GT500 in-block intercooler swap results

[Justin@VMP]

Jared mentioned a few weeks ago that we would be testing a higher flowing in-block GT500 intercooler/heat exchanger. Last Thursday we were able to do this on his GT500, in conjunction with a 3" upper and stock lower (22.5psi) on a whipple 3.4L.

We saw no increase in boost pressure after the intercooler, indicating the upgrade was not of benefit when you are forced to work with stock packaging constraints.

There are a lot of packaging restraints on the GT500 intercooler, though its larger than the 03/04 unit, its still smaller than the Ford GT. The Ford GT design also has a lot more flexibility in design because the blower could be mounted higher up and positioned slightly better.

In a perfect world, we could raise the blower up and make more room for a taller and wider intercooler, but that is not practical.

About 3" of the intercooler core is effectively shrouded by the BPV recirculation path. With some cutting and welding this area can be exposed. In the future I will be making this modification to my lower.

I also installed a T-type thermocouple at the blower discharge (before the intercooler) so I can measure pre-IC temps, to aid in my cooling research.

I'm going to try and grab some pics from Steve T. and post them up on here.

[Justin@VMP]

Here is a shot of the in block intercooler core that Jared and I tested:

[Justin@VMP]

Below is a shot of the top of the lower intake manifold with no IC installed.

Another problem with the GT500 lower intake is that only about 8.75" x 4.5" is exposed, the IC core is a little narrower, probably about 4". The area hidden by the BPV is about 2.5" long, though when you cut and weld like (pics coming soon) you will probably be able to unshroud 2-2.25" worth. If you don't want to cut and weld you could just grind back the wall a little and get yourself another 1/2" exposed.



Here is a shot of the lower intake from the bottom: