Anyone thought about this?
Ive often wondered about using an AC pump to cool an intercooler or charge cooler to get a "17 degree" charge at high ambients?
If this system were used, you could get consistent charge temperatures and subsequently tune to suit?
Just an idea on the table....
This is something that had been rattling around my mind for a while as well..
But when I got down to thinking about it... the drag on the engine from the compressor would have to be greater than the gain from the refrigerated
air I would have thought.... You cant get something for nothing... water misting would be a better solution
quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
This is something that had been rattling around my mind for a while as well..
But when I got down to thinking about it... the drag on the engine from the compressor would have to be greater than the gain from the refrigerated air I would have thought.... You cant get something for nothing... water misting would be a better solution
Not so sure....
You would need a stonking great big compressor to meet the airflow demands of a forced induction engine to get a suitable cooling effect...
quote:
Ford has recently patented an intercooling approach that uses an engine-driven refrigerant system.
quote:I think thats it isnt it.
Originally posted by tegwin
But when I got down to thinking about it... the drag on the engine from the compressor would have to be greater than the gain from the refrigerated air I would have thought....
Aaah! The article explains it. What you need is extra densification of the charge.
This simply wouldn't be viable on a continuous basis, the amount of power absorbed by the compressor and the size and weight of the system would be huge. Trying to provide a constant charge temperature in this way would also mean the engine suffers extra power loss under hotter ambient conditions, just as it would without the system.
but wouldnt it make the engine more predictable given the constant inlet temp?
If the inlet temperature was set to a setpoint, then the ambient wouldnt really matter as the refrigerated system would cool the charge temp
accordingly?
I know there are losses from the aC compressor, but i was thinking along the lines of predictability and ease o tuning etc.
I think the issue is as noted that to maintain that constant temp, you need a greater load on the compressor.
As such, you may be fixing one of the input parameters for mapping (intake temp), but your load starts to vary even when you don't want it to.
Incidentally compressors can run over 100% thermal efficiency (due to the humidity and heat in the ambient air - free energy provided by the sun), so
techincally I suppose you could reap a benefit from this, but I highly doubt this would be tangible.
quote:
Originally posted by dhutch
quote:I think thats it isnt it.
Originally posted by tegwin
But when I got down to thinking about it... the drag on the engine from the compressor would have to be greater than the gain from the refrigerated air I would have thought....
