A common problem with Supercharged Mustangs is that they inhale in too much warm air. This problem is called 'heatsoak'. In order to solve this problem Lek Import Cars has developed a Heat Exchanger that uses maximum of air stream. This is the best way to use the power of your supercharged Mustang.
Heat Exchanger behind bumper
The problem with supercharged Mustangs is that they inhale too much warm air. This heat is caused by the power adder, in this case the supercharger, due to very tight tolerances at the rotors/internals. The warm air is cooled in the intercooler which in turn is cooled by a medium like coolant or water to transport the heat to the heat exchanger behind the front bumper. The stock heat exchangers are usually not very efficient enough so often they are replaced with a AFCO dual fan heat exchanger.
The AFCO dual fan heat exchangers are very effective compared to the stock heat exchanger and have the advantage that with slow and city traffic they keep cooling because the powerful fans will pull the air through. Because most of this heat exchanger is mounted behind the front bumper it’s less effective with airflow generated when the car is moving; the fans are only working up to approx. 25 mph above that point the airflow gained by the cars speed is stronger.
Loss of power due to heatsoak
The problem that occurs is as soon as the vehicle is under load or driven in boost conditions, the intake temperature rises rapidly and the difference between the outside temperature and intercooled air will increase, and only starts to decrease when the boost and load are less, this phenomenon is called heatsoak.
The heatsoak problem is two folded, first problem is that warm air is less dense which means that it contains less oxygen at any given volume, and in return can handle less fuel for proper combustion. We all understand that this is not what we want. The second problem is due to keep your engine running safe the tune has a built in safety feature to pull timing as soon as the intercooler temperatures are rising, to prevent detonation or knocking or worse, a blown engine.
Lek Import Cars Intercooler Heat Exchanger
To eliminate this phenomenon we developed a Heat Exchanger that will be mounted in line with the existing intercooler system, but using all airflow coming through the upper grill. Instead of looking at increasing intercooler temperatures we see no decreasing temperatures and thus at wide open throttle and high loads resulting in better combustion, less change on detonation and much safer conditions for the engine.
Analyses
The screenshot below is without our Heat Exchanger, it’s clear that the temperature goes up as soon as the rpms and load increases. The black line is rpm, the red line is intake air temp as measured at the maf close to the airfilter and the yellow line is the downstream/intercooled airtemp. The difference in intake air temp and downstream air temp is approximately 48 degrees Fahrenheit and worse it’s increasing under wide open throttle or full load.
The screenshot below is with our Heat Exchanger, it’s clear that the temperature goes down as soon as the rpm and load increases. The black line is rpm, the red line is intake air temp as measured at the maf close to the airfilter and the yellow line is the downstream/intercooled airtemp. The difference in intake air temp and downstream air temp is approximately 23 degrees Fahrenheit and it’s decreasing under wide open throttle or full load, this is exactly what we wanted to see.
Efficiency at full power
These datalog screenshots show the Lek import Cars intercooler Heat Exchanger is very effective, and most important when it’s needed, wide open throttle and when under load, so exactly when you need to stay cool.
Order the Lek Import Cars Heat Exchanger directly in our webshop or contact us for questions.
Special thanks to Dris for the help and development and using his car for all measurements, and to Douglas for using his GT500 as a "testmule" for test fitting and being able to datalog.