Saturday, May 19, 2007

Intercoolers

I've been doing a bit of research on intercoolers having recently found out a couple of things.

First was from Buddy at Wereld Auto who informed me that intercoolers from a VW Golf mark IV TDi will fit on the Ghibli, although the one manifold has to be removed and a new one constructed and welded on its place. The good thing about this solution is that it's cheap (these intercoolers can be purchased on ebay for less than €100) and they offer good performance since they're twice the thickness of standard Ghibli units. However, I don't like the idea of having to modify them.

The second option was hinted to me by Jorrit at Auto Forza. He informed me that the intercoolers on the V8 engined Quatroporte is about 30% thicker than the units on the V6 cars. I then happened to stumble upon a picture of a 3200 GT being sold for parts and noticed the intercooler... the location is identical to that of the Ghibli and Quatroporte and the configuration of the ports looked the same.


So I wrote to EuroSpares and enquired as to whether they had any second hand 3200 GT intercoolers and if they could check whether they fitted a Ghibli. They wrote back to inform me that they'd been informed from the factory that the Ghibli intercoolers will fit the 3200 GT (wrong way 'round but by definition, the 3200 GT intercoolers must fit the Ghibli (although the ducting may require a bit of modification)).


Above is the parts schematic from the 3200 GT. Compare the size of the intercoolers with those for the Ghibli in the schematic below.


So I'm tempted to try and source some 3200 GT intercoolers and get Jorrit to try fitting them when he's fitting my new bumber (when it arrives... it's been on order from the factory for about 2 months now!).

As usual... I'll keep you posted of any updates.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi,
previously you had considered water injection, why have you decided against it ? I (Ghibli 2.8, modena power pack) am planning to have it installed. To my knowlegde later Lancia Delta Integrale had water injection factory installed. So it must not be that bad.
Best regards, Robert.

Jonny said...

Hi there Robert

I have absolutely nothing against water injection and certainly don't rule it out as a future modification.

However, from my last dyno run, I'm keen to get the baseline performance to a decent level across the entire rev range. Water injection will undoubtedly yield better top end performance, adding the capability to increase boost and yield performance gains from 4000 rpm and above, but I want to try and improve general driveability of the car in the low to mid range also, for which increasing intercooler efficiency should help.

Did the Lancia have water injection or a mist spray across the intercoolers like on the Alfa version of the car?

Cheers... Jonny.

Anonymous said...

Hi Jonny, thanks for the prompt response,

my ghibli reaches full pressure (middle of the red area) above 3000 rpm. After about 4500 rpm the pressure begin to fade away (still the original loaders); I therfore think the water injection would do good in this mid range ?

My latest Intergale (a 16V) did not yet had the water injection; I read about it in the german wikipedia, they say: "Bei der Version des Evo II ("Sedici") wurde während des Overboost die Motorleistung durch Wasserzerstäubung auf den Ansaugbereich des Ladeluftkühlers noch zusätzlich erhöht. Das hierzu benötigte Wasser wurde aus einem im Kofferraum befindlichen 10 Liter großen Wassersack gepumpt".

Regards Robert

Jonny said...

Hi there Robert

Do you know what was included in the Modena power pack? Sounds like you've had a chip tune, since Maserati set the boost pressure to just about reach the end of the amber region in the guage, which is about 1.20 bar, so sounds like your car has been set to overboost a little at lower revs? Otherwise, it's been set with lower boost but the wastegate may be lifting a little?

You've got a 2.8 liter version which is much has much better torque response than the 2.0 liter engine in my Ghibli, hence you reaching full boost at 1000 rpm earlier than on my car. Mine currently goes on to rev up to 7300 rpm, where I suspect yours stops below 7000 rpm? Depends on what Modena did to it though?

My German isn't great, but with the help of my MacBook translator, I think indeed this is talking about spraying water across the intercooler. The guy who services my car has an Alfa 155 Q4, which is essentially a Lancia Integrale with the 155 body. This car came with the mist spray over the intercooler (I've seen the bits), but he took it out of his car since he didn't trust the plastic bag full of water in the boot that acted as the reservoir!

Cheers... Jonny.