Oil and Intercooler mounting.

[robemcdonald]

Hi. This is my first post in this forum, hopefully you can help.

Anyway I'm sure someone here will be able to answer this easily;
Is there a limit to the distance the intercooler can be from the engine. For example could a mid engine turbo or supercharged car have a front mounted intercooler?
Same question, but for an oil cooler.

Sorry if it seems a stupid question.

[GreenV8S]

The rear/mid-engined case is often used as an example of where it would be sensible to use an air/water/air charge cooler rather than direct air/air. Long induction runs increase the volume that has to be compressed before you achieve boost, which can make a big difference to the amount of turbo lag.

No fundamental problem with long oil hoses but the longer the hose the more pressure you will lose due to drag, to offset this you would need to increase the hose bore.

[robemcdonald]

GreenV8S said:

The rear/mid-engined case is often used as an example of where it would be sensible to use an air/water/air charge cooler rather than direct air/air. Long induction runs increase the volume that has to be compressed before you achieve boost, which can make a big difference to the amount of turbo lag.

No fundamental problem with long oil hoses but the longer the hose the more pressure you will lose due to drag, to offset this you would need to increase the hose bore.

Thanks for the reply.

Do you think it would be fair to say that any cooling benefit you would get from mounting the oil cooler at the front is out-weighed by the increase in oil pressure required?

[eliot]

Dont think i would want to run my oil lines front to back.
Can you not fit them at the back and duct air to them?

[robemcdonald]

I was just weighing up the benefits and weaknesses of the alternatives. I think it's pretty clear there are no real advantage in locating either item remotely.
I don't know too much about charge cooling either, so a bit more research is required before I can ask any meaningful questions.
Thanks very much for the help.

[GreenV8S]

Do you actually need an oil cooler? If you do, you could consider an oil-to-water cooler. That would put an extra load onto the engine cooling system, but I expect you're designing ample capacity into that if you've got an installation that requires charge cooling and oil cooling.

[eliot]

robemcdonald said:

I don't know too much about charge cooling either, so a bit more research is required before I can ask any meaningful questions.
Thanks very much for the help.

I've dabbled in them you could say. There's a page or eight on the subject here http://www.mez.co.uk/turbo8.html

Edited by eliot on Thursday 17th January 06:52