[M4TW]

I found that spritzing cold water on the IC (through the grill) b4 a 1/4 mile run seems to help. I see people throwing ice on their superchargers between runs but I haven't seen anyone wetting their FMIC like this.

What do you guys think, performance or placebo?

[sd390r]

get that office cleaner dust spray... turn the can upside down and spray it on your intercooler before a 1/4 run... will only last a minute or two but is said to work

[longodj]

http://www.designengineering.com/pro...asp?m=sp&pid=5

[M4TW]

In at least one land speed record attempt, Gale Banks used nitrous oxide, not internally as a power-adder, but as the medium into which the heat was transferred from the charge air. The nitrous oxide was held in bottles and released through the intercoolers' cooling fins and exhausted directly to the atmosphere. Extra cooling by nitrous oxide spraying on the front of the intercooler is now a related commercially available upgrade.

Extra cooling of the charge air can be achieved also by externally spraying water on the front of the intercooler. This can be activated automatically or manually, and is far cheaper to refill than nitrous oxide.

My simple theory is that spraying the FMIC with water before a run helps the cooling efficiency of the FMIC's fins. It's not a track racing solution as the water would dry in a hurry, but I think it works for the couple of minutes you wait in the staging lane and the seconds needed to run the 1/4.

[nicknaz]

Originally Posted by Sparkplug

What do you guys think, performance or placebo?

I used to place ice on the top mount intercooler in my WRX in between HPDE sessions, mostly to try and fight off the heat soak as long as possible.

Personally, I think the 'gain' is really just preventing power loss from heat (in the case of the WRX, the ECU would pull timing as the IC got heat soaked to prevent detonation)

[335TrackAddict]

Ask and ye shall receive.

I've installed a misting system on my 335i for road course usage. It involves the Arizona Mist "cooling system" along with a 150psi Shurflo pump (same one used on meth injection systems).

It is not an easy project. There is nary a place to mount the pump so I had to make a metal bracket and install it on the driver's side bumper. Basically where the oil cooler would be, if there was one on the driver's side. Then the reservoir was just jammed in the engine compartment and zip tied.

It is activated via pushbutton right now. I wanted to test it before getting too fancy. Two nozzles on the IC, four on the radiator and one on the oil cooler. You can calculate water usage by the nozzle specs and I sized the water tank to accommodate a 30 minute session, assuming 30% use.

The test involved running a 20 minute track session with half of the session without spray followed by 1/2 with spray. The misting lowered the intake air temps by about 15-20 degrees. Coolant dropped by about 10 degrees and oil dropped by less. This was all done with misting on the straights.

The key is that you need to make sure that you aren't dousing the IC.

Ever notice how it's quick to get water to boil but takes a while to evaporate it all? That's because it takes a ton more energy to convert water into steam. If you are just dumping water on the IC and it just runs off, the system will be less effective AND you will piss off your trackmates. You want it to MIST and instantly evaporate. Water's latent heat of evaporation (amount of heat to evaporate known quantity of water) is one of the highest out there.

So it works...but it ain't easy.

[nicknaz]

Originally Posted by 335TrackAddict

The misting lowered the intake air temps by about 15-20 degrees. Coolant dropped by about 10 degrees and oil dropped by less.

Awesome, thanks for the info. Are you able to pull out timing advance from your logs as well?

[335TrackAddict]

Yes. As is obvious, when IATs went down, timing advance wasn't retarded nearly as much.

[nicknaz]

Originally Posted by 335TrackAddict

Yes. As is obvious, when IATs went down, timing advance wasn't retarded nearly as much.

Right.

I wanted to know if timing as ADDED as a result of this cooling. I'm trying to validate my hypothesis that "the 'gain' (of cooling the IC)is really just preventing power loss from heat "

[335TrackAddict]

Originally Posted by Nick Nazareno

Right.

I wanted to know if timing as ADDED as a result of this cooling. I'm trying to validate my hypothesis that "the 'gain' (of cooling the IC)is really just preventing power loss from heat "

Well being that I only hit the button during long straights, after trackout, I was only mitigating temperature rise.

Because of that, it was mitigating the timing retard. In other words, not dialing back timing as much.

If the IC makes it cooler than stock, perhaps it'll advance timing beyond the baseline. But I surmise it just mitigates temp rise like my spray system, therefore just mitigates timing retard.

Not sure I understand your question.

[nicknaz]

Originally Posted by 335TrackAddict

Not sure I understand your question.

your last post answered it thanks

[Chowbow]

Anybody with the cold weather package thought about retrofitting the headlight washers as IC / oil cooler misters? Would require a momentary switch of some sort to activate them and not the windshield washer, but I can't imagine that being a gigantic feat of engineering...

I always wanted to tackle that project but I don't do enough 1/4 mile or HPDE stuff to really give it a go.

[leftcoastman]

Originally Posted by Chowbow

Anybody with the cold weather package thought about retrofitting the headlight washers as IC / oil cooler misters? Would require a momentary switch of some sort to activate them and not the windshield washer, but I can't imagine that being a gigantic feat of engineering...

I always wanted to tackle that project but I don't do enough 1/4 mile or HPDE stuff to really give it a go.

You would need higher pressure to make it atomize correctly. As 335TrackAddict said, you can't just dump water on it.