IC Water Spray

water spray works on evaporation.

evaporation does not occur in 100% relative humidity.

while it's raining, it's generally around 100% relative humidity.

therefore rain is not quite like ic water spray.

from the above you may also see that the water spray will be more effective as RH approaches zero... and it CAN be quite effective, allowing you to have IC temps BELOW ambient air temps.

humid air contains water, which displaces oxygen, so generally you'll get less power. it is a little bit less detonation prone, though.

hth ken

Hey AGAer Ken!

Putting on my Tony Hwang hat, I'd think the IC spray would still be helpful, since the IC can hit temps of 250*...at which point, the "local relative humidity" would probably become a bit more favorable for evaporative kewling, eh? 8^)

Steve

ok got it IC works on evaporation. One more question, could you spray somethning else over the intercooler that would lower intake temps. more than water does?

Alcohol. Evaporates faster at a lower temperature.

Also burns and can eat away at the rubber hoses for the IC Spray :)

Yeah, I don't like the idea of spraying a flammable liquid right next to a scorching hot turbine housing. :-(

Also, alcohol takes less energy away in the evaporation process than water does...so spray- for-spray, it would have less cooling effect than plain water.

Steve

the best way is with CO2.

look at :

This is not meant as any disrespect to the poster of original link. It is meant as a critical review of the products presented in the above link. If anybody else checks out the above link, let me know what you think.

The above site was good for a laugh. I was going to mention the CO2 sprayers for IC which I have seen before, however I had not heard of these people. They bring up one valid point on the whole site, "CO2 displaces Oxygen" (well this is true for any gas that you push into a contained area) and that if you put CO2 under the hood it could get into the intake, not if you have a cool air intake under one of the fenders, but ok, I see their point. Their, interfreezer thing sounds like a cool idea, no pun intended, however I have one question. It is obvious that it will cool the air and will condense the H2O as is shown on the outside of the unit on the website. This will also happen on the inside of the unit which they say is a good thing, (I agree) however what happens to this water which is condensed on the inside? Two things in my opinion. One, it freezes and restricts your intake, which is a bad thing, and two when you stop using the unit the water melts and goes into the engine. So to me this means that one, this is a short term use item, and two it has the possibility to dump a bunch of water into your engine when you stop using it. Does anybody else see a problem with this?

The Flowducer also at first glance seems like a fun idea. Granted their ideas are aerodynamically sound (I'm not an aero engineer but was best friends with two of them in college), but vacuum on your exhaust is not always a good thing at least for turboed cars (WRX included). In reading some FAQs on exhaust systems on turboed cars I recall running into a phenomenon in which you can have too little backpressure on the exhaust side of the turbo. Of course more air flow = more power, which is why intake and exhaust mods are done, however putting a 3 inch exhaust on a turboed car only make sense with a huge turbo. As I remember it, you can infact effectively "stall" out the turbo (maybe that's not the right term), but it increases turbo lag. This would not really be a problem once you have the turbo spinning but who wants to be fooling around turning something on under boost? Not to mention how the turbo would react to a change in exit pressure, and all the above assumes that the pressure difference due to this device is significant which may not be true. It might work for non-turboed cars but I would not put one on a WRX. That's only my opinion.

And as for the Cheetah jets? Do I have to go there? How much more "Fast and Furious" do you have to get? For looks maybe, but then do we really want to ascribe to "the all show and no go" theory? Plus if you have to kill your opponents horsepower via CO2 attack, you are not really racing anyway, and it means you don't have the confidence in what you have under the hood. Again, just my opinion.

Ed

good point steve. the surface temp of the ic core may well be enough to raise the temperature of the water above the dewpoint. also, if your ic sprayer is spraying something other than pure water (like an alcohol), again, it will probably work.

ken

i wouldn't use just pure alcohol. i'd probably go with the readily available windshield washer fluid, which is methanol/water mix and non-flammable.

it would have less of an overall effect, but it would take effect faster. this may be better for your particular application, which generally involves combating heatsoak from being at a standstill for some period of time inducing heatsoak of the TMIC.

ken

Hi, Won't there be a fire hazard with alcohol? Tony

I think after you are done impressing the girls, and by girls I mean the pre-pubecent boys in attendance, I think you would get your ass perferated by a tire iron if you tried that on someone in a real street race.

If that was true, you couldn't boil water if the humidity was too high.

If the intercooler is at 100 deg. and you spray it with some 50 deg water, the water will get warmer and the intercooler will get cooler, regardless of humidity.

Evaporation occurs after the water has been heated to its boiling point. Above 100 deg C. at standard pressure, water is a gas.

Rain that falls on the intercooler will cool it down, assuming that it is warmer than the rain.

Evaporation and steam are two diffferent phenomenon but you are correct that the water is going to cool it regardless.

I didn't mean pure alcohol. This is more along what I meant. It's also one of the original designs of the IC sprayer either from STi or RalliArt. I'm pretty sure it was RalliArt that hooked up the IC Sprayer to the windshield wiper resevoir in one of the EVOs.

JaySee