BE forwarned, tons of rambling and ?'s ahead...
Now that I have the aftercooler installed I am a little worried I may have been a little hasty in buying it. I can't really see the advantage it has in cooling the intake charge. Think about it, it is circulating water/coolant that is cooled with a small rad at the front of the car. Basically the same area that the filter and intake is currently located. Since the coolant can't get any cooler than the intake air how is it possible for the aftercooler to really have any affect given the inherent loss in the aftercooler fins? Is it simply that the air after the supercharger is so much warmer that any cooling in the aftercooler is better than none at all. Unfortunately, I don't have "before" dyno numbers to compare the "after" with. Anybody, have any before and after numbers? Vortech claims 30-40hp gains on the aftercooler which seems like a lot.
I have been eyeing the Ice Bath version that Vortech offers, but of course it is probably better suited to the drag-strip.

 

yup

im sure someone can post up some IAT for without a aftercooler and IAT for with it.

what you can do withthe aftercooler is get a larger heat exchanger for the front air dam. you can also get a larger water tank so you can add ice. and you can get a better pump

brook

 

Hellions, I think the part you're missing is that compressors heat the air alot. A typical 6 psi Vortech will have discharge temps of around 170 deg F on a warm day. Up it to 12 psi and the discharge temp jumps to 230 deg F. Right now, I'm running 20 psi and my air temp is over 300 deg F!

The water in the exchanger cools and condenses this hot boosted air.

 

I was running a non-aftercooled Vortech S Trim with 10 psi of boost and would regularly see 160F intake temps driving in traffic using my Scanmaster. After adding the Vortech aftercooler I now see 120F temps in the same traffic. At the 1/4 mile track I only see a 10F rise in temp from the starting line to finish line.

 

Thanks for the replies guys, that's exactly what I was looking for.

 

It seems to work really well, but I do not have any scientific evidence. The only thing I do not like about it is the aftercooler location, right above the valve cover and headers, it probably gets heat soaked there. I thought about putting it underneath the battery on the passenger side, but never got around to doing it. It may be possible to relocate it somewhere else, if you can find room. This, of course, will involve some custom pipe work too.

 

In your sig you say your running 10 lbs of boost. How long have you been running at that level. The reason I ask is I want to go to 8-10 lbs, but everybody says the stock LT1 won't take it for long.
By the way, you're right about the location of the aftercooler. It's a PITA for any work on the driver side of the engine bay.

 

Locating it above the headers does mean extra heat, but in exchange they shorten the piping. The Vortech kit comes with a thermal blanket that you should use on the cooler. Having coated headers will help cut down temps as well.

The cooler will still absorb heat, but dont forget its also circulating water through there at a pretty quick pace, espicially if you upgrade from the stock vortech pump. FWIW I stuck my custom air/water up there as well and then made a heat shield that sits beneath it to seperate it from the headers.

Edit(I need to find a better place to stick images)
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...6/f199a45b.jpg

 

I would not run more than 7-8 pounds on a stock engine. I originally had an ati P600B running with a 9 pound pulley for a few years. It ran great, but the motor eventually died with 3 broken pistons...ring lands.

In most applications, a blower or nitrous requires forged pistons. The problem with LT1 pistons is that the static compression ratio is way too high for a blower. You could try hypereutectics with a lower compression ratio, but if you go thru the hassle of changing out the pistons, forged is the only way to go. The other problem is the stock ring gaps are too small for big power gains.

Regarding the aftercooler, I run the stock thermal wrap along with a homemade heatshield too. But I still think having the aftercooler away from the headers would be beneficial, even with the longer piping. This would also make it easier to get to stuff. I think the main problem I had trying to do this was how the vortech supercharger outlet is designed to be directed towards the top. The blower unit would have to be rotated.

 

There are some things you can do to improve the effeciency of this system.

1. Larger tank
2. Better heat blanket
3. Make SURE you set it up like a cross flow heat exhanger.. (cold water in, on the aftercoolers outlet side and hotwater coming out on the aftercoolers inlet side)
4. run the hotwater out from the aftercooler to your heat exhanger in front of the car then back to the tank. The way vortech has you set it up you can potentially be warming up cool fluid in your tank before sending it to the aftercooler.
5. do yourself a favor and put the pump in a area where it will self prime.

 

1. Check
2. Check
3. Is this simply to "scrub" as much additional heat as possible out of the airstream?
4. If the heat exchanger is the last thing before the aftercooler wouldn't the coolant be as cool as possible? Of course the coolant temp would probably vary a lot based on conditions. Dumping to the tank then circulating to the aftercooler would seem to raise the coolant temp to the aftercooler. In this setup the aftercooler would see a more consistant temp. Opinions?
5. Check

Thanks,
Hellions

 

I agree with Alvin. The order should be:

1. reservoir
2. pump
3. aftercooler
4. heat exchanger
5. back to reservoir

That's not how Vortech says to do it.

 

Yep, no since in warming up the ice water you just put in the tank BEFORE it gets to the aftercooler.

 

thats common sence, wtf does vortech tellyou to do?

brook

 

go to heat exhanger first... i'm surpized they got the cross flow part right.