intercooler reservoir

[Emvici]

Ok I have read and listened to ideas about the best ways to battle heatsoak. I now have my strategy on how to combat it. I plan to use
a 3 combination approach, using the stock Hx, an aftermarket Superchiller, and a high capacity intercooler reservoir. Which brings me to my question, What is the best intercooler reservoir available that will fit a stock configuration ?. I found the lingerfelter one, but it requires you get their aftermarket Cai system. I also found this one from D3 Performance Engineering - High Capacity Supercharger Reservoir. 5 gallon capacity if I understood it correctly!. lastly I found one from Kd innovations, they did not provide much details about their product at all. Well if anyone has a
better suggestion I would appreciate learning about it.

Thanks all

[Skylane765]

Adding a reservoir will not help anything. You just have to cool more water. Now if you fill with ice that will work. Adding more water does nothing for the inter cooler. Just check out JRE. There is no data to support adding a tank will help the LSA unless you cool it with something other than air. The heat exchanger is so small in the LSA.

[Blackdevil77]

Originally Posted by Skylane765

Adding a reservoir will not help anything. You just have to cool more water. Now if you fill with ice that will work. Adding more water does nothing for the inter cooler. Just check out JRE. There is no data to support adding a tank will help the LSA unless you cool it with something other than air. The heat exchanger is so small in the LSA.

The opinions on this I noticed are all over the place. I've read other posts stating that it WILL help and that the stock hx is better then we give it credit for. More fluid means it'll take longer for that fluid to heat up.

The example used was trying to boil water in a pot. Put a little bit of water in the pot, it boils fast. Fill the pot and it takes much longer to boil. It does make perfect sense. So I would imagine a reservoir would certainly help.

[GenF-GTS]

Originally Posted by Blackdevil77

The opinions on this I noticed are all over the place. I've read other posts stating that it WILL help and that the stock hx is better then we give it credit for. More fluid means it'll take longer for that fluid to heat up.

The example used was trying to boil water in a pot. Put a little bit of water in the pot, it boils fast. Fill the pot and it takes much longer to boil. It does make perfect sense. So I would imagine a reservoir would certainly help.

Yes i wrote that about the kitchen kettle and yes to me it makes perfect sense if you have more volume of coolant to heat up obviously it will take longer to heat that coolant up.

From what jessyrayo said about his system for road racing i would avoid the plastic reservoirs since if you go hard enough on the car for long enough the coolant will get so hot it will blow the plastic up like a balloon.

Also any metal fab shop would be able to make a custom reservoir for you, probably near the same cost as some of these shops, being custom you can figure out where you want to mount it and how much you want it to hold.

In my opinion you should upgrade the pump to a much bigger one and if doing so this opens up the option to make a system like jessyrayo and run a big take in the spare tire area.

And yeah exactly like i said before with the kitchen kettle put a small amount of water in it turn it on it boils fast, fill it right up, plumb in a reservoir and a pump to cycle the water through it, it's not going to boil anywhere near as fast. The temps in the long run over sustained high speeds might reach the same temperatures but it certainly wont get to that temp at the same rate of time. And that would be beating up on the car on a road course.

[Skylane765]

Originally Posted by Blackdevil77

The opinions on this I noticed are all over the place. I've read other posts stating that it WILL help and that the stock hx is better then we give it credit for. More fluid means it'll take longer for that fluid to heat up.

The example used was trying to boil water in a pot. Put a little bit of water in the pot, it boils fast. Fill the pot and it takes much longer to boil. It does make perfect sense. So I would imagine a reservoir would certainly help.

No data that a tank can help. You fail to point out that we are not boiling water we are cooling it and to cool it it's going to take longer. Just read JRE opinion on this and he also proved it by testing. Now you have to cool more water rather than less that can be cooled quicker. Tank is not any help, it may not hurt but no help unless you put ice in it and that is how some are made. Easy way to test is hook a data logger to the downstream side off the IC on the SC before you install tank and after. You we see no change on the LSA. The IC is just too small on the LSA for a tank to help. That is why a air to air works best. Some tanks are made to put ice in and they work good for drag racing. What good is a tank sitting inside a hot engine compartment? JRE sells tanks if you want one, but not much good on the LSA.

[Blackdevil77]

Yes, but you have to heat it first to cool it. It'll take longer to heat up, but yes, it will also take longer to cool off.

And yes, the intercooler is too small. Exactly why I plan on going with a heart beat blower down the road.

[Stephen12ZL1]

Originally Posted by Blackdevil77

Yes, but you have to heat it first to cool it. It'll take longer to heat up, but yes, it will also take longer to cool off.

And yes, the intercooler is too small. Exactly why I plan on going with a heart beat blower down the road.

With ice in the tank it definitely helps. With more capacity it is a help as well because a greater quantity of water does take longer to heat up compared to a smaller quantity of water. This is a thermodynamic basic principle called "heat capacity".

[3monkeys]

I agree with skylane 765. If you still have the small brick as the choke point in the system, making the rest of the system more efficient is moot. Starting with lower temps will help with drag racing, but won't help just driving down the road and having a little freeway on ramp fun.

[v8]

Is there any company that makes a better inter cooler for our LSA? Or is the factory one the biggest that can fit in there?

[danvillekidd]

Originally Posted by Skylane765

No data that a tank can help. You fail to point out that we are not boiling water we are cooling it and to cool it it's going to take longer. Just read JRE opinion on this and he also proved it by testing. Now you have to cool more water rather than less that can be cooled quicker. Tank is not any help, it may not hurt but no help unless you put ice in it and that is how some are made. Easy way to test is hook a data logger to the downstream side off the IC on the SC before you install tank and after. You we see no change on the LSA. The IC is just too small on the LSA for a tank to help. That is why a air to air works best. Some tanks are made to put ice in and they work good for drag racing. What good is a tank sitting inside a hot engine compartment? JRE sells tanks if you want one, but not much good on the LSA.

The problem here is two completely different scenarios. One is rate of increase of IAT2 over a short time on a drag strip, which I agree that adding more fluid probably isn't helping. The other is the heating of ALL of the fluid over 20-30 minutes on a road course. JRE is just looking at IAT2 rise over 10 seconds, where the roadcourse people are trying not to boil all the fluid in the system. You are trying compare apples and oranges. Just like the others are saying, the more fluid in the system the longer it will take to boil. No it won't change the increase in heat between IAT1 and IAT2, but it should allow you to run longer before the fluid overheats.
I have a question or theory, if the system is plumbed to have a hx directly before and after the intercooler (2 hx), would that help to keep the fluid from getting as hot as fast? Dont know if anyone has tried it or not.

[GenF-GTS]

Originally Posted by danvillekidd

The problem here is two completely different scenarios. One is rate of increase of IAT2 over a short time on a drag strip, which I agree that adding more fluid probably isn't helping. The other is the heating of ALL of the fluid over 20-30 minutes on a road course. JRE is just looking at IAT2 rise over 10 seconds, where the roadcourse people are trying not to boil all the fluid in the system. You are trying compare apples and oranges. Just like the others are saying, the more fluid in the system the longer it will take to boil. No it won't change the increase in heat between IAT1 and IAT2, but it should allow you to run longer before the fluid overheats.
I have a question or theory, if the system is plumbed to have a hx directly before and after the intercooler (2 hx), would that help to keep the fluid from getting as hot as fast? Dont know if anyone has tried it or not.

Wouldn't hurt....would also increase coolant volume...lol

[Blackdevil77]

Best and easiest solution I think would be to swap the blower for a better, more efficient one (LS9 blower or Heartbeat etc.) Only problem is the price, but I think the results would be pretty good.

[CAM....ZL1]

This may sound stupid, but when we're talking about putting ice in it do we mean in with the coolant in the tank?
Could you hypothetically fabricate a tank inside a tank made out of aluminum with two caps, one of them being a bigmouth cap to put ice in with coolant in the center where it could be surrounded by ice, with a pitcock in the ice side to Drain the water off between runs. Would dry ice work, last longer, be colder? Or possibly a coil inside to transport coolant thru a say ice chest.

[white ZL1]

Originally Posted by Emvici

I plan to use a 3 combination approach, using the stock Hx, an aftermarket Superchiller, and a high capacity intercooler reservoir.

Overkill much?

Originally Posted by 3monkeys

Starting with lower temps will help with drag racing, but won't help just driving down the road and having a little freeway on ramp fun.

Agree on the first part, but not necessarily on the second. I'm looking at datalogs I've done and IAT2 comes back down to pre-boost temps within a minute at highway speeds. Of course, this is on a stock car but I have no idea what mods you guys currently have or are planning that are making you this concerned about heat soak already?

Originally Posted by danvillekidd

The problem here is two completely different scenarios. One is rate of increase of IAT2 over a short time on a drag strip, which I agree that adding more fluid probably isn't helping. The other is the heating of ALL of the fluid over 20-30 minutes on a road course. JRE is just looking at IAT2 rise over 10 seconds, where the roadcourse people are trying not to boil all the fluid in the system. You are trying compare apples and oranges. Just like the others are saying, the more fluid in the system the longer it will take to boil. No it won't change the increase in heat between IAT1 and IAT2, but it should allow you to run longer before the fluid overheats.

Well said. The part that seems kind of strange to me is that at stock or near stock power levels (read that as blower speeds) the stock system is up to the task per GM and reputable sponsors on this forum. It's as soon as folks start cranking up the blower speeds and introducing all that extra heat they start to have problems. And at that point, one must ask themselves....is all this extra power really what's going to get me around the track faster?

Originally Posted by Blackdevil77

Best and easiest solution I think would be to swap the blower for a better, more efficient one (LS9 blower or Heartbeat etc.) Only problem is the price, but I think the results would be pretty good.

Based on what? I haven't seen a single thread with any data about IAT2 temps with the Heartbeat blower?