Diy Charge Cooling And Tidy Up Project

[Phil.S]

Well winter has come and I have decided to lay the car up and do my charge cooling project. After doing a few trackdays and a bit of road driving with the T series you really can't knock it. Its fast, reliable and esuprisingly economical so I think i'm going to keep it in there for the time being. the biggest problem with it so far is the heat build up from the turbo on full boost during trackdays. It hasn't caused any problems really but to me its just too hot for comfort.

 

The main reason I want to fit a charge cooler is that I can then move the intercooler out of the passenger side air scoop and get some more cool air into the engine bay. This also allows me to make some modifications to my current install that will make it better and neater in the long run.

 

So here we go as you can see its very cluttered in this area:

 

 

So I stripped it all out!

 

 

while I was doing this I remembered that I needed to fit the blue elise temp sender. I've been using the T series sender directly to the stack but I think (hope) it uses a different range as the readings are odd such as the fans turning on at 60 degrees etc! We will see next time she powers up. I just drilled and tapped the T piece for the electric water pump temperature probe. Job done:

 

 

Next thing was to actually see what charge cooler I could actually get in here! Its a bit tight. After HOURS of trawling the internet I came across an inline type frome the states which I am currently waiting on like this:

 

 

This should fit nicely into the engine bay like this:

 

 

I can then move the header tank out of the way and drop the water pump down nearer the chassis rail. this then opens up the space underneath the charge cooler for airflow and general access which is a good thing! I'll update this thread as I go.

[mambosasa]

For ever the innovator. Good on you Sir. Lots of pictures please.

 

Best of luck!

[Gary ZBJ]

Agreed re the innovator, doubt I will ever got further than an induction kit or new manifold/exhaust (although very tempted by the Duratec options)

 

As with others, like living vicariously through those that do.

 

Gary

[Martin R]

Phil you are a star. Im going to enjoy following this

[Phil.S]

It's here! Well it has finally showed up from the US of A and with the import duty worked out at £160 delivered. It isn't what you would call a 'beautiful' piece of engineering bit it's there to do a job at the end of the day. Aslo for that sort of money you just can't go wrong (hopefullly):

 

 

I was torn between getting this one and a larger one at the same price but went for this one as it took up less engine bay space and I reckon should be good for up to 300BHP (using calculations form other manufacturers). I doubt I'll ever see 300BHP from the engine as I'd need forged pistons and don't want to spend that sort of cash.

 

So cable tied into the angine bay now looks a bit like this:

 

 

Just need to get some silicone hose ordered to join it all up and I'm there! Hoping for a fiat cinquecento radiator for my birthday next week (heavy hints dropped to the wife) and this can go up front to cool the charge cooler water down.

Happy days.

[Phil.S]

Well thought I'd do a quick update seen as its boxing day. Merry christmas BTW!

 

I haven't made a great deal of progress on the car itself however I have managed to collect a lot of the parts by asking members of my family and santa for practically all the bits to finish the job. Having a birthdy 2 weeks before christmas is very useful when you need silicone hose too! So here i my inventory so far:

 

 

So I have:

 

- A whole load of silicone hose to connect it all together (This is silly money but managed to get most of it as gifts (Thank you family!))

- Neoprene hose to move the air filter behind the wheelarch like the audi conversions

- A fiat cinquecento rad to go up the front to cool the CC water down. This was £25 quid brand new and is used by MR2 boys for their CC installations. No idea if it will fit yet but looks hopeful.

- An electric water pump to circulate the water. This is from the Audi turbos that have the coolant circulated around when the engine's off. £40

- A header tank of ebay for the CC water loop. The cheapes I could fnd (of course) £30

- Some hose joiners

- Also got a rev limiter with launch control to fit. I dont really need this but when you press the launch control button the sound the engine makes popping and banging is simply . Very maccy D's hehe.

 

So all I need to get now is some rubber hose to run from the back to the front and some ally for brackets etc.

 

Hoping to make some decent progress during the break

[mambosasa]

You are da man Phil! How are you intending to feed the pipes from the back to the front of the car? I also can't wait to see where you mount the Fiat rad - it's already pretty tight at the front.

 

I am reading with total excitement.

 

Keep it up.

 

Bis.

 

Oh, Happy Birthday!

[Phil.S]

Cheers Bis. I reckon the pipes should run down the sills like the other coolant pipes.

[Phil.S]

Today was a good day. I've got loads done!

 

First of all was to make a bracket for the water pump as it has been relocated. The trouble with making aluminium brackets is that you need to weld them together which requires quite a bit of skill and an expensive TIG welder. I only have access to a MIG so when I saw easyweld mentioned over on SELOC I nearly fell over. Basically its a method of braizing aluminium. So I invested and was able to make my water pump bracket. Its not easy but after a bit of practice its rather good! The finished joins look like this:

 

 

The finished bracket:

 

 

I then glued this to the bulkhead with Sikaflex and mounted the pump to it:

 

 

 

Job Done! Next up was to relocate the coil somewhere seen as I was losing the mounting bracket for it (the new pipework runs straight through it). There were two spare holes in the cylinder head so I used these:

 

 

 

 

Done!

 

Next job was to make a bracket to support the charge cooler. Once again easyweld came to the rescue and I ended up with this:

 

 

 

This worked out great as I could pick up from the header tank mount and the coolant hose also misses it:

 

 

Another job done! Next I joined up the coolant hoses and clamped all the boost hoses around the charge cooler up:

 

 

 

Then worked out how to turn 180 degrees back to the throttle body which I could quite handily use the dump valve T for:

 

 

This sits under the wheel arch and with a 45 degree bend I had joins up with the throttle body just fine:

 

 

 

Excellent. well thats it I have ran out of time and hose clips.

[Martin R]

Fantastic Phil. I presume the charge cooler rad is going at the front ? Have you considered one a similar size to the 160 / 190 set up ? They fit at the front under the rad on a cross member.

 

Edit, they are oil coolers but you know what i mean

[Phil.S]

I havent seen that Martin? I reckon the fiat rad should fit underneath the main one with some bracketry! There are my options like air con rads and oil coolers but aparently proper car rds are more effective hence my decision to use the fiat rad. I wedged a cardboard mockup in there before I bought it so fingers crossed.....

[Martin R]

Phil, got to be worth a try. I would be concerned at the airflow it may stop to the normal rad. It might / might not make a difference. I would take a pic of the oil cooler rad but i cant at the moment as its in bits at the back and on axel stands.

[Phil.S]

You know I think it should be OK Martin. I did a callout to the Audi Turbo owners on SELOC and they have CC rads mounted directly underneath the main one. These were a bit bigger than the one I have and covered the entire area of the main one. I think the main issue in their minds was heat soak from the main rad into the CC rad. No mention of engine cooling problems. Some guy reckoned mounting it in the opening at the front was beter but the majority had theirs directly underneath the main one.

[Martin R]

In that case buy a spare K series rad and bolt the 2 together Im sure ther is enough room as they have a great big wedge of foam underneath to stop them rattling about.

[Phil.S]

Ahh. I like your thinking! I am a front clam removal virgin as of now!!!