Right, I'm really starting to think my charge cooler is scrap!
I filled it with water the other day and found a little wet spot on the outside.
I convinced myself that this was just a spot of water which had found its way onto the outside, but the more I think about it, the more I think it must have leaked out from inside the core.
Presumably this is going to be due to the head put into the core whilst welding. I did notice it had become banana shaped at one point, but it straightened out when it cooled down.
Like a nobber, I thought "would a teensy weensy leak be all that bad?" but the obvious anwer is "yes it bloody well would"
SO! Time to think of another solution.
I reckon I could easily knock up a replica of the cooler in polystyrene including the trumpets etc, and then wrap the whole thing in carbon fibre with relative ease so that'd be the casing of the thing taken care of.
That just leaves the core.
I could use an oil cooler I guess, but nothing long enough with sufficient depth seems to be available so that leaves the option of making a core.
I've come up with this as an idea on how to get around the problem of heat breaking the core:
Basically, there are two drilled end plates, each with 64 holes in them. There will be a top plate and a bottom plate, two spacer plates, two end tank plates with a water pipe welded to them and then 100 cooling fins at 4mm intervals.
The fins are to be 0.1mm thick and have 64 holes punched through them so that each hole has a swage, rather than just a drilled hole.
Through each of the 64 holes will pass a 1/4" aluminium tube (not shown in the sketch)
Each aluminium tube will be either soldered or bonded into the thick very end plates, with the spacer and end tanks being bolted and sealed on to form a water tank at each end.
The whole lot can then be attached to flanges on the CF shells using screws and sealant.
It's relatively simple in principal and is (unless I solder the pipes) free from heat distortion problems, but the question is, do we think that 100 fins and 64 tubes will be good enough at exchanging heat with the charge air?!
Input from all is welcome as ever!
) it back to the water. Thats why laminova cores only use thin short fins or the heat from the tip would never get to the tubes as the middle of the fin would also be absorbing heat and trying to get rid of it through the water core.
