Loco Honkey
Banned
Well guys 'n gals, my upcoming move across the country has prompted me to consider several mods that will help keep the car running, ie- more reliable. One of such mods is an intercooler water sprayer.
I bought 20' of 1/8" ID clear rubber hose, two tees, and 1' of 1/8" ID copper pipe. I already had a pump motor- a spare windishield squirter pump left over from my Honda days, and for a resivoir tank, I used a plastic one gallon gas can.
Here's the resivoir tank, strapped down in my trunk with a coat hanger bent to fit. Don't laugh. It's cheap and it works.
Here's the view of the inside of the hood scoop openting. You can see the hoses and nozzles. There's a rubber gasket that bolts to the hood and rests on the IC when the hood is closed to make an air tight seal. I cut small slits in this gasket and pushed the nozzles through.
Here's a close up of a nozzle. Basically, it's a copper pipe with the end crimped almost closed. I tried about ten times to get them to fan the spray, but it just wasn't happening. They spray, but it's a straight stream, and doing so, wouldn't get the whole IC wet... just three 1" wide strips. So, I bent the pipe some and pointed them up so they spray against the top of the hood scoop. This disperses the water pretty evenly over the whole IC.
Here's the switch to activate the pump. It's the green one. I also have a boost gauge coming tomorrow to round out my cluster.
Driving impressions...
I took a drive up a mountain road so I could get the engine bay good 'n hot. Heat soak set in like it always did. I flipped the switch and within about 10 seconds, noticed a remarkable improvement. Not like, "holy shit!" improvement, but I'd say about 15 HP, plus quicker spool, and the best part- power above 5K. It's still essentially a stock car power- wise, and the turbo just runs out of wind above 5K. Now, it keeps pulling up to 7K. Yay! Throttle response is also improved, and in general, it's just easier to drive. It works good at sub- 40 MPH speeds, and works even better above 60 MPH when there's a good ammount of air going through the scoop. The gallon of water lasted about 10 minutes.
DEFINETLY worth the $7, and I have a feeling that from now on, all my serious turbo projects are going to have IC sprayers.
I bought 20' of 1/8" ID clear rubber hose, two tees, and 1' of 1/8" ID copper pipe. I already had a pump motor- a spare windishield squirter pump left over from my Honda days, and for a resivoir tank, I used a plastic one gallon gas can.
Here's the resivoir tank, strapped down in my trunk with a coat hanger bent to fit. Don't laugh. It's cheap and it works.
Here's the view of the inside of the hood scoop openting. You can see the hoses and nozzles. There's a rubber gasket that bolts to the hood and rests on the IC when the hood is closed to make an air tight seal. I cut small slits in this gasket and pushed the nozzles through.
Here's a close up of a nozzle. Basically, it's a copper pipe with the end crimped almost closed. I tried about ten times to get them to fan the spray, but it just wasn't happening. They spray, but it's a straight stream, and doing so, wouldn't get the whole IC wet... just three 1" wide strips. So, I bent the pipe some and pointed them up so they spray against the top of the hood scoop. This disperses the water pretty evenly over the whole IC.
Here's the switch to activate the pump. It's the green one. I also have a boost gauge coming tomorrow to round out my cluster.
Driving impressions...
I took a drive up a mountain road so I could get the engine bay good 'n hot. Heat soak set in like it always did. I flipped the switch and within about 10 seconds, noticed a remarkable improvement. Not like, "holy shit!" improvement, but I'd say about 15 HP, plus quicker spool, and the best part- power above 5K. It's still essentially a stock car power- wise, and the turbo just runs out of wind above 5K. Now, it keeps pulling up to 7K. Yay! Throttle response is also improved, and in general, it's just easier to drive. It works good at sub- 40 MPH speeds, and works even better above 60 MPH when there's a good ammount of air going through the scoop. The gallon of water lasted about 10 minutes.
DEFINETLY worth the $7, and I have a feeling that from now on, all my serious turbo projects are going to have IC sprayers.