air to air cooler

[JDPoole]

Hello everyone,

this is my first post on this site and I hope I am in the correct place with this question.



I am putting a 5. 9 cummins in a 51 chevy C. O. E. behind the cab and would like to put the air to air cooler in the front behind the grill. Would I have the same amount of turbo boost after going through approx. 12' of line as I had with the 3' when the cooler was mounted in front of the radiator. I hope some of you engineer type will jump on this as I am not sure which way is the best. Thanks for your time... ... ... ... ... J. D. Poole

 

[HoleshotHolset]

If you don't have any leaks and keep your tubing bends to a minimum... . then you shouldn't loose much boost. Every bend tends to really hurt airflow and reduce boost just a bit.



The real kicker may be turbo lag - some folks tend to think that long lengths of charge air piping will really increase lag. I have never worked on a beast with really long intercooler pipes..... so I can't answer that with too much authority.



With your setup... . an air/water intercooler may be a good solution to the problem.



Welcome to the TDR!! - you're in very good company here.



Matt

 

[JDPoole]

Matt, thanks for the reply. Turbo lag is what I was afraid of instead of boost. I had to look for three months to find a cooler

small enough to go between the frame rails and probably should

mount it if front of radiator like it should be, I guess if you duct enough air under the truck you can keep it cool.

Thanks again... ... ... ... J. D. Poole

 

[JLEONARD]

JD, The Cummins 6BTA marine 270 hp has an antifreeze cooled intercooler that mounts above the intake manifold. These engines use the P pump and the fuel lines are made to go around the intercooler. If you look in my reader's rig pics you'll see my boat engine.

I have heard that some busses also have this type of intercooler.



The marine 330 and 370 hp have a seperate intercooler that is remote mounted and is intended to use sea water for cooling... . you could probably plumb one of these types into your coolant system as another option.

Jay

 

[HoleshotHolset]

Jay:



Deo has one of those marine 'intake manifold' mounted after coolers..... it looks horribly restrictive. Although you could offset the restriction with the ability to have below ambient air temps going into your engine... .



Matt

 

[JLEONARD]

Matt,

Restrictive because of the air pipe size or restrictive because of the internal grid design??? I never saw the internals of one.



More I think about it I would opt for the remote style that comes on the 330/370 hp engines..... much more flexibility as far as mounting options.

 

[HoleshotHolset]

The internal grid looked horribly restrictive.....



Matt

 

[JDPoole]

Thanks everyone for the help, I bought a used cooler that was within 1" of the size I was looking for and will mount it between the frame behind and under the cab and use the engine fan to pull the air. I have found enough room in the front for the radiator and a/c condenser and can use a dual electrical fan. If anyone is interested in this project I can take pictures and e-mail them but don't know how to post them.

 

[T. Baker]

If you mounted it up in front I seriously doubt that you would have turbo lag. There is a massive amount of air moving and that little bit of volume that is in the pipes shouldn't't matter. If you want to test this theory just try stopping up your exhaust pipe and see how much lag there is before it builds pressure!

I would like to see pictures. You can see pictures of mine on the link below. You can put your pictures on the same site for free and then send other people there to see them.

 

[LarryB]

I think the turbo lag comes from the time required for the turbine to spool up and not from the air to travel 12'.