Came across articles on fan-forcing intercoolers. Seems just the ticket to get near-FMIC performance out of the standard SMIC for minimal cost and some DIY...

Using a scrappie 1974-79 Volkswagen Kombi cabin blower, as fitted to cars with the Type 4 1700, 1800 or 2000 engines, you can have a massive air flow force-fed through the IC. They give some interesting options on wiring it all up - only on while vehicle stopped, half speed at moving, auto/manual switching., etc. Very clever little write-up....

[EDIT: Links below work...]

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Add in a IC intelligent water sprayer and you're all set for some serious IC improvement: Browser Warning

Pikey mod 3 anyone?

Bas

Some great articles on that site

Hmm bar the water spray I cant see how that could be anything more than a hindrance at speed, blocking forced airflow through the intercooler.

Hmm bar the water spray I cant see how that could be anything more than a hindrance at speed, blocking forced airflow through the intercooler.

Exactly what i was thinking, when pushing it it wont make much difference but when sat in traffic and not really needing it itll work but no benefit. but each to there own.

now i need to drill my arch soon to get some airflow as its getting warm now.

On the basis that as standard there is virtually no airflow anyway, cant see it being all that much worse. I would try to fit the fan in such a way that it mainly blows air over the SMIC from 'above' or 'below' vs fitting the fan in front of the SMIC, which would reduce the impact at speed. That said, at speed I doubt the obstruction would be that bad anyway.

The intelligent spray thing they have does seem like a very nice system though might just have to investigate that one.

On that site - there's some interesting articles on just how IC's work. The main point is that they act as a 'heat sink'. Sucking air through it when stopped as well as running keeps it as cool as possible at all times.

That way when you really need it - just during/after a hard booting, it delivers maximal performance.

At running speeds, the blower runs at half speed, maintaining a good airflow at all times....

I have the intelligent autospray unit - did make a difference with the SMIC. Haven't hooked it up to the Forge FMIC as that is managing fine even in 47 deg temps last summer... Problem is that derv's dont have the triggering pulses from spark plug wires. You have to rig up a WOT switch or a boost switch to use with the controller. Was great fun soldering the circuitboard and seeing it actually work...

I figure someone savvy could source the blower parts for peanuts and rig up a great cheap alternative to a full FMIC. Especially with the ambient air temps in the UK, this should really work well....

Bas

As it was mentioned earlier i can see it being a help in low speed situations, but i'm almost certain that blower cant push anywhere near the amount of air that the car naturally provides at motorway speeds and will just restrict air flow. I can see the advantage of having something like it after a good thrashing, but surely boost temps would be higher than normal if you had that thing on anyway because of the restricted air flow.

My mate ran a rad fan on his locost race car which was fine up to 30 mph, but once in race conditions his car was over heating simply because the fan starting to work as a wind break.