I first saw these from a link I believe TomP did. Its a hairbrained idea but I think it would work if the elements cool as much as I think they would. Any thoughts or improvement ideas?
http://www.3dcool.com/?module=produc...ment&mode=list
http://www.3dcool.com/image.php?page=x&id=69

 

Let's Have FUN!

PRO'S - OH WHY NOT DO IT!!!

Con's -
Cost of 4 elements & etc. details
How cold would ya have to KEEP it to OVER COMPENSATE for a VERY HOT DAY?
Electrical system upgrade for see above
How much weight added that removes the "gain" factor


This kinda reminds me of the "Patented Supercharger that works on a one barrel/two barrel/four barrel car.
The Price started at $9.95 to $15.95.
What's it look like?
Try a airplane propeller on top of a Harmonica looking base, sandwiched between the carb/manifold.
I saw this in my 1956 Hot Rod magazines!
It's in full page ads & JC WHITNEY ADS

 

I dont believe the peltier elements are very heavy...and the only things added are those and the aluminum tube... If that's something you wanna try, and you've got the money, I'd love to see what kind of effect it would have!

 

Well it seems like a good idea.
BUT I think the cost effect is going to kill this idea really quick.

 

Elements are $20 each Might even be powerful enough to run only two first for trail. $100 max for entire setup shown above with all 4 elementsand a piece of aluminum tube stock. A true intercooler is going to cost you over $500 for the aluminum box. I think these elements might be a hot ticket- again only if they work powerful enough.

 

How about a cheaper easier set up?
FUNNEL IN CAR AC ICE COLD AIR to air inlet?
MY THINKING...
IF YA HAVE IT, could it not be as effective, without the extra drag due to alternator use to "power the CHILLER".
PERHAPS your original idea better due to less cooling lose due to length of cool air travel.
What about power requirements?

 

Just get a little nitrous setup and spray it in the intake tube before you race someone. Freezes the tubing and makes your intake air temp lower. This idea you have seems to be alot more $$$$$$

 

Ok I'm going a little off topic here, I have a small 12v refrigerator and I always wondered how it worked. I never got around to taking it apart, anyone know if these small refrigerators use the peltier elements ? I know there's no way the thing uses freon and all the usuall stuff found in a fridge, its the size of shoebox, weighs very little, is light and is made to look like an old 50's fridge.

 

Yeah that is true. But myself I see no point in an intercooler unless you are going Turbo or SC setup. The gain will be minimal, as well the point of an intercooler (in general) is to reduce temperature so the fuel does not auto ignite (knock).

This would probably show some gain on a well modified V-6 or V-8, but there are more important things to take care of for the money.

I am not bashing your idea, I am just giving an opinion. I think your idea is great, and the design will work well.

 

I'd still like to see it done. I think our cars, with the power levels they're at, can take advantage of even the smallest power increases and mods. I mean, I take my louvers off, and all the sh*t out of my trunk, and my car is faster. And there couldn't have been more than 50 lbs of crap....

I think the idea of using the A/C to cool the intake charge is an AWESOME idea...but the a/c compressor is going to probably draw enough power to negate the effect of the cooling. My compressor clutch is pretty worn..when the compressor kicks on, you can physically hear it and the engine makes a terrible grind/hum noise, and loses what feels like 5-10 hp. Not good!

 

What if you got a good pulley system to reduce the power needed for the A/C? Then do you think that'd work? Ha! Imagine that: a car that GAINS power by turning on the A/C. I love it!

 

*** backwards aint it? That's great. That's some damn innovative thinking...lol... I say you just gotta screw with the pulley a little bit, and make sure the entire compressor and clutch is in BEAUTIFUL condition and oiled like a MOTHER--------....

 

the thing with pelters is... one side gets very cold, the other very hot. So how do you plan on cooling the HOT side? Especially with that alumiunum tube as a BIG heat sink. Meaning everything your cooling with the pelters is being heated right back up by the heat sink, er aluminum tube.

 

My thought is to laminate them to the outside of the aluminum tube so the cool side makes contact and the hot side is exposed to the open air in the engine compartment. I have a material I use in my contruction trade(Ceramic tile& Marble) that will work with heat and cold and will bond to metals. I can use this to laminate the edges of the elements to the aluminum tube.

 

Do you realize that for every 1* it cools, it generates almost 3* in heat. Your engine bay will get VERY HOT, VERY FAST.
And then you times those numbers by 4? WHOO winnie roast anyone?. Not knocking, but I am looking at getting 2 pelters for my FTP server at home so I can overclock 2 Xeon 900 W/512 K cashe to almost 1.3G a piece. But I am also using an old oil cooler, yes automotive 9X12 oil cooler with a 9" fan to do it with. I plan on keeping those chips at -15* Cold, Ice cold.

 

Thats why I'm asking for thoughts and possible feedback from anyone that has used these elements before for any other application. Thank you.

 

Ever time I read that word, Pelters,
I keep thinking of animal fur "pelts" used for fur coats!

 

Yep, that's what they use. The Peltier junction is a heat pump; one side gets cold because it pulls the heat through to the other side. 'Fact, to get the most cooling out of the unit, you need to have a large heat sink on the other end. (It allows you to move more heat from one end to the other.) The Peltier's are also power hungry; but then again, power hungry is usually meant in electronics systems, not in cars with 100+ amp batteries.

Could hurt to buy one or two and give it a try. Aluminum heat sinks don't weigh too much, and the engine's going to produce enough heat of it's own; I doubt the Peltier's would raise underhood temps that much compared to the big gasoline motor. Some duct work to route air from underneath the car to go across the heat sinks might be very effective...

But I do have to wonder how much cooling these devices could impart to the air from a short piece of aluminum pipe. Too bad we can't stick a Peltier junction onto a mass air flow sensor's screen! That'd probably really cool the air down!

 

Well if those are peltier's in that mini frige then this should be an interesting project, because that little thing can freeze a can of soda if given about a day.

 

I toy'd with the intake tube a little bit with some abs pipe for a test fit and its too rigid to work with the dual snorkel. The accordian pipe is obviously there for a reason. The engine twists to much and the Maf snaps off the intake at their connection point.

I was a fun thought but back to the drawing board.

 

it might be a good idea to put those peltiers (with a heatsink on the hot side) on the upper intake. at the track, you see peeps icing their upper intake to cool it off before each run. peltier = instant ice. my 2 cents.

 

I thought about that first before the aluminum tube idea but I am afraid of blistering the paint on my hood from the excessive heat on the back side of these things. There is not much room between the top of the plenium and the hood and you can't put them under the plenium because what the top side of the element cools the bottom side will heat back up and probably then some.

 

Are you still working on this man ? Im curious !!!!

 

No,(look to posts up of mine for answer). I may down the road hit up a good friend of mine to let me tinker in his 14 million dollar a year sheet metal fabrication warehouse and try to fab up an entire aluminum dual snorkel intake to replace my stock dual snorkel. I then could also build in an intercooler design into the stock air filter locations. I would never pay to have something like this custom made- $$$$$$- but if I ever find enough free time, Paul would let me try and build something myself. We'll see.

I have fabbed some special aluminum brackets there for my Scuba tanks a few years back with the assistance of one of his employees. Time for me is a problem-Taking that much time from my business to build something causes me to loose more money than it would sometimes cost to just pay someone to make it.

 

I wonder, is there any sort of heat resistant insulation that you could put under the hood? I doubt the stock insulation would do much of anything...but if you could keep the heat from getting to the hood, you might be good to go! I'm interested in this idea myself!

 

I'm going to add this idea to the turbocharging a 60 degree V6 idea.

It's not a bad idea, but that's all it is now. I would like someone to do one of them. Someone has to take one for the team. It seems like the only problem with these ideas is the lack of sufficient $$$$$$$$.


I'm not knoking any ideas here, I would just like 1 person to try the idea out.

 

Kindly send all donations to me and I'll get right on it

 

Ditto that! Seriously though, if anybody knows of any hardcore, non-flammable, insulating material..let me know. You could throw that under the hood in place of the original sound deadening mat..or maybe over it even...to help take the heat from the back of the peltiers and keep it from doing anything to the hood. Or you could just run a cowl hood..that would eliminate the problem all together.

 

I did try inserting the solid tube in place of the accordian plastic flex tube for a test fit and it wouldn't stay attached because of engine thrust. GM designed my dual snorkel intake with that flex hose for an obvious reason - so I scraped the idea and stated it in a previous posting above.

 

Just a thought on that....what about cutting a section off of a junkyard flextube assembly, and attaching it to your solid piece..the small bit of flextube might allow enough flex to keep it from snapping your MAF off....
Edit: Rethinking that...I still dont think it'd provide enough flex.......hmm....guess it's back to the drawing board like you said. I don't have an MAF to worry about so it's a very real possibility for me to do..if I had any money to spare.....

 

Just to let you guys know, The picture I sketched quickly above was just an idea of the top of my head before I actually looked at the motor to do this.

In my drawing I accidently placed the MAF next to the TB when in actuality it clips directly to the dual snorkel with a metal kinda hose clamp thingy.

I did'nt realize until I tried a test fit with ABS and the couples that the strait section of aluminum would only be about 6" long and only about 4" of that expose because of the couples on the ends.

Its just not long enough to mess with on a dual snorkel and I'm not about to reroute my good intake stream. You guys without MAF and dual intakes could route long enough Aluminum tubing to make a difference over you ABS intakes. Yes it would be pricey though.

 

Actually I got a front mount intercooler off ebay for $50.
But the fact remains that the gains are negligable for the effort being put forth.

As I staed earlier in the thread, you will have 4 more sources of heat. While the sources may be small, roughly 1.5" sqaure, the tempature they will create IS noticable.
Now going with the before stated 3* heat per 1* cooled....
Typical 80* day. but you intake ait temp is 0*. thats 4 sources making 240*! At the very least. No matter what thats not a good thing.
You can try to use heat sinks, but you car not geting rid of the heat sources, there are still 4 forein objects making nearly 250*, and for what? 1-3 HP? Not worth the possible troubles.