Tippy's harebrained idea....A2W intercoooler conversion Carrera 3.2

[Tippy]

During the time I was looking to add 3" aluminum tubing quick disconnect couplers to the current cast-tank Treadstone air-to-air intercoooler (to make removing and reinstalling a breeze getting rid of silicone hoses and couplers like Turbokraft works of art IC's), I was hitting a wall to make the connection to the factory 3.2 TB location, requiring a lot of aluminum tubing fab work to make all these crazy bends and angles (outlet of IC needs to make a nasty 120* bend).

Bummer....

Disgruntled and poking around the webs, I drifted off into reading about air-to-water intercoolers that I hadn't researched for many, many years. When I read the science behind them, I understood they are much more efficient than A2A (up to 20x's more efficient) and the packaging is much more compact (cores can be much smaller than A2A cores).................and the gears in my head started turning.......hey, I will finally be able to reach all the sparkplugs without removing the IC, I will be able to see the entire motor, etc...........this was a huge motivation for me alone.

I........am.........a.........glutton.........for. ........punishment

So, I ignored my family, my job, and friends to make this happen (ok, not really, but it felt that way). It had consumed my thoughts for weeks. There was so much "engineering" to figure out, but I was determined to make it happen.....

I saw how perfect the packaging would work in our cramped engine compartment, and I knew I needed to make it work. The intercooler configuration and connections went smooth as Barry Whites' voice and literally had it mocked up with various off-the-shelf parts I had lying around in 5 minutes. No joke.
This brought me lots of excitement, but the heat exchanger brought me down to reality, really fast.

This was going to be a lot of engineering, calculating, and dumb luck to make work, and boy was it ever. Trying to orientate the heat exchanger (clearing other components and allowing smooth sweeps of water hose connections) took mocking up dozens of ways and redesigning the brackets to the wing in at least 3 different ways before finding the magic configuration that met all the criteria.

This took a couple of weeks itself........

So, here is my short story and journey implementing an A2W IC (seller claims IC core good to 600 hp and 1200 hp for the heat exchanger - I am skeptical, but will be the guinea pig) into a Carrera 3.2 (3.4).

Behold the bane of my existence......in photos.

P.S. - for the record, I did NOT have to drill, hack, or modify a single part of the car from before. That is a huge success in my book.

Before A2A IC and 1st mockup of A2W IC

[Tippy]

Had to relocate the coilpack from the passenger intake half to the driver. And then I discovered hooking up the idle valve was going to be breeze like it was meant to be. The 3.2 idle valve came up right in a perfect spot in between the intercooler piping and I simply grabbed a 5/8" heater hose with a 90* bend from FLAPS to make the connection. Tube the idle valve is pulling air from shown is a 2-bolt style BOV flange bought off the shelf I simply made a mating plate for and tapped for the 5/8" barb and NPT connection.

[Tippy]

Drilled the 90* silicone coupler and added a 1/2" NPT port, then used a 3/8" NPT to 1/2" NPT bushing to thread in the GM Fast Response Inlet Air Temp sensor.

[Tippy]

1st photo - Side profile shot showing how it will fit under a stock hood. Originally intended to get rid of wing for a sleeper look.
2nd photo - Showing the entire intercooler packaging how it would come off the engine. It is very light, albeit it does not look so.
3rd photo - Made a U-shaped cradle bracket with M10 bolts that eventually is bolted to intake boss (future post)

[Tippy]

3rd attempt at mounting the heat exchanger. This is a 12" x 12" x 2" thick radiator made for a 4-cylinder vehicle.

Here is where this may be genius, or just a pipe dream. The heat exchanger is right above the engine cooling fan, so it is TBD if this will suffice to cool off the radiator or not. I have an electric fan to add if it does not.

Will report back with datalogs from the EFI.

[Tippy]

Here is the intercooler mount I made. The U-shaped bracket is 2" wide, 1/8th" aluminum for lightness while the upright is 1" wide, 1/8" steel for strength.

On Carerra 3.2 intakes, there is an untapped boss I tapped with an M10 bottoming tap in the webbing between cylinders 4 and 5. Worked perfect.

[Tippy]

Just some photos showing the final installation configuration (after weeks and many hours trying to figure out how to make this radiator fit under the wing without hitting anything on top of the motor).

I am very STOKED how this came out. It looks so good to me. What is not shown, is a live well pump (Rule 401) made for fishing boats that puts out 500 GPH of water flow running through the 3/4" heater hoses to the IC and radiator. It's a nice unit that has an impeller design that will allow junk to pass through without trashing the pump (plumbed behind the intercooler out of sight).

Hope it actually works good as I have read (doesn't get heat saturated easily in hot temps), but if it does, will cool off quickly.

Results are TBD, and again, I will report back results as soon as I get it on the road.

If you have made it this far, I plan on changing out all the worm type SS hose clamps on the motor with European smooth hose clamps and the IC hoses will get zinc coated spring clamps not shown in photos. Also, plan on wrapping the water hoses where they contact the wing for abrasion resistance and ensure the hoses tuck nicely as the wing is opened and close.

Remote radiator inline filler cap coming next so I can fill the system with distilled water and Water Wetter at the highest point of the heat exchanger system and start ENJOYING THE CAR AGAIN!

[gsmith660]

Interesting

[Tippy]

Originally Posted by gsmith660

Interesting

Fingers crossed.....

[gsmith660]

You'll get it done

[gsxrken]

Tippy, this is a huge accomplishment! I really dig the ingenuity and execution… does not look like a backyard hack by any means.
Very interested in how it works… do you have pre and post temp sensors?

[Tippy]

Originally Posted by gsxrken

Tippy, this is a huge accomplishment! I really dig the ingenuity and execution… does not look like a backyard hack by any means.
Very interested in how it works… do you have pre and post temp sensors?

Thank you! I don’t have pre and post, but during high-90 degree days recently, using an infrared gun showed 194F at the end of the turbo volute wall and something like 140-150F air (as best as I could read).

The old A2A IC would show around 10-15F over ambient at cruise.

[quattrorunner]

Very exciting. I’ll be watching closely to see how it all works.

[stownsen914]

Nice work and installation, very clean looking. A2W can make for nice cool air charge. One thing I've wondering is with the compact size of the IC, do you wind up sacrificing charge face area? Basically, is there any impact to IC flow.

[Tippy]

Originally Posted by quattrorunner

Very exciting. I’ll be watching closely to see how it all works.

Hoping today I can properly fill with water with the remote inline filler.

Will report back.

[Tippy]

Originally Posted by stownsen914

Nice work and installation, very clean looking. A2W can make for nice cool air charge. One thing I've wondering is with the compact size of the IC, do you wind up sacrificing charge face area? Basically, is there any impact to IC flow.

That’s my thoughts too, but apparently the claim is since there are less passages and “heat sink” material in the flow paths, they lose far less boost than A2A.

I got on it last night (not fully filled with water) and it felt like top end was like before.

[quattrorunner]

I ran water lines up both sides of the car to a front mount(fender mount) radiator. Would be nice to have placed a rad like yours but I'm also adding ac condensers.....

[Tippy]

Originally Posted by quattrorunner

I ran water lines up both sides of the car to a front mount(fender mount) radiator. Would be nice to have placed a rad like yours but I'm also adding ac condensers.....

What size is yours? Was going to do the exact same.

[quattrorunner]

I repurposed a Carrera cooler that I used on another engine that ran a bit hot. I cleaned it out good but we'll have to see if it works well enough. I may need another inline cooler or complete replacement down the road.
Here is my nearly finished install still partially dropped.

[Tippy]

Got it.

I was thinking of using some straight 3/4" aluminum tubing to run down the length of the 964 skirts and then go back to heater hose to make the bends in the wheel wells.

This would provide additional cooling.