Has anyone tried to run a front-center-mount intercooler in conjunction with the factory ones?

 

i have never heard of that set-up being tried before but it would technically work. however, you wouldnt need a set-up like that unless you car was pushing an ungodly amount of boost. and even still that would be a big pressure drop. the satandard front mount 2 or 3 core intercoolers are more than capable of supporting higher boosting Z's.

 

Heck, the Stillen or HKS SMIC's are very sufficient in high boost applications. There's no need to do that. You'd have to plumb the two side mounts into the front mount, it'd be a lot of pressure drop like mousier said, and IMO a waste.

 

I agree with emo236...it wouldnt be worth both the time to customize special piping or the money to do so. the most effecient intercooler set-up IMO are like the STILLEN or HKS kits that mount up to the stock intercooler piping.

 

Isn't the whole point of the I/C to drop the air temp?



Why would the pressure drop? It's not like it's escaping anywhere...

Not trying to argue - just understand

 

take a straw an blow through it as hard as you can. Then take a a big funnel and do the same. Which has more pressure? The larger the space, with the same level of air being blown through it, the lower the pressure will be.

 

To answer your first question ( I know I did it backwards), you need an intercooler with more surface area to cool the more air going through the intake system when you are running more boost. The more boost, the more pressure going through the system, you need that extra surfacce area of cooling material to cool more air. Does that make sense?

 

also, the air would have to travel a further distance, and through more bends, all of which will slow it down, and decrease the pressure. if you have two identical turbocharged cars boosting the same, and then add an intercooler to one without changing anything else, the intercooled car will be slower and have less boost. the intercooler allows the boost to be turned up higher, but to get gains from an intercooler the boost must be turned up at least high enough to overcome the pressure loss. you would have to run a lot of boost to make your proposed setup efficient, and there would be other places that would need to be seriously upgraded to handle that ammount of boost. not to mention the added weight of another ic. in summary, intercoolers do not make power themselves, but allow more power to be made safely.

 

Compared to the 3 other Z forums I'm a member of, I like the knowledge on this forum. You guys aren't ignorant with this question like TT.NET, and you're not f*cking stupid about it like 3ZC (or ChicagoZ).

but I'm gonna give it a tt.net response anyway =P

FMIC's are for ricers, stick with SMIC's. Front mounts eliminate the natural cross-flow design of the 300ZX, and SMIC's will do more than enough. FMIC's also decrease airflow to your oil cooler, radiator, and intake.

Also, when the big supercar companies turbocharge cars, what kind of intercoolers do they use? Lambo, Porsche, Ferrari, and Bugatti all use side mount intercoolers in their turbo applications. Who uses front mount intercoolers? Dodge and Mitsubishi. Who are you gonna trust?

 

Why, Zdriver thanks you for your compliments!

 

thank you. thats why i rarely visit other forums. i hate having to sift through 10 pages of bullsh!t to get a little useful info. yeah, we get a little offtopic every now and then, but i think that just makes it a friendlier place. and very rarely is there ever a flame war here. sorry for the o/t.

 

I'll speak up a little. There's a whole bunch more knowledge here on turbos and i/c's than what I have but: The purpose of the i/c is to cool the air charge going into the motor after it goes thru the turbo. It's a balancing act tho, there's a point where the benefit of cooling the air is lost. Main point #1 is the distance that the air has to travel from the turbos to the combustion chambers. Not only does the distance in length contribute to turbo lag, but the fact that that extra volume of air takes more time to build up pressure (boost). Point #2: The pressure drop issue is kind of the same. Maybe you don't add length, but with each point in the system where you have a pressure drop, you also build pressure back up as the air is squeezed back into the next tube. This re-squeezing of the air causes it to slow down, further contributing to lag times. Also, re-squeezing it back into the next tube causes it to heat back up a little.

IMHO, the best i/c is a air-to-liquid type because you can build it into your car where you want within the shortest path from the turbo to the throttle body. It doesn't have to be out in front of the car. I only say this from the perspective of building my own a-to-l i/c.

I'm trying not to ramble.... but I figured I'd contribute a little.

 

That's the part I was missing - thanks!

The car I bought already had a FMIC installed, and based on all the negativity I've seen about the front mounts, I was thinking about buying some stock ICs. Then, if I was gonna do that, I thought, maybe double (oractually triple) them up.

Then again, I'm already running T28s with enough lag that I don't want any more

Thanks again to everyone who replied!

 

Let's make a comparison,.....what you're talking about doing would be similar to taking a 1972 Ford Pinto (stock) and putting 315's on the rear wheels. It's a total overkill and way more work than it's worth.

 

LOL..... I saw a yellow Pinto today. It looked to be in pristine condition. When I see them, I automatically think 289 v8.

 

strange... when I see Pinto's, I automatically think "fireball." ;p

 

I remeber in college I had to prepare a dabate to defend Ford in their decision to not replace the gas tanks or at least a rubber bladder inside the gas tanks of those exploding Pintos.

 

I wouldn't blame the gas tank... I blame the flint rear bumper. Rather than try to protect the gas, how about you prevent the spark? (Of course, that ended up being what Ford did, they just started using steel bumpers I believe, but that doesn't change the fact that the ones that were rear ended prior to the bumper replacement normally set on fire)

 

Hey now! Comparing a 300zx TT with a Pinto Stock at that!

 

I wasn't comparing a Z32 TT to a Pinto. Read it again.