3.3TT Intercooler Water Spray

[Daeric23]

I’m not sure how many have done an Intercooler water sprayer but I was thinking of additional ways to keep the car cooler… especially in the summer time.

I’M STOCK, MBRP EXHAUST ONLY.

Would it be worth it to add an Intercooler water spray to help the car stay cool? Has anyone done it and had success with data to back it?

Would I need a tune?

If you currently have a set-up, would you share your experience and current set-up?

Recommendations/advice are welcome

 

[turboAWD]

Where do you live / what type of driving do you do that you think you need more cooling? What conditions exactly are you trying to avoid? Or just trying for every bit of performance?

AFAIK, the ECU already takes intake air temp into account, so you shouldn't need a tune unless you were using dry ice or something and getting colder than -50C or whatever the ECU temperature lookup table's minimum cell value is. Is it possible they run a little richer than necessary at that point because when the air is that cold they're trying to warm up the car? Possible - I'm not an expert. But I doubt you'd need a tune.

 

[Daeric23]

@turboAWD I live in the Texas heat and I do casual/spirited driving… no track days or anything.

I just want to keep the car as cool as possible along with keeping the performance. So yeah it may not be necessary since I’m not tracking, but I was just thinking about during the summer utilizing a system like that, or when I having my spirited drives for the performance.

 

[GT Elite]

AFAIK, the ECU already takes intake air temp into account, so you shouldn't need a tune unless you were using dry ice or something and getting colder than -50C or whatever the ECU temperature lookup table's minimum cell value is. Is it possible they run a little richer than necessary at that point because when the air is that cold they're trying to warm up the car? Possible - I'm not an expert. But I doubt you'd need a tune.

Based on my experience in driving a 2005 Corvette year round in Canada, my exhaust was black in the summer (rich) and light grey in the winter (lean). Also, the car was noticeably quicker in the winter. This makes sense, as there was less chance of detonation with the cold winter intake air.

 

[oddball]

You can do it for the fun of it, but you won't see any difference at all. Engine coolant will be a bit cooler while you're spraying, but the ECU wants the engine at a certain temp, so it won't run any cooler. It'll only help the intercooler while moving, and even then it takes a fair bit of work to heat soak the intercooler, especially with just "spirited driving".

 

[rtv900]

@turboAWD I live in the Texas heat and I do casual/spirited driving… no track days or anything.

I just want to keep the car as cool as possible along with keeping the performance. So yeah it may not be necessary since I’m not tracking, but I was just thinking about during the summer utilizing a system like that, or when I having my spirited drives for the performance.

It's going to make less than no difference, plus unless you plan on filling a 5 gallon tank every day with water you will run out almost immediately.
For one, the water will be ambient temp, which means liquid water will simply be running through the fins. That will barely cool any more than ambient air unless you outright flood the thing with a 5 gallon a minute spray. Evaporating water is the only thing that creates meaningful heat transfer, which you won't get.
Spraying alcohol would actually do something as alcohol will evaporate, but still, you'll blast through it so fast it will be ridiculous and you still wouldn't be able to tell the difference, plus burning the damn alcohol in the engine would yield way more results.

Even if you are sitting in traffic for an hour and you are a "heat soak" alarmist, this is an air to air cooler. No matter how baked it is, once you start moving over 30mph it will drop back to steady state temp within 10 seconds.

Also, the intercooler and the engine temp have nothing to do with one another, so the "make the car stay cool" thing doesn't even make sense. You could spray your intercooler with liquid nitrogen and freeze it like the terminator in that steel foundry and still have an overheated engine at the same time if you have a problem with your engine's actual cooling system. They are not related in any way.

 

[Daeric23]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!