2F-ETI Home brew air to water Laminova intercooler

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matt.mcinnes

matt.mcinnes

2F-ETI
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Threads
43
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2,390
Location
Melbourne
After looking around and not been able to find a suitable inter-cooler for my 4.3Ltr stright 6 comp engine running upto 15psi of boost at an estimated 400hp I decided to build one.

Air to air is just too bulky and limited when air flow is low when wheeling so I decided to go with water to air.

Had a quote for a company here that use Laminova intercooler cores for $3000Aus:eek::eek::eek: which are very compact and highly efficient.

So I hit ebay and picked these up in the USA for $50 plus $40 for shipping

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...STRK:MEWN:IT&viewitem=&item=330158682257&rd=1

Smart Aluminum Supplied the rest.

200mmx200mmx10mm Plate
34mx16mmx3mm Flat bar
2.5mx80mm Tube 3mm wall thinkness
All up $150Aus

100_1981.jpg


Let the fun start:D
 
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The sleeves for the Laminova cores have been cut
The 10mm plate is marked out and 4 holes will be machined through the plate. 10mm of each end of the Sleeves will be machined down to slot into these holes for a flush fit with the other side of the plate.

Finished size should be about 140mm X 177mm X 376mm
 
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The 3mm plate when all the parts are ready will welded up, just waiting on the cores arriving now:mad:

DSC00028.jpg
 
My son got one of these for his Corrado off ebay. Air to water with radiator and pump for about $100.

And it's toyota.


Kevin
ST165ic.webp
 
The 65mm in and 80mm out are now finished

100_2014.jpg


This will sit opposite the throttle body intake just have to figure out some mountings.

Still waiting on the intercooler cores now:mad::mad::mad:
 
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Nice show of skill man. You have a very cool set up. Hows it run ? Thanks David.
 
Cores arrived today :bounce::bounce2::bounce::bounce2:
 
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So you have water in the cores, and air flows over the slotted tubes. All this is contained in a sealed box....except for the input air (I assume this draws from a filtered area), to the intake manifold?
 
vtcruiser60 said:
So you have water in the cores, and air flows over the slotted tubes. All this is contained in a sealed box....except for the input air (I assume this draws from a filtered area), to the intake manifold?
Click to expand...

Filtered air compressed from the turbo comes in through the the 65mm inlet and is forced to pass over the cores inside the sleeves (slotted tubes). The spaces between the sleeves will be sealed with the 16mm flat bar.

This can be seen in the photo of the end which has the red air flow lines on and the black lines showing where the 16mm flat bar will go. All this will be sealed and welded and boxed.

The water will flow through the cores internals and is sealed with an O ring which is contained in the end caps. There are 8 end caps in total.

Just need a small radiator and electric pump and a thermo fan to suit radiator


http://www.opcon.se/www/files/laminova/pdf/1Intercool_21apr.pdf

The Air will not be able to pass from one side of the intercooler to the other without having to go inside the sleeves and around the cores.
 
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Very interested to see how this works out for you so I can copy you :D
 
I emailed Laminova's R&D a link to this thread and asked for their opinion and guess what.

The actually took time to reply top blokes.

Hi Matt,

Interesting project! As I don't know the specification of your application
(such as air flow and temperature, coolant side conditions), it's hard to
estimate only by looking at the pictures. But the design of your intercooler
looks promising. I guess you're going to use 4 cores of Ø39,5 mm diameter
and approx. total core length of 392 mm (375 mm finned length)? This should
perform quite well based on your engine size and power.

The design of the sleeves is similar to what we have done in the past and
the 15 mm slot width is a good choice. Perhaps you have checked our webpage
for some design info?

Having the cores in a staggered arrangement is practical in terms of space.
Looking and the end caps, it should even be possible to make smaller (having
the sleeves closer to each other), but perhaps this is nothing critical...

Looking at the core orientation, you will route the water in parallel
through the cores? What kind of water pump will you use? The efficiency of
the intercooler is highly dependent on the coolant flow (velocity) through
the core and should be minimum 20 l/min per core. (That gives for parallel
arrangement a pump capacity of about 80 l/min total.)

Good luck!

Best regards
Mattias Antonsson
Project Engineer
Click to expand...
 
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Dropped the sleeves, end plates and divider in to the welders today. Cash job:D The guy that does the welding is top notch with a tig. But as a job on the side I have to be patient, 2 weeks.

While this is done all the end caps can be machined up, once we get the newly welded up section back the holes to mount the end caps can then be drilled in the end plates before the final outer skin is welded over.
 
All welded up thanks to Awill4x4 and as always top quality work.

100_2337.jpg


Now on with the end caps
 
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It's been a lot of fun to build from scratch, but the proof will be in the pudding next Jan when it goes in with the new engine and turbo.
 
Elected to make a minor modification to ease the air flow into the plenum from the intercooler as suggested by Awill4x4. Every little bit helps. Just have to make the opposite side now.

DSC00048.jpg
 
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