engine bay temps get very warm!

[jessrayo]

Originally Posted by 2013 ZL1 #7860

A compressor running at 2:1 compression (even 4:1 or 6:1) with no combustion, creates more heat than a "compressor" triple the displacement running at 10:1 with constant combustion?

I think it is more likely that the blower is directly attached or adjacent to the hottest parts of the engine (heads and exhaust manifolds) and sits above these. The heat of all the underhood parts goes sky high after running the car hard for an extended time. Just idling with the hood closed the engine bay temps get very warm!

Yes the compressor on top of the engine spinning at over 20,000 rpm with no direct cooling gets hotter than the 6000 rpm combustion engine with water jackets. Spin anything at 20,000 rpm for a full 60 seconds and see what happens and this just happens to be a heat generating compressor.... The intercoorer brick in the supercharger is designed to cool the air going into the engine, it is not designed to cool the actual supercharger.

Once again, very few people seem to understand how hot a supercharger can get in a very short period of time. It took me a while to realize how big of a problem this is but I can tell you that very few people running the standing mile are able to achieve 200mph on a supercharger because the supercharger gets very hot in 1 mile. That was my point. Many racers with superchargers are dumping pounds and pounds of ice in the supercharger system and that smoking hot supercharger boils it off in the first 3/4 mile leaving no power at the end because of uncontrolled IAT's, this in not engine heat, it is supercharger heat.