With the whacky turbo set up I'm putting together endless options are open for cooling set ups. In an effort to shorten piping as much as possible i'm looking at mounting the single entry, twin exit intercooler in the OEM rad position and mounting the radiator (700x400x42 modified Z33 Blitz unit, twin pass down flow) angling down from the rad support. the inlet tract from the bar will be boxed in with completely sealed ducting to both cores. There is also the option of plumbing the two fog light passes through to the intercooler too. The fans will be a pair of 14" pullers from American brand Derale, combining to (an advertised) 4,200 CFM. both the Z33 rad and pair of fans will just fit between the rails, but the superb width combined with awesome CFM gives me confidence. I understand it is far less than ideal mounting a radiator at a 75* angle to adjacent air flow but I'm working with what I've got pros: 1) possibly shortest intake tract ever 2) fresh air flow to both intercooler and radiator 3) wide as possible radiator fitted without modification to chassis 4) radiator not visible from engine bay, intercooler in place much less visible cons: 1) may not be enough air flow to intercooler 2) radiator very close to lip, lip very close to road. questions: 1) at speed will the fans overpower the ambient flow and reduce air to the intercooler too much? I understand this depends greatly on the speed in question so any form of educated feedback/guess welcome. fans of course are two speed and will operate on a temp switch as necessary. 2) at idle will the additional resistance mean all radiator air flow will come through the bumper inlet, rather than via the intercooler? having the radiator fans pull some air through the intercooler when stopped would be great for care of heat soak while sitting in traffic. 3) do you think it will be necessary/wise to plumb the two fog light passes through to the intercooler? Below is a pic of the closest I've seen to what I'm planning (in a Z32). the radiator was set up in a similar configuration. my intercooler will be mounted much lower underneath the upper rad support. His intercoolers are fitted with e-fans on the back. The owner reports no issues but of course lacks any data or numbers to support this. Please only comment if you have at least some idea of what you're taking about. Please do not tell me to change front bumpers. -A
First up, props to you for thinking outside the square. Potential issues with rad that low, bleeding it will be a bitch. Where will the filler cap go? Might have put it on the standard rad hard pipes on the motor (like the old vg30e in a z31) That much angle it might not get enough airflow, at speed a car has the air rammed through the rad etc at the front of car and the fins are lined up to allow the air to pass with minimal resistance, in your setup the air will hit a almost solid wall and may not flow through. Damage would also concern me particurly given your intended ride height. The bumper and in this case the rad would be first point of contact with a speed bump kurb etc. You can only be so carefully, sometimes you have to go over something and it won't be forgiving to a fragile rad set up
ah yes thanks for reminding me, filler cap will be mounted on the top hard pipe. you're right about the radiator angle, the good amount of pull from the fans will help with this. part of why I am determined to stuff in a pair of fans almost too large for the space. some kind of bash plate may likely find its way to the end tank. it's not ideal but I think could be dealt with.
Filler cap/bleeding can be fixed fairly readily with a header tank, although he would need to figure out where it would look nice. I would be very sceptical about the function of that radiator though, my understanding is that the air ram effect dominates electrical fans at highway speeds so your e-fans probably aren't going to pull enough air to keep temperatures stable. If you go all out on the aero and generate some good low pressure under the car it might work.
Thermo switch the e fans. Might help if they switch off at high speeds so they dont fight against natural ram effect. If they keep it cool enough in traffic you might win at vmount.
Has anyone ever mounted a front mount in the radiator position and 2 small radiators in the position of the side mounts ?. Just another twist for you to consider. Cheers Dave
It will be nowhere near as efficient as stock. Why? Because you have increased the power which means the motor will generate more heat. You've fit a thicker radiator which will help to some extent taking heat out of the motor (more coolant), but you've also reduced the air flow that is required to pull heat from the coolant. And all for the sake of shortening the intake on a forced induction system? Having a cooling system that with a properly will give you a much better return on investment....
I said that in the OP Yup. It'll be tight but if all else fails nothing beats the 6" grinder and MIG combo I see that said a lot, but my own experience from when I was running around with a dead fan clutch was that the car cooked itself on the highway but was fine at lower speeds. The ram air effect didn't save me there. Fair call - let's look at that a bit more. OEM TT rad core is approx. 50cm x 46cm, 2300 cm^2 350Z rad core is approx 40cm x 73.5 cm, 2940 cm ^2. So the radiator surface area has been increased by about 27% - awesome. Thickness will go up too, but we both know that's not always a good thing. For what it's worth thickness is about doubled. Fan power wise, the OEM fan is believed to pull 3-4k CFM - same as the Derale fans I'm looking at. So far, points to the v-mount. The OEM radiator is mounted behind the air filter, oil cooler, AC condenser and AC fan. V-mount system is set directly in front of air flow. Still looking good. So it all comes down to just how limiting an effect mounting the radiator on an angle has. While I'll very happily put forth that this could be a big factor, the increased surface area, exposure to fresh air and my experience telling me to rely on fan power rather than ram air effect leads me to thinking it could work. Could being the important word.
Lol you're dreaming if you think thermos will flow as much as the clutch fan. I think you've missed the point but carry on.
Interesting, I wonder where abouts the crossover point is for various fans. It's probably true for weak efans but if you can find some heavy duty ones then you can probably get by.
I can (unfortunately) only go off of the figure presented by the manufacturer. For what it's worth in all my reading I also can't find a firm source for the 3-4k figure the OEM fan clutch reportedly pulls, it seems to be hearsay. What is the point that I've missed? If I wanted to just go ahead and do this I wouldn't have made this thread; being cryptic doesn't help me.
Correct,they don't work as well as a standard setup........in a standard rad location setup........this is far from that. Anti, I'd be inclined to think that making it more of a true v mount you will get better results. Currently you've almost got a L mount setup.
Why not ditch the intercoolers & go for a water injection system instead? That will shorten intake piping even further but without all this hassle & you can keep the standard radiator configuration
Aunty Flow I 2nd this idea. The twin rad setup is what the original Lamborgini Countach has, behind those ugly air boxes. This would give you a lot more space to play with. Also when considering ram air effect if the air is forced in at too greater velocity it will have the effect of bouncing off the rad/intercooler causing turbulence. You actually need to slow the air speed down for it to be effective. You do this by having smaller entrance appeture tapering outwards to your rad/intercooler. This was a how they solved the cooling problem for the 1950's D Type Jaguars. They where pulling 180mph down the Mulsanne BTW.
I think with enough planning and work, anyone can get anything to work. I've had a bit of a play with thermos on my drift sled, it's like a hurricane when all 3 are on. Gets driven a hell of a lot harder than most zeds. I think I could make thermos work on a normal TT zed setup. In this case, I genuinely have no idea. Maybe try talk to a few who've done it in an S or R chassis?
