Carbon Dioxide Sprayer

[Guest]

Just an idea here, I won't be doing it myself straight away but may prove useful to someone.

When I had my front bar off I noticed on the passenger side that there is a nice big threaded bolt there with absolutely nothing around it. On the driver's side you have the window washer bottle taking up the whole space so I got to thinking, what could you put there? It's the size of a 3 litre juice container I guess, and that bolt looks like it could hold a fair amount of weight, it's about 10mm across?

Having joked with a mate the power steering cooler looks like a CO2 sprayer I thought... Why not? There is a big spot for a container, you just need a nozzle to fill it, it's right next to where the sprayer needs to be for your intercooler, and it's all easily workable when you have the bar off.

So has anyone done anything like this with the big empty space? I was thinking CO2 instead of water, but it would be setup the same way. Reservoir, pump and some basic plumbing.

The reason for my thoughts is that I know Subaru have a system that only sprays when intake charges get over a certain temperature, and instead of forking out maybe $500 or more for a bigger intercooler with all custom work and pipes maybe a sprayer system on the standard intercooler for those warmer days of the year would be an in between alternative, and maybe 1/5th the price.

I know a bigger intercooler is the better, permanent solution, but for guys whos ONLY mod is a manual boost controller this may help keep temps down a little so the factory ECU doesn't go nuts.

 

[Guest]

you've been watching too much FATF.

i think the price to set it up would outweigh a larger intercooler, especially with the price of china cores, and the relatively easy piping.

 

[Fred]

10 pts for the idea

 

[hawks]

I remember a creative bloke a few years ago that had a Hyundai S-Coupe Turbo (factory turbo).

He came up with the idea of disconnecting his air con and re-routing it through a custom made chiller box that housed his air filter.

The idea was there, but the benifits of the cool air failed to make up for the power loss caused by turning on the air con compressor.

 

[Fred]

Hahaha....didn't realize how much pwr A/C used...eispecially in a 4 cyl.....

 

[SiliconAngel]

Its not an ENTIRELY useless idea... You can run a compressor / fan / pump or whatever off electric power, which won't put extra pressure on the engine. If you're running too many things, of course, you'll flatten your battery, so its probably only useful for short bursts. Its something extreme performance guys play around with, with varying results. Depends what you really want to do with the car, I guess

 

[Guest]

Yeah I meant an electric pump sorry so there's no power drain.

The main reason you'd use it is for heat soak, so it's useful more for drag racing or for short bursts of full throttle fun where there may not be adequate air flow through the intercooler. I think maybe that's why Subaru use it because of the top mount layout which is prone to heat soak in every day traffic. Imagine sitting still for 5 minutes while your intercooler turns into a toaster, then when you finally get to move you're so angry you just mash the throttle to watch intake temperatures soar and possibly detonate and kill your engine... Not fun! Cheap insurance for Subaru against the dummy factor of "I should be able to drive my car however I want and not blow up". They ARE Subaru drivers after all...

I have actually seen full CO2 "kits" which have a fuel line cooler, an intake box cooler and an intercooler sprayer, so the theory is your fuel is cooler, intake charge (pre turbo) is cooler, then obviously the sprayer. From what I've heard the performance gain from the first two is minimal, but if you've ever blasted a fire extinguisher on your hand you'd know how cold CO2 is.

It was just an idea to use up that empty space. Explains why some guys relocate their battery down there! In the interests of not having a dud thread, I'll see if I can find links to some of the kits I have seen in my internet travels.

 

[Murph]

For a dedicated drag car, sure, go for it. For a street car, forget it. The cost would far outweigh the benefit.

Those who are saying running compressors etc from electric power with no power drain on your motor, where do you think that electric power comes from? It comes from you motor and with much lower efficiency than directly driving it off the motor. It'd only be any good if you were running it only off the battery for short bursts, i.e. drags. The complexity and weight of such setups totally outweighs the benefits.

If you want a smarter intercooler setup that wont suffer from heat soak, then look at water to air.