Supercharger IC pump upgrade and relocation
My AEM Infinity logs from my last trackdayshowed IAT peaking 100C which was 75C more than ambient that day. Crazy.. I know the MP62 is not the most efficient blower out there but this was way more than what is acceptable. I was also leaking IC coolant from somewhere, so a upgrade and a thorough check was needed as I suspect it’s not performing as it should. If the air AFTER the IC is 100c what was it initially ?
I had already bought a new IC pump but had not plan to install before I had found a suitable upgrade for the heat exchanger. The brushless Pierburg CWA 100-3 is a beast and probably the most high performance part on the car :)
The original pump placement is not optimal and probably based on ease of install.
Water is traveling four times across the front of the car if we count the dual pass radiator that has inlet/outlet on the oposite side. (not my car):
The Pierburg is much larger so this was not an option anyway.
I wanted to move every component to the cold side of the car but I cold not find room for the reservoar. To do that without lots of tight 90 deg bends I would need a CAI and ditch the airbox which I will try to avoid.
So I ended up putting the pump in the space in front of the right wheel where the fog light is located. Lots of room, cool, and protected from the environments.
I spent hours trying to design a bracket for the pump. But just clamping it to the head light support with a rubber isolator in between worked great and will also take care of any vibrations. Both the inlet hose from the reservoar and the outlet hose to the IC have long radius bends with minimal restrictions. The outlet hose to the IC will now have to go trough the plastic undertray which is not a big problem. Draining the system by shorting the Pierburg takes seconds.
I had already located the reservoar in front of the headlight on my old setup but needed to switch orientation so that it feeds the pump in a almost straight line to the pump routed trough the opening under the headlight. I Made a small bracket that fits with some AC related bolt I think.
Initial testing showed that the reservoar was not able to feed the pump fast enough on max speed. This was fixed by boring out the molded inlets to a larger diameter.
The pump is WAY more capable than the supplied Bosch unit. on full 8 amp fire-hose-mode the water is spewing out the reservoar when the cap is not on.
When I was working on the new hose routing one thing lead to another, so both the battery and the window washer fluid was reloacted. Not just for the IC plumbing but for better flow path for air exiting the radiator. I’m in the process of venting the hood so hopefully this will be enough. I will orient the battery flat on the next revision to be able to use the stock battery lid to cover up the mess and will make a separate post for that. The fuse and relay for the pump is located to the left of the battery. Work in progress:
The pump is controlled by a PWM signal which is documented in detail on tecomotive.com I used a PWM output on the AEM Infinity which ramps up the speed based on IAT as measured after the IC (Mark the output as Nitrous in the Infinity to be able to do this). Before 30 C it’s only idling the water drawing minimum amps.
For non EMS users you have the option of just using the relay which makes it run at kill all the time (which is stupid) or use the Tecomotive controller which seems very nice with temp input option and all.
I’m very happy with this mod. The routing went from 8(!) tight 90 deg bends to only 3, total hose routing is shortened by 3 feet / 1m and there is only one hose splice. This will work with the supplied Bosch pump as well.
I have no hard data yet that it will lower temps but will make a new post some time in august when this have be battle tested on the race track.
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