I once knew a guy who had what he called a "cool can". It was a can that had part of his fuel line wound in a coil inside, and he would add ice to it when he was about to race. Does this really help? ...Just curious
yes it helps. anything that cools the incoming fuel or air adds hp. it also can make car more predictable by providing a less variable fuel temp. can be a pain in the a** to keep ice in, unless u top it off in the lanes just before they pull you out for a run.
It does. I am in fact working on a prototype Gas tank cooler mechanism. I already got the patents so don't try and rip me off :evilsmile Seriously they work but like mentioned a pain in the arse to keep ice in, It melts very fast.
My brain is hurting from the over load of ideas... Or maybe cause I need to get back to the shop and get busy again Nahhh, too many ideas..
MOROSO makes one that is insulated and uses a heat sink insted of a coil of tube. I used one of them for years with great sucess. They work great. One thing you need to do insulate the fuel line after the cool can. This keeps the fuel cool all the way to the carb. Another thing I did on mine was put a heat shield on the base of the carb to further help in keeping the gas cool. Then I made a air pan for the top of the carb that was attached to a volosity(SP) stack to seal it to the hood so it was sucking only air from the outside of the car through the scoop. I think I have some pictures of the setup somewhere if you would like to see them. Don
you might want to keep to the simple stuff at first. insulate as much of the fuel lines as possible, especially in the eng compartment. also a carb insulator helps. fresh air ducted from the holes in the radiator core to the carb helps a lot. the supposed rule of thumb is that for each degree drop in incoming air temp, you gain 1% horsepower (or maybe its .1%). been a long time since i read that. anyway, its very cheap power. almost free.
hot fuel atomizes easier, but cold fuel is worth some HP. But, Dave mentioned that the air is more important. You will have approximately 12 times more air than you will fuel....so...if you can get the air cooled off, you'll pick up HP, quite a bit actually. That's why most turbocharged engines are intercooled. Cool boost is worth a LOT of power compared to blowing hot air. 150-200 HP on some applications.
i know at our track they'll have a fit if you bring ice to the staging lanes. and if you leak any water at all plan on being dq'd.
DRY ICE....problem solved. it wont melt as fast. my old man always told me about the good old boys doin this on their gto's and cameros and stuff like that in the 70's. but what i have herd is that on an efi car, cooler temperature makes the fule more dense and can fudge up the air/fule mixture. i think it was just a nay sayer trying to trash the idea but i have herd it is pretty effective .
Ok, i'm going to try to make me self a can (with a drain cock). Not a real fancy ALL OUT race set up, but something.
Cold fuel is better for a carb since it's introduced at the throttle. The atomizing fuel cools the air allowing you to run more timing, and it does increase the oxygen density in the air. So, the colder the fuel starts out, the more heat it can suck out of the air. As stated above hot fuel atomizes better. On an EFI car you don't inject fuel until the air is already going into the hole, so having cold fuel really isn't that big of a deal here. Having hot fuel will allow it to burn more completely. One of the major car rags ran a tech article several years ago on a guy who converted his SBC to run on hot fuel injection. It was actually pretty clever. He ran fuel lines through the coolant passages in the head and then let it be sucked/squirted into the combustion chamber through tiny holes in the intake valve seat. It wasn't perfect, but the idea behind it was solid. He picked up several mpg and part throttle response. Older EFI used manifold vacuum to determine how much fuel to inject at WOT. The mass of fuel injected is a function of it's density since it runs the same pressure and pulse width each time. So, you can inject 20 ccs of fuel each time, but the amount of fuel molecules in that 20 ccs will vary depending on the density of the fuel. Hotter fuel has fewer molecules per volume and vice versa. So, the engine will run fat or lean if the fuel temp isn't right. Closed loop wide band O2 will allow you to vary the pulse width at WOT to a specific AFR based on the amount of oxygen left in the exhaust. Under part throttle driving the computer varies the pulse width based on a switched O2 reading. Mass Air systems work better than Speed Density (manifold pressure) since it measures air molecules at WOT and injects the proper amount of fuel to get the right AFR. However, it still asumes a certain injector size and fuel temp.
I have never bought dry ice, how much is it? Where would I think to buy it? Adam... Thats good info, thanks. Just to let you guys know, i'm running a carb- 600DP.
