Using thermoelectric coolers to cool the air induction?

[deathkeeper]

Has anyone considered designing a short ram air intake pipe to go in place of the battery(relocate it to the trunk) that uses thermoelectric coolers to supercool the air? The only problem I see with this is the large amount of power they draw. I would need to use a highend inverter to ramp up the voltage. This solution could combine the throttle response of a short ram, with power gains better than any cold air induction. The hot side of the thermoelectric coolers could be cooled with a simple dedicated cooling loop using a heater core as it's own little radiator.

It's kind of hard to visualize, but it may be able to cool the air down to around 20F.

[Scott McLellan]

I saw an article in one of my auto mags about the new Ford Lightning, it might have been their concept truck, but anyways it had a setup that allowed coolant from the A/C system to flow through the intake manifold and cool the air temps down enough for some considerable gains in hp (can't remeber but it was suprising maybe like 30~ is that possible?). Because of the amount of heat it would absorb this "system" was some push button feature that would only last like 30 seconds, then the A/C system would have to "recover." I think that is right but can't remember for sure if I got all the facts straight. Anyone see this article? On a side note, I have seen where they'll put a ziplock bag full of an ice/water (maybe add some salt, too) on the intake manifold before their run for like a tenth in the quarter. Now that I think about it though it seems like you would want the "cooling" to be done upstream of the intake temp. sensor. Otherwise it would sense warm air and not adjust everything for the actual cooler air. -Scott

[Ubernoober]

Simply put.... no.

Think of your car as an energy system and you will see that the energy required to pump heat out of the intake is more than you get in return by doing so.Intercoolers work because they are a passive radiator.Lastly, due to the speed with which air would flow in the intake, you would have a difficult time significantly cooling the air charge without resorting to a heat sink of some sort.

[cory2081]

another tip, cooler air is denser and moves slower. it's a good idea, I'm sure that everyone notices some power gains in the winter after driving in hot humid air all summer. just use an alternate power source like a remote battery. no worry about pulling power from the engine then.

[PhaneSoul]

short ram air intake, i read something about it, you relocate the battery to where the stock intake is, and modify your intake to be where the battery used to be.

[pr240sx]

Water injection will work bettereasier,cheaper, proven

[Scott McLellan]

"just use an alternate power source like a remote battery."I am assuming you wouldn't use the alternator then. Okay so then you have another 60 lbs or whatever to lug around=less perf.

"Think of your car as an energy system and you will see that the energy required to pump heat out of the intake is more than you get in return by doing so."If you understand how a turbo or a supercharger works you would understand that your statement is incorrect with the whole "energy system" thing. You know how much draw a belt driven supercharger can cause? It can be in the 100's of hp easy on a built engine. Turbo's also are a huge restriction but feed on themselves in a way. I will agree though that the only way you could really cool the intake air to produce power would be on a short term system like the Ford Lightning setup, with a bag of ice right before, ect. If you were going to continually be cooling the intake air I would be very suprised if you would end up producing power with the elect. coolers. The intake manifold would probly make a more effective "heat sink" than the intake tube just because it is thicker and also closer to the combustion chamber. There are easy mods like bypassing the coolant lines to the throttlebody that might do sort of the same thing or just make sure your engine's cooling system is in top condition w/ maybe an elect. fan swap too.

[cory2081]

you just have to figure out how much extra power you'll get from dropping the air temp v.s. how much you will lose in the process. Honestly, on an N/A car, just fab a good ram air system, or take an air-water intercooler and put an orfice tube in the inlet line from the pump to the intercooler. Or.....get an air-air intercooler and use a cryo system. Never hurts to experiment, innovation and racing go hand in hand.

[180fan]

If you're talking about a peltier, it'll do two things. Cause immense heat elsewhere (the hotside of the peltier) and also suck the juice out of your battery and electrical system like hell. The hotside of the peltier would heat up like a madman but if you're talking about using it on an intercooler with a silvia front end and a GT-R grille, it could work since you could have a heatsink extending all the way up to the back of the grill to cool off the hotside and if you use some fatty heatsink to cool it off.