07/03   Heath does some heavy duty 4x4 competition & came to us to see if we could drop his inlet temps down as he was looking for more power & was concerned about his inlet temps at full throttle/low range, even with an aftermarket top mount air-air fitted.  

This is the top of the air water we built for him

This is the bottom of the unit. Note that we fitted 8 npt bosses for temperature sensors - we like to see our products being comprehensively tested. We used 2 of our Hot Chilli tanks for the charge air. This unit was made before we received our new tube, so we could now build an even more efficient unit ! 

These are the recovery (foreground) & distribution tanks we made. These add nothing to the actual cooling rate, but are to make sure that the system is always completely full (check this) compared to (this) & there is enough water capacity in the system. If there is not enough water capacity, a steam pocket will develop in the 'cooler & it's useless ! Remember the charge air is always over 100ºc under high load, so it will boil the coolant.

Under bonnet pics. of the system fitted. No, the hose sizes aren't overkill. We have developed a computer programme over the last three years that gives us just about complete data for this system before we start fabricating - & we're backing up the theory with practical data logging - most of the time - occasionally there's a hic up.

This is the 6 page PDF file from ARE's own computer programme for sizing inter -coolers. Note on the first page that our intercooler removes 25.2kw of heat out of the charge air. A small household air conditioner is approx. 1.6kw & a unit to do a lounge, dining & kitchen is 8kw - so our little intercooler really does do a big job, & this is why we put so much effort into them. There is allot of hidden information still!

This is a log from our first Datalogger. The red vertical line (@ 10 secs.) is the reference point for the temp figures below. The Ambient temp. was not logged, but was 26ºc. The charge air temp. out of the turbo is 138ºc with the temp out of the intercooler being 52ºc. The 39ºc is a spot under the bonnet that we wanted to log for future reference.  Intercooler efficiency is 76.8% & resulted in the power gain on the chart below.

This is his dyno sheet from Northside 4x4 (07- 5495 5549) of before & after. It's also a perfect example of why I don't take much notice of these dyno graphs - unless they are accompanied by what I call the 'boiler room' - the two sheets shown below. Notice how at 2450 rpm the two lines meet with a big spike in the before graph. Wonder why? without the boiler room sheet, we'd never know, but we only have a look at the two sheets too see why

In this 'before' graph, the boost starts jumping from 9.4lb @ 1800rpm up to16lb @ 2340 rpm & then back to 9.5lb @ 2550rpm slowly rising to 11.3lb @ 3600rpm.   I don't know what caused this spike, but the afr. (air fuel ratio) & ex. temps didn't mind much so it wouldn't do any damage to the engine.

Now in this 'after' graph, boost is 10.6lb @ 1800rpm & stays around 12.4lb, thru to 2500rpm & then slowly tapers down to 11.2lb @ 3500. It is so much more stable & on average, apart from the spike, abit over 1 lb higher due to less pressure drop in our core. The exhaust temps. are also much lower but it was a little cooler day.     A cooler intake charge will  give a little cooler exhaust gas temps.         At 1700rpm our a-w intercoolers output went from 43 up to 51rwkw., or a gain of 9kw more. This 18.6% increase over top mount, & looks after the engine better too boot !         At 2850 rpm our rwkw output went from 43 up to 51rwkw, or an increase of 12. This is a 17.3% increase over top mount. Not bad for replacing a competitors air - air intercooler with one of ARE's air-water units.  The increase out in the bush or sand, will actually be more, because the dyno fan blows heaps more air over the bonnet than at 10 kph vehicle speed, BUT at this speed our front radiator will be getting added air flow from the engine fan, and water can hold heat 36 times better than air.