Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

Alot of you guys know I am building a low-budget ZC race car, that is hopefully going to be done by spring (yes this year! hah) Its in a million pieces right now, but I thought I might take a few pics of the intercooler setup. I really didn’t want to spend 1000 bucks on the spearco air-water intercooler w/ pump. So I wanted to do my own for a fraction of the price. It may not work as well as the spearco, but I don’t give a ----, if it poses a problem in the future I can always upgrade :)

https://www.homemadeturbo.com/turbo/racezc/saabic.jpg

It first starts off with a factory Saab intercooler, its a perfect size, the core is very thick and appears to flow pretty decently. I picked this up for $20 bucks at a local salvage yard.

https://www.homemadeturbo.com/turbo/racezc/hmic3.jpg
I then took the intercooler to a friend of mine who does great work with aluminum and welds very nice. He basically welded a complete aluminum box all the way around the cooler. I had him chop the inlet/outlet pipes and rotate them so they would be aiming forward.

https://www.homemadeturbo.com/turbo/racezc/hmic.jpg
Here is a side shot, he had some nice aluminum fittings (1/2 inch) that he welded in for the flow off water, 1 at the top and one at the bottom on both sides. He charged me 75 bucks for everything, which I thought was very fair, I had a few quotes around $100-150ish from other places.

https://www.homemadeturbo.com/turbo/racezc/hmic2.jpg
I picked up this inline pump at a boat parts store (boaters world) it flows 3.3gpm and should do just fine. Cost was $75

I still need to get a reservoir tank to hold the water, probably going to get a 1-2 gallon tank. Where am I going to mount this intercooler at? well its going inside the car directly behind the firewall. It seems its going to be the easiest way to do it, since my turbo sits in an odd location.

Pics coming soon of the install....

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

looks good.
really good.

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

says its regulated at 40psi, basically the same thing as the spearco (jabsco) pump.. just flows a bit less gpm.

Jeff

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

yeah i modified my post cause i found out the pump was 120.
but only uses like 3 amps and pumps alotta wata

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

Looks very nice. I wish I knew someone who could weld aluminum that good and cheap.
Make sure you can fit a lot of ice water in the reservoir.

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

looks good Jeff! if you do deside to upgrade that thing will go for tons one ebay! :o

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

Nice!!!! :)
Thats ------- awsome Jeff! Love your low buck 'solutions'.

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

Or I could sell it to beau for 500 ;)

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

"Or I could sell it to beau for 500"

or i could just charge you storage rent ;D


Beau

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

Bah, I am on good graces with grandpa gary 8)

I am getting a nitted sweater baby.. haha

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

dam mr. plumb was right you are like a snake

Beau

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

bump

Sorry, it just deserves some attention :) Looks very very nice! Jeff, have you done any more work on this yet?

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

i have one of them saab cores kicking about, paid £10 for mine though (and twoced an amal valve off another turbo saab for cheap two stage boost)

(btw "twoc" is the uk equivalent of grand theft auto - the criminal conviction, not the game.. taken without owners consent)

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

Neat.
And now I know how a air-water intercooler works :)

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

Looks good. One question though. how does the water cool down, wont it evetually get hot from cooling the air then not do anything at all???

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

It'a a race car. not for cruising

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

Air-water setups are much better than air-air... for cruising or for racing. Most are like 70% or higher cooling efficiency.

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

ya but wouldnt the water be warmed up by the air, unless you run the water through a SECOND rad? keep it even cooler!

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

yes, but for jeff's race car that isnt a concern i guess

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

ya i guess it only has to work for what Jeff, 13, 12? seconds at a time.. lol

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

*cough* 10 sec.. heh, well hopfully

nah its still sitting in the garage.. Just ordered my slicks for the race car..

Jeff

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

very nice ;)

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

here I come with another stupid question that will get ignored: why is it so difficult to weld aluminum? I am assuming that you have to use a different kind of welding stuff, right?

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

its not.. you just need a special welder, or a special type of wire.

Jeff

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

yeah, you just need an arc welder

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

yeah arc welders are just the best thing ever ;D

Anyway, the air-water intercooler does use a second radiator (any good heat exchanger). I've been doing some study on them and they cool very good. If done right, they do alot more than air-air.

Jeff, that should be a 10 second car. I believe you can get in that range. 500 hp in a rex does like 9.5, so it's right in that range :)

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

no pressure jeff


Beau

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

to bad its not a single cam... Single cam gets not love... exsept at my house..

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

back from the dead

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

hey, i like my single cam..

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

dam this post must be on life support to still be alive.

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

I didn't notice this post apparantly before. Wow thats s imply awesome.

Its amazing they charge so much for things that really dont take a whole lot of initiative. I hope all works well, I dont see why it wouldnt.

Would there be a benefit to running an air to air intercooler along with an air/water cooler? If I ever did this I would just hate to lose my FMIC :)

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

Damnn this post died twice and came back to life twice hehehe.....

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

it must be special if its come back to life 2 times. this is actually for sale, if not sold already.

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

it has already been sold

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

couldnt u just custom weld a water tank behind a FMIC and still keep it air-air and also water-air? or is that just way too much work

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

I think Jeff has been through 2 or 3 cars since this post was started and he has sold this setup.
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Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

This post seems to be the "jason"(friday the 13th) of HMT.It wont die ;D

Re:Shots of my Homemade Air-Water Intercooler
 

Goodbye, Goodnite... and I wont see you tommorow..


*LOCKED* :P