Ken's Motor

[Wallace]

Ken - nice to see it working - there's nothing like starting it up for the first time - makes all the sweat, tears and cash spent on it seem worthwhile !
and the garage now smells of nice, oily engine .. .

Anyhow - quick question - those side scoops you put in to feed air into the engine bay. are they effective ?? Vaguely thinking of cutting holes in the sides a bit like the X1/9 - but your way is neater and doesn't involve taking a can oppener to the back wings .. .

[Ken H]

Ken - nice to see it working - there's nothing like starting it up for the first time - makes all the sweat, tears and cash spent on it seem worthwhile !
and the garage now smells of nice, oily engine .. .

Absolutely - you can't believe how thrilled I was to hear it actually RUN! And, yesterday I drove it out of the driveway into the street, did a U-turn and back into the garage. Not much of a maiden voyage, but necessary to get the exhaust pointed OUT of the garage - running very rich at the moment (hack, hack, wheeze wheeze...). Baby steps, but each one a new thrill.


Anyhow - quick question - those side scoops you put in to feed air into the engine bay. are they effective ??

In a word - YES!! I believe some kind of addition air source is essential for high HP applications, at least for track duty, and especially for turbos. Probably not needed for street use since no chance to run sustained full throttle, at least where I live in the crowded Bay Area.

I do have some data on this. One of the scoops was ducted straight to the intercooler. I borrowed an anemometer from work, and measured air speed through the intercooler at a constant speed on the freeway, both directions to cancel out wind effects. At 60mph forward speed, air speed through the intercooler was 15mph. That doesn't sound like much, but that is about all the air the intercooler needs to reach maximum efficiency. You'd need big fans to generate the same airflow, and most likely that air would already be preheated, vs. the cool air from the scoops. I employed the plastic vents for the same reason you mentioned - easier than dealing with metalwork.

- Ken

[EVO92]

Guys,

Ever thought of using a chargecooler? a couple of friends are using modified Lotus/Behr units in their Delta Integrales and are very pleased with the results (Apparantly like driving on an icy day in the middle of summer :D )... I've added some pictures in my folder. There are plenty of aftermarket suppliers of chargecoolers (Especially in the US).

Regards,
Martin

[Ken H]

Ever thought of using a chargecooler?

Martin,

I did, but was able to fit the air/air intercooler very nicely into the engine compartment (Scorpion/Monte engine bay being a lot more generous than the Delta), and so opted for simplicity. With a cool air source it works well.

That said, a charge cooler may have better ultimate cooling potential and is definitely the ticket where space is tight and/or fresh air is not available. Spearco makes high quality versions of both styles.

- Ken

[Wallace]

Was rather thinking of using both .. . .

I already have a largish intercooler mounted over the gearbox - I like the idea of ducts on the side to feed the airfilter on the left hand side (moved from it's original sereis 2 position over the exhasut becasue it was too hot !) - so what to do with the air coming in on the right ?? !!

In the UK, you can get a nice plastic duct to take a 2 3/4" pipe to go over a 19 row oil cooler - the idea was to use this as the water radiator part of the chargecooler .. .

I take it you had to make a large hole in the bodywork behind the air vent to feed into the engine bay- and also block off the vent leading from the passanger compartment ?? (Monte might be different to a Scorp)

And the best thing about a new engine is blowing the doors off the first tosser who tries it on at the lights .. . how about some video AND SOUND of it running ?? !!

[Ken H]

I take it you had to make a large hole in the bodywork behind the air vent to feed into the engine bay- and also block off the vent leading from the passanger compartment ?? (Monte might be different to a Scorp)

Yes, and you can just barely see the damage I did there on the What's New section of my photo gallery on this site. I know you've seen the picture because of your comment correctly pointing out the only stock item visible in my engine bay (!).


.. . how about some video AND SOUND of it running ??

In time...I'm off on vacation for a few weeks, but I'll see if I can post something on my return.

- Ken

[Ken H]

- and also block off the vent leading from the passanger compartment ?? (Monte might be different to a Scorp)

And interestingly, on MY Scorpion there IS no vent from the passenger compartment. I pulled back the foam flap that should cover what I supposed was a hole into the pass. compartment, only to find solid metal! There is no hole or vent of any kind exiting the pass. compartment.

I'd be curious what others have found.

- Ken

[Will]

What vent?? Vent??
The only hole I know of into the passenger compartment is up in the front boot, passenger side footwell. And of course the heater intake up front.
Scorpion firewalls are all solid AFAIK- no vents of any kind. Maybe it's an S2 thing? Scorpions don't have that map-light thing either, the center console just ends straight back.

-Will

[Wallace]

Yep - saw the photo's after I wrote it ! Behind the grill on the Monte, there's a 4" sqaure-ish hole (paralellogram ??) which sort-of connects with a long gap along the whole length of the back of the headlinning (mine hasn't got the soft-top). It's not visable as a connection - but a welding rod poked through one end comes out of the other !! And the monte has glass where the sail pannels are - so I could only use one hole to feed into the engine bay .. .

I'll take some photo's.

[Wallace]

Photo's are in my album - the Monte is a lot different with it's glass panels at the back - but I think the idea's sound !. - Will - you can just make out the "hole" which connects to the cabin in the middle photo . . interested to know if the Scorp doesn't have this !