How I mitigate the Ultracharger heat soak at track

[forcefedjunkie]

This is cross posted from the S5 forum as I think it may help S4 owners as well... If you're like me and have tried to run your Ultracharged B8 S5/S4 at the track you've found that the system gets very hot and will not cool down on it's own. It doesn't help that the IC and engine coolant are tied together. After sitting in staging lanes, my IAT's were typically in the mid 160's on a 70 degree day, and once running down the track temps would hit 180+ by the 1/8th and 190+ by the traps. I could see my boost falling considerably from 18 psi down to 9 from these high IATs and there was nothing I could do to get them down since the system had no overflow tank or any way to circulate coolant once back in the staging lanes. As a result, the best time I could get was 12.10's at around 110 mph after many trips to the track and many runs. Very frustrating.


I had an idea before my last trip to the track, run the cooling fan using my gauge (or VCDS for example) while in the staging lanes, and hopefully cool down the coolant. What I did when I first got into the staging lanes was check my IAT, which was at 154 deg F. After a few minutes of sitting there it was up to mid 160's as usual. So now I'm stuck with no hope of a good run. Well, not this time. I turned on my radiator fan for 4-5 minutes, then started the car for about 15 seconds. I watched the IAT drop from 168 to low 130's. I did this again about 10 minutes later, and temps dropped to high 110's. I did it once again before running, and this time pumped the accelerator a few times to get more air into the engine and temps dropped to around 112. Ran a 11.60 @ 116. Did this for the next several runs and had similar results. First time I've been able to enjoy racing the car since the Ultracharger install which is not a track friendly mod. until was able to do this. I'm sure this would have the same results on a stock intercooler system.

At the end of my night of racing I let the car sit for 1.5 hours and when I started it, IAT's were still in the upper 130's and immediately started climbing. Running the fan and starting engine does more in 5 minutes.

Divorcing the system is next and adding an overflow tank for ice. I took some pics of what I was seeing, this was done as a simulation at my garage after driving the car and getting system hot, then running the fan as described above.

https://imageshack.com/a/img924/9352/C1PlCs.jpg


https://imageshack.com/a/img921/3166/vzRcxW.jpg

https://imageshack.com/a/img924/7287/hEOeA3.jpg

https://imageshack.com/a/img922/599/RfCSJn.jpg

[redlinerex]

May want to look into a Killer Chiller setup.

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[Acejam]

This is a well-known trick. Turning on your AC in the staging lanes and letting the car idle does the same thing. [:)]

[cspcrx]

double your benefits and turn the AC on but turn the temp to full heat. This not only runs all the fans but your pulling heat out of the coolant as well. Need to have the windows down though or you cook! LOL

[forcefedjunkie]

double your benefits and turn the AC on but turn the temp to full heat. This not only runs all the fans but your pulling heat out of the coolant as well. Need to have the windows down though or you cook! LOL

"Double your benefits"? Running AC requires you need to run the engine which will create more heat, as well as creating a hot AC condenser that will radiate heat back to the IC heat exchanger and radiator. Also, I'd rather not bake in the car if I don't have to.


My track does not allow you to run the AC in the staging lanes, if they see any water dripping they will send you back to the pits.


I'll try this and compare how effective it is compared to my way of running the fans with engine off. I'll see if it works twice as well as you claim.

[bhvrdr]

"Double your benefits"? Running AC requires you need to run the engine which will create more heat, as well as creating a hot AC condenser that will radiate heat back to the IC heat exchanger and radiator. Also, I'd rather not bake in the car if I don't have to.


My track does not allow you to run the AC in the staging lanes, if they see any water dripping they will send you back to the pits.


I'll try this and compare how effective it is compared to my way of running the fans with engine off. I'll see if it works twice as well as you claim.

Can you post how you wired it up? I assume you wire the gauge to power and to obd and then do you have to wire the relay kit to the fan controller somehow? Thanks

Mike

[cspcrx]

how do they know if your running your AC? I am not saying run it constantly basically start it for a few minutes to cycle the coolant through the block and exchangers. Then shut it down. I did this last time I was out and I could actually pull mine below normal op temp.

please let us know how your getting all the fans to run without the motor running.

[bhvrdr]

how do they know if your running your AC? I am not saying run it constantly basically start it for a few minutes to cycle the coolant through the block and exchangers. Then shut it down. I did this last time I was out and I could actually pull mine below normal op temp.

please let us know how your getting all the fans to run without the motor running.

If they spot water dripping under the car which it will. The aeroforce has a eelay module to power things

[cspcrx]

Air is so dry here it doesn’t really do that in Phoenix. But you are right they would see it if it did. Looking at the thread in the S5 section it seems this is plugs into the obd2 port and gives you this ability without any other wiring, is that accurate?

[forcefedjunkie]

Can you post how you wired it up? I assume you wire the gauge to power and to obd and then do you have to wire the relay kit to the fan controller somehow? Thanks

Mike

The gauge sends the command through the OBD2 port. It's an option on the gauge menu. There is no wiring or anything extra to do besides plugging the gauge into the OBD2 port.
https://imageshack.com/a/img922/599/RfCSJn.jpg

[forcefedjunkie]

how do they know if your running your AC? I am not saying run it constantly basically start it for a few minutes to cycle the coolant through the block and exchangers. Then shut it down. I did this last time I was out and I could actually pull mine below normal op temp.

please let us know how your getting all the fans to run without the motor running.

I run at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk OH and if you've been there they are very anal about the AC, announcing periodically not to run your AC in staging or on track. If they see water dripping they will send you back to the pits. Just select "fan" from the gauge menu and it will send the command and run the fan until you exit. No relay or anything extra required.

[cspcrx]

Do you have an upgraded heat exchanger on your car? Not seeing it in your sig just ultra charger and CAI. No pulleys? What else is done? Where did you get yours from and is there a model specific to our cars?

Thanks for the post back on install.

[forcefedjunkie]

Do you have an upgraded heat exchanger on your car? Not seeing it in your sig just ultra charger and CAI. No pulleys? What else is done? Where did you get yours from and is there a model specific to our cars?

Thanks for the post back on install.

I have the complete Ultracharger kit with upper/lower pulley, HE, and TB. I just added a CAI yesterday. I got it from HS Tuning in Ohio.

[forcefedjunkie]

double your benefits and turn the AC on but turn the temp to full heat. This not only runs all the fans but your pulling heat out of the coolant as well. Need to have the windows down though or you cook! LOL

I tried this yesterday with temps in the mid 60's. Yes it did bring IAT's down from 160's to mid 120's after about 8 minutes. At that point it didn't seem like it was going to go any lower. I then ran the fan alone with engine using off using gauge for 5 minutes, started car and temps dropped to 113 F. One think I noticed is the fan duty cycle varies and slows down the longer I ran the AC/defroster. With the gauge running fan, it runs 100% the entire time. So, results were similar but for me I'd rather just run the fan with engine off and not bake the inside of the car, not to mention the slight risk of getting sent back to the pits.

[cspcrx]

Makes a sense thanks for testing it. I went to the Aero Force website and they did not list one for our cars that is why I was curious if there was a model number. What did it run you?

[bhvrdr]

I just got off the phone with hs tuning and they are adding it to their site now. Thanks to forcefedjunkie for pn CNAU14.

Mike

[cspcrx]

https://www.hstuning.com/aeroforce-interceptor-scan-gauge-single-b8.html

Its up $250

[JJI]

https://www.hstuning.com/aeroforce-interceptor-scan-gauge-single-b8.html

Its up $250

What is the pod mount they are offering and where is the S logo display option

Thanks


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[bhvrdr]

What is the pod mouth they are offering and where is the S logo display option

Thanks


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Call them

[cspcrx]

Forcefed is yours the blue display color? I looked on their site and do not see any that display blue and white like yours.

[bhvrdr]

I believe his is black and white. That will match our interiors best and also gives the best contrast day or night. You can swap between positve and negatve imaging on the display for that

[forcefedjunkie]

Forcefed is yours the blue display color? I looked on their site and do not see any that display blue and white like yours.

Mine is the white display. The blue display is very blue with black backround/foreground depending on how you configure it in the menu.

[cspcrx]

Got me thinking about redoing my ethanol display. I coded an arduino and built a display to go into the ashtray to see what my ethanol content is. But with the extra features this brings has me thinking about recoding it to send voltage to this unit, much like people did with the P3. Hmmm

[forcefedjunkie]

Got me thinking about redoing my ethanol display. I coded an arduino and built a display to go into the ashtray to see what my ethanol content is. But with the extra features this brings has me thinking about recoding it to send voltage to this unit, much like people did with the P3. Hmmm

Is the sensor connected to the PCM on your car? The GTI/Golf R guys running E85 tunes have the sensor connected to the ECM and then you can read ethanol content via the OBD2 port. The gauge reads this parameter so no need for special wiring. I'm not really familiar with E85 conversion on a 2.0L vs our 3.0L, but I met a guy last weekend with a Golf R and United Motorsports E85 kit and he was reading ethanol content on the Aeroforce gauge via the OBD2 port.

[cspcrx]

No you have to install an flex fuel sensor. But this has me curious if the output could go right into it. I have to look at how people add them to P3.