Sidemount cooling

[zachakagoat]

I saw another thread in the hangout about a car (thread got closed) anyways the car had a fan mounted behind the intercooler to pull more air through.
http://i5.ebayimg.com/01/i/03/c0/fd/60_12_sb.JPG
does anyone think this would do any good? I have extra fans laying around from cars I have parted out.

 

[2gPressure]

One way you could find out is if you had a fan that spun freely and hook it up like that. Then drive down the road with someone next to you to see if and how much the fan is spun by the air. If it looks like it's being spun crazy style then it would be a waste and slow the air down by going faster than the motor but if it barely spun it would help pull the air out. just a thought it would definetly help cool it at a stop too. i like the idea

 

[leet]

I think you should first worry about building a duct that will force air coming from the front of the car into the IC, leaving it no place to go (air) but through the core.

I could see a fan helping at lower speeds but at high speeds the pressure of the oncoming air will force it through the IC, especially with proper ducting.

 

[Defiant]

It's not something traditional DSM racers have found to be a beneficial mod. Whether it does anything or not would take some testing. Intuitively, I'd guess that you could pull some heat out of a supposely-heatsoaked IC if it came on at idle, but at the same time you aren't compressing and heating the intake air at idle, and I'd suspect the air being pulled through inside the IC is going to do a lot more cooling than an external fan would.
It would do no additional cooling once you're up to about ten miles an hour, unless that fan can pull through and push out ten miles an hour worth of air.