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Old 09-18-2006, 11:28 PM   #1
ltjake22
Scooby Newbie
 
Member#: 111785
Join Date: Apr 2006
Chapter/Region: MWSOC
Location: Michigan
Vehicle:
2002 Impreza WRX
Silver

Cool DIY Intercool Fan Project...

Well I got kinda tired of heat-soak... and I had heard of the ol' fan on the intercooler trick... But most people were just slapping the fans on the core and calling it a day which helps but it kind of "cores" the (excuse the poor vocab) intercooler core; meaning that it didn't really cool the WHOLE intercooler just the parts over which the fans sat. So in working with duct all day and the design of such, I though it would be a cool idea to create a pressurized plenum out of the space betwixt the lip of the intercooler and obviously the core.... So I drew up a cover plate that looks something like this...(There is a 1/8" wide medium temp adhesive gasket inbetween the plate and the I/C this creates the "plenum" effect)



Theres a subaru logo on it that was laser etched (the joys of working for a business with a laser cutter ) that looks like this...



The fans are SPAL 6.5"-inchers, there was a minor clearance issue with the hood scoop pin on the right most fan in the upper right corner, but nothing an exacto knife can't fix. The air splitter was removed as it's not needed anymore (forced induction if you will). This helped with keeping some air on that top plenum of the I/C too... I bought some LED tipped toggle switches (blue for cool :-) ) and drilled a hole in the blank next to my cruise and fog lamp switch. Then jsut hard wired the fans together and to the battery so could control them without the keys having to be in the car. The philosophy behind this being that when I went into Wendy's or whatever i could leave the fans running and cool down my intercooler... etc... etc... The switch installation was kinda trick and required a good deal of Dremeling :-) but it got done and soldered. Looks kinda like this...



Had to kinda bend the LED ground lead back a bit to make it fit, but it works out ok... just drill a 1/4" hole in the bottom rung of the blank and plug solder it. Here's a side view to get a good glimpse of the gasketing...



Performance

Whilst I'm not one to make crazy claims, I can honestly say this greatly, greatly reduced heat soak while driving and at a stand-still (there is a bit of short-circuiting at a stand still but moving air is better than static air when it comes to cooling). I don't see it as a power adder per-say, but it definitely helped with keeping the "fun" if you will around longer. Plus it's pretty cool to see that LED shining in the night. I haven't been able to quantitatively collect any real empirical data reagarding the air charge temperature but i do know this: When i get done driving (spritied like) I can open my hood and put my bare hand on the top intercooler plenum and the core with out burning myself... where i couldn't before. It was a fun project for sure. I'd like to get thoughts, positive and negative.

After I got to looking at my dash with the one toggle switch (where the STI's I/C spray is) and the two push buttons and a yearning to make my foggers independant I decided to convert all my switches to toggles... The Foggers were just rewired and wired to the Accessory fuse (Green LED to jive w/ stock colors :-) ) and the Cruise is an amber LED. I'm still figuring out the electronics of the Cruise cause theres a lot more going on in that switch than toggle on/off. I'm getting there though (if anyone has thoughts let me know ) Thanks for readin, hope you enjoy.

pstiem
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