Where would you mount an intercooler

[garef001]

So I've been talking to a company that's making a supercharger kit for the atom. The kit runs rotrex supercharger. I've been asked to find out where most owners would like the Intercooler and oil cooler. So they say that behind the roll bar does not get that much air flow and they are recommending to put it in front of the wheel in some kind of pod/enclosure like the 3s/3.5.
The advantage of mounting it behind the roll bar is a much easier and cleaner install. It can be made to work efficiently enough.
So what would you guys want?

[Terry Kennedy]

So they say that behind the roll bar does not get that much air flow and they are recommending to put it in front of the wheel in some kind of pod/enclosure like the 3s/3.5.

The problem is that there is a lot of road debris thrown up by the front wheels which tends to end up either hitting the rear fenders or getting into any pods mounted down there.

I believe a number of people here have the Unique Fabricating hoop intercooler. Perhaps one of them can tell you what sort of temperature differences they see between it and the stock LSJ intercooler. Even if you're looking at this for a non-Brammo car, that should give you an idea of how [in]efficient the hoop location might be.

[bolus]

I have a hoop mounted intercooler with a heat dispersant coating for my turbo. Its been a while, but I dont think I saw over 90F intake temps while running multiple back to back dyno runs (therefore no airflow other than a fan at the front of the car).

[Atommatt]

I like to see a video of your dyno pulls Please

[Atommatt]

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/...ps130d653c.png

I went with water/air cooler for my turbo set up.

[McFred]

I too think that an air/water heat exchanger might be the better option given the poor aero qualities of the Atom. Otherwise I'd get a pile of 2" lengths of yarn and a video camera and test where the air flow is advantageous for an air/air exchange and find a way to put it in 'clean' air.

Putting an oversized 40lb passive exchanger off the back end like Fastbuck and DDM setups, I think is a bad idea given it's location and really poor air flow, not to mention the overall volume of the intake tract's effect on throttle response.

Depending on your intended power levels it might be possible to forego a heat exchanger all together in favor of a compact methanol injection system.

[cvjoint]

Cool thread. I hope you don't mind I bring it back.

I have some input based on tracking the supercharged C7 Z for over 2 years.
1. Even if the intercooler HE is a relatively inefficient design, when used on track (eg. HPDE) it only takes 2 minutes for the charge air to get to just within 20* of ambient. The high speeds that are achieved consistently on track are a godsend for cooling the charge air. I'd say in most cases this isn't an issue and folks should use larger better positioned HE to cool down water or oil instead.
2. Aluminum HEs with welded end tanks tend to crack, even the best of the best. As I understand it, it arises out of uneven rates of expansion. Putting the HE in the back end where it is exposed to exhaust heat in some areas but not others seems like a really really bad idea to me.
3. I see the hoop location refereed to as a relatively poor choice. I don't see why that is. The size of the HE is likely just a bit smaller than the sidepod but the airflow is ideal, on par with main radiator location. Once you add some screens to keep shrapnel out of the sidepod HEs you get even less flow.
4. The hoop location benefits from ram air effects if left for use as an intake tract instead and the HE is used elsewhere. Famously, the new 911 GT3 makes 20hp at top speed due to ram air.
5. Air to water IC circuits have downsides. The pump can cavitate, shut down for a while and fail to circulate water. Air bubbles can make it cavitate which exist sometimes due to poor design or poor fill. It's also a heavier system.

Overall I'd say the back end location is terrible for HE's. Yes you get a large crossection for the HE but the airflow is poor and your custom aluminum radiator will likely crack easily. Hoop and sidepod are just as good given airflow and size limitations of both. The hoop will get less debris. I can see people going for either. I'm leaning towards using the hoop for a supercharge HE. The SRA has plenty of water and oil cooling and water cooling can be expanded with the horizontal radiator. The top mounted intercooler HE will not get dented, will get plenty of airflow on track, and ram air effects are small (meaning you don't loose much by not having the intake in the hoop instead) at the speeds Atoms can get to, especially on closed circuits.

[cvjoint]

Changing my answer based on whether a windshield will be used.

Atoms with windshield will probably block a lot of the air from the hoop mounted IC, in which case the pods start looking more attractive. I think it's a bit of a bummer the Ariel pods are not much bigger than the hoop. You'd think that by going with a pod you get higher crossection but I suppose they built them for 350hp and to not bring the car waistline any wider than the skinny rear wheels.

Full custom I think the sky is the limit with pods a la F1.

[shwagon]

The pods on the Atom 3S are killer IMO!