F8 Air to water intercooler on Boondocker RGT

[Firecat162]

Just wondering if anyone has plumbed in an air to water intercooler on their Boondocker RGT set ups. If so did you hook it up to your coolant lines or run a separate coolant system with its own exchanger?

Does anyone have some input on this even if you are not running the set up?
Thanks a bunch.

 

[jgw50]

I've got one on my custom M8 setup. I welded up a separate heat exchanger for IC coolant to go through. After a long pull my charge tube (after the IC) and my IC are ice cold. Way colder than your returning coolant would ever be.

On my last ride, my IC pump got air in it and stopped pumping. It made such a huge difference on my machine I was shocked. It also made the IC coolant get hot enough to boil when I took the fill cap off. All that hot water was heating my intake air at idle / low RPM and made it run like crap. Getting relatively consistant temperature air into my machine has made it extremely easy to tune.

My advice would be to ensure that you plumb your lines / pump to reduce the amount of air traps and to ensure that your pump will always work. the low amp pumps work really well. Mine draws 2 amps and pumps 500 gal / minute, but they do not self prime. In fact they are pretty hard to prime. The self priming ones do not pump nearly as much and draw a lot more electricity.

hope that helps...

 

[Firecat162]

Thanks for the info. Thats exactly what I was looking for. As for the pump and priming. Does the pump lose its prime each time you shut your machine down or whats the deal? Im not up on my accesory electric water pumps.

 

[jgw50]

It should never lose prime, if you don't have any air in your coolant lines. The deal with a snowmachine is that with the heat exchanger the way it is, and where you need to run hoses, its a little harder to eliminate the air from the lines when its sitting in your garage. WHen your up on the hill, and you have a turbo, and you have a water air IC, you'll probably have the thing vertical before too long and it lets all the air flush through. Once the air hits the pump, the pump stops pumping.

If you plumb your stuff correctly it shouldent be an issue. I'm going to re-run everything on mine with this in mind and I think it should no longer be an issue. I've pretty much got it mounted in the worst place possible right now.

Here's two pump options:
http://www.frozenboost.com/product_...=1000&osCsid=e64a8b3599fafa748b87337f3f2fe4c9
http://www.frozenboost.com/product_...=1001&osCsid=e64a8b3599fafa748b87337f3f2fe4c9

Both of these are centrifugal impeller pumps. They are the only way you'll get close to 500 gallons per hour pumping while staying around 2 amps. (the bosch is less flow and higher amps)

Anyway, you gotta keep in my this was my first crack at doing this and I didn't think the pump would be so sensitive to air. I am going to re-run everything and it should be pull and go after that. I'm sure you could do it right the first time and get it set up nice.

I will say that it is AMAZING the difference that the cooler makes. You can definitely feel it on the top end, but the real advantage is the low / mid RPM response. It feels crisp, clean and has lots of power right out of the hole. I don't think you would get the same results using engine coolant. The engine has a thermostat that opens and closes, and your return coolant temp is very sensitive to how much snow you have going over your heat exchangers. I say this, but I've NEVER tried it and i've been proven wrong before! Just doesnt make a lot of sense to me and welding up an extra heat exchanger was not too big of a deal.

If you ride an 07-08 M8, OR you live near Utah, i'd love to help you weld sometime together for your application. I definitely think i've got the M8 solution figured out. Coolant lines come up right through the front of the tunnel by the ignition coils. Shoot, if you've got an M8, I'll just sell you a whole water IC kit!

 

[ArticDoo]

Interesting ! Just curious how much extra weight the whole setup would be. 2.2 lb.s for the pump, How much coolant would a guy need to run in it?

 

[jgw50]

Its pretty heavy. Between everything, IC, Tubing, Coolant, Heat exchanger, its probably 10 lbs.

I'm a little bit of a weight weenie, BUT the driveability of this makes it more than worth it in my book.