[AJerk]

Ok I was thinking, there are a bunch of liquid to air intercoolers out there, and instead of just using water, why not use pressureized gases or something. My chemistry is a little hazy but if you created a vaccum in a flask with water in it, the water would boil/ get hot when the pressure was low enough. If you pressureize the flask (it wouldn't hold up to the pressure, because it would explode, and it would implode if too much vacuum was produced. But lets say this flask is indestructable) the water would solidify, right? And it would become colder right? What if you pressureized non combustable gasses to their solid state producing ice cold temperatures, to cool the air off immensly. What about liquid nitrogen.
I think that this idea has possibilities, but my only fear is that I'm thinking when you reduce pressure the boiling temperature rises, not the actual temperature of the substance, but i could be wrong. Whatever, any chemistry experts here?
-AJ-

[GT350R]

If it could be done just by pressurizing the gas or liquid, then do you think A/C systems would have all the parts they do and the big heavy compressor?

Really what you are discribing is the A/C system , but I think you are looking for a way to pressurize the gas a single time and be done with it. My guess is that if it could be done , it would revolutionize the cooling industry. Just think about A/C systems and refidgerators that would use almost no opwer to run them!

[bhuff]

So you want to make an air conditioner for your turbo? I think that is exactly what you are describing.
An air conditioner works by compressing and expanding a gas. The gas being R12, R134A or whatever. If I remember correctly, in an AC system, the gas is compressed and heated in the compressor, then sent to the condensor, where it is cooled and turns into a liquid. From the condensor, it is off to the orifice tube, where the the pressure of the liquid (gas?) is subsantially droped and therefore, the fluid becomes cold. The cold fluid is then sent to evaporator, where a heat exchange occurs and cools the air going into your vehicle. After that, the whole process starts over again at the compressor.
It is a good idea, but I think it would take a team of engineers to design a system like that to work as an intercooler. The biggest problem that I see is that the amount of heat that needs to be exchanged in an intercooler is very large. The amount of fluid needed for that kind of task would be very large.
These kinds of things are great brain exercises and everyone here should keep thinking about better systems and possibilities. That is what makes this board great.

[GTwannabe]

Let's take CO2. Compress the gas to about 800psi in a bottle, and it will start to condense into liquid. Keep filling the bottle, and then let the gas out. The CO2 liquid will boil off into gas as the pressure decreases. As it boils, it sucks in heat energy from the bottle. Bottle gets very cold and can freeze over.

Unless you let the gas escape, the CO2 liquid will be very happy in the bottle at room temperature.

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66 Sprint 200: Smokes tire 125ft! ...and... 87 LX notchback: 85.5 SVO motor, .020 over TRW pistons, O-ringed, head studs, A237 roller cam and adjustable pulley (4 degrees advance), ported E6 manifold and intake, T3 turbo with .63 A/R exhaust housing, 3" Dynomax exhaust w/ cat, 3" VAF meter, SVO intercooler, adjustable fuel pressure regulator, 190lph fuel pump, 5spd, RAM Powergrip 6-puck kevlar faced unsprung hub clutch, 3.45 limited-slip, GT turbine wheels

[Karl]

Wouldn't the weight of all the equipment required to do this offset any performance gains, and last time I checked liquid nitrogen wasnt cheap or all that easy to find, and its not really all that safe, and the extreme differences in temperature could cause the metal to crack, and then you would have some really pissed off track officials.

[cheapbird]

Originally posted by AJerk:
Ok I was thinking, there are a bunch of liquid to air intercoolers out there, and instead of just using water, why not use pressureized gases or something...

This has come up before. Try looking in the archives. Some have suggested using the AC evaporator core as the intercooler.

[bhuff]

There was a previous thread no this topic, it goes into great length and detail describing possibilities with an AC system. http://ubb.turboford.org/Archives/Archiv...06942.html Very interesting stuff.

[bhuff]

I think that the main problem with using the AC system itself is the huge amount of heat that would have to be transfered. Think about it, on a 100* day, the AC cools whatever CFM your blower can blow to 55 or 60*. That is a 40* drop in the temp of what your blower can push through. An intercooler generaly drops the temp hundred degrees (is that about right?), but there is a lot more flow in an intercooler than your AC.
It would work for a little while, but the temp of the coolant would go up quickly and come down slowly. You would just have to give it a little time to reduce the temp of the coolant before getting to boost again. That kind of thing sounds like a recipe for detonation to me.