cooling the fat man

[juanbenae]

at a recent event i saw a car that used the window naca duct cooling scheme ive attached photos of my duplication efforts below. i needed to replace the cracked quarter window already and was planning to use it for a yet to be purchased new helmet that will have a air inlet deal so i will try this in the interim.





i spoke with the driver of the car that i saw this example and he said it worked well. what im wondering is what do you guys think. i recognize the HANS will likely obstruct air blowing directly into the back of my lid. but i was wondering your thoughts on the cabin pressure entering the driver's window will negate any air velocity from the scat tube? you may notice i terminated it with a ABS pipe coupling to maintain the integrity of the tube while fastening it to the belt strap with some zip ties. will set it so when the belts are tight it snugs the outlet right up to the belt passage at the seat.


thoughts???

[KTL]

You got a Cool Shirt? You can't beat that for effectiveness. Just buy the shirt and build your own cooler.

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by KTL

You got a Cool Shirt? You can't beat that for effectiveness. Just buy the shirt and build your own cooler.

funny you should ask... i use what ive termed "a laborer's" cool suit.. ive got some of those sheets you freeze to wear with a neoprene type vest for cooling (search amazon). i used an old, skimpy nylon traffic vest that i had strips of Velcro sewn to that the frozen sheets adhere to. i put it on just before i suit up and it works well, usually melting at, or near the close of a 30 minute sprint race. it only works because of the freezer in the motorhome. the boys from JWE love it always asking if & when i have it on....

i can beat the price..... more time & imagination than money k-man.....

[KTL]

Beauty of the cool shirt/cooler is no motorhome required. All you need is some shade (easier said than done in CA?) and some ice from the track concession area to keep your Coors Light cool & keep your bag of ice from melting too much.

Plus you can manually switch the cooling effect on & off as desired. And you can use as big of a cooler as you're willing to throw in the car!

Edit........... your cooling hose is a good choice. The NACA duct is way better at shooting air to you than a fan can do. You need a pretty 'spensive fan to push a heavy amount of air thru that SCAT hose, especially if its got some bends in it.

Also think about tapping into that NACA duct for a helmet hose. I hear the helmet hose does wonders for keeping you cool. Just gotta have someone show you how to nicely graft a hose fitting onto your helmet.

[Tom W]

Toby has the most inspired cool suit I've ever seen. His ingenuity it getting the most bang for his buck is unsurpassed.

I do want to hear how the NACA duct works - If I ply you with beer will you tell me?

[924RACR]

The blowers are actually pretty cheap - they're just bilge vent ducted fans from the boating store. Maybe $40 ea. Also work great for defrost if needed.

Another suggestion: add a filter to your setup. That can suck in dusty air. In our 924, we have a fresh air blower set to blow right in the driver's face for cooling - it's my wife, she overheats easy, and can't run visor-down anyway due to claustrophobia. So fresh air from the window area gets pumped at her face and neck at high velocity, does wonders for keeping her cool (along with the coolshirt). Unless she spins out into the gravel or dirt! Then she comes in needing a bath... LOL

So we'll be nabbing the toe out of some old pantyhose and zip-tieing it over the intake to the fan, to catch the funk before it get in the driver's face... or in your case, down the back of the neck!! LOL

Note, of course, that cool air to the neck is almost more important than the face, due to carotid artery cooling...

[Mahler9th]

Toby:

Back in 2006 most drivers in PRC did not use cool suits. Then we had an event with NASA at Fernley (the only one we have ever had). Testing Friday and the usual Saturday and Sunday. Ambient was 105-110 all three days. No A/C or ameneties. Just a garden hose.

Mat showed up with a cool shirt system.

What we learned from that event was not to drive when it is that hot (we lost 2-3 engines from thermal issues at the next event... I cracked a cylinder head), and that the cool shirt system is worth it if for no other reason than the much lowered accumulation of heat stress-related feelings at the end of the day. At the next event, several of us has cool shirt systems. Herd mentality.

Mine is just sitting, so you are welcome to give it a try! Easy to install and see what it might do for you. I am happy to get it to you this week if you want to go for it.

As for your current attempt at driver cooling, I think it is clever as usual. But I think you will see a much less benefit than from a cool shirt system.

[962porsche]

we have cooled driver in many ways .
a cool suit is a great way . but you do not always want that much cooling .
on one of the cars we also use the double NACA duct one to the helmet and one to the drivers torso with a small blower motor pushing the air .
ducting in from the QTR glass that was replaced with lexan .
on another car we replaced the vent window in the door with lexan and installed a NACA duct there .

with some cars like the 962 there is no place to duct air on from with out ruining the air flow over the car so I will only use a cool suit for that .
when a cool suit stops pumping cool water you will over heat real quickly .
3 events ago this happened to me with a little piece of plastic from the bag of ice that ended up in the cooler and got sucked into the pump .

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by Tom W

Toby has the most inspired cool suit I've ever seen. His ingenuity it getting the most bang for his buck is unsurpassed.

I do want to hear how the NACA duct works - If I ply you with beer will you tell me?

thanks for the kind words tom. ive never been called cheap so eloquently... AND, i'll blow in your ear anytime for a beer....

mike, thank you for the generous offer to use the cool suit. i will skip the TH event this weekend as my pops will not go there this time of year. so, no motorhome, additional $$ for lodging & food, the overall discomfort of the place this time of year and the wear & tear on the car. i also have not driven the new portion of thunder hill yet, and i don't want to get laps under my belt during a race weekend.

see you both in sept at sears!

[TimT]

I have a similar set up in my 911, I have the hose zip tied to one of the overhead bars and aimed at my face.

Well the car sat out uncovered one night and it rained most of the night.

So I go out on the track, when I get up to speed, I start to get blasted in the face with water out of the cooling hose.. apparently some rainwater entered through the NACA duct and collected at the low point in the hose... and just laid in wait to blast the unsuspecting driver..

Oh yea, m car doesn't have door windows, so I got a wet ass every time I went out that day...

[KTL]

Also use your time & no money to develop a cooling hose from the cowl vent beneath the windshield? That sucker collects a ton of air. You can cut up the old Behr airbox assembly and use it to direct a hose to you?

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by KTL

Also use your time & no money to develop a cooling hose from the cowl vent beneath the windshield? That sucker collects a ton of air. You can cut up the old Behr airbox assembly and use it to direct a hose to you?

got that covered K-Man!!

the plunge!


approx. post 65-66..... shop vac attachment.

i too have had water from washing the car enter the cowl inlet i note above after id removed the drain i allude to in the plunge thread linked above. worse yet than your story was the water that blew in my face was all rusty from sitting in the scat tube for a couple weeks. got it dried out, then the next event i was covered with rusty dust from the rusting of the scat wire.... R&D is required for most of my projects..

[KTL]

Well then you just need to lose some #$@%in' weight man...........

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by KTL

Well then you just need to lose some #$@%in' weight man...........

BOOM! yeah, the car is near as light as a spec racer car should be until i climb into the seat.... then im 75 lbs over minimum...

[KTL]

Put keep eating those Cheetos and you're giving away 7.5 HP (legend has it every 100 lbs is worth 10 hp)

[campbellcj]

Originally Posted by KTL

Also use your time & no money to develop a cooling hose from the cowl vent beneath the windshield? That sucker collects a ton of air. You can cut up the old Behr airbox assembly and use it to direct a hose to you?

This is my plan, still incomplete though. I have a NACA duct with split outlets for hose connections that fits nicely under the (914) cowl vent, and also 12VDC inline blower fans. I just need to hook it all up and test.

Thanks for the tip above about some sort of debris filter. I had not thought of that and surely would have gotten sprayed with sand and rubber before I learned from trial-and-error.

I'll be due for a new helmet (and belts, and probably suit) next year and will probably get one with an air inlet.

[juanbenae]

to finish this thought a final set up pic is below. I snugged up my belts, then had a trusted team member cinch up the zip ties so it dumped directly into the beelt hole in the seat. im happy to report that during warm & qualifying at the last two events of the year I actually caught a chill from the cold air blowing up the back of my bucket!! as the air temp rose later in the day both weekends it was not as noticeable, but I trust the volume of air moving over the nugget was improved.




I will be taking this set up down since I have gotten a new lid with a top air vent deal. I've got some 1" scat tube I will be installing to tie into the helmet inlet. I got enough to put a 6-7" loop in to mimic a drip loop on exterior electrical lines. the thought is that if the naca duct collects some **** it will possibly settle in the bottom of the loop not being pushed directly into the helmet. thoughts?

if not familiar with a drip loop, check the illuminated street signs on a traffic signal near ya. you'll see the line that comes from the pole is drooped down before entering the sign frame. this helps in water running away from both conduit perforations. there

t

[KTL]

The loop will kill the airflow. You want the duct path to be as straight as possible. Buddy cstreit was playing with his helmet duct at an event earlier this year and we were trying to get better flow with a fan-blown duct setup being helped by pointing the inlet side of the fan out the door window opening. Point being is that the fan-less setup is challenged as it is with its air path. Don't introduce a loop just to avoid some clag getting to your noggin!