updated detailed photo, charger relocated

**Artifex** · April 4th, 2002, 02:03 AM

SC Hybrid, I sent this also as a note to you. Now that I can create an account, I will reporst it here for everyone to flame [img]biggrin.gif[/img] .

I have been following your progress with a lot of interest. I plan on doing a similar thing to my '00 Honda Prelude in 2 years (I have other mods I am going to do between now and then [img]smile.gif[/img] ).

I have some reccomendations for you, which are things that I have thought of while I mentally work this problem out:

1) You may want to reconsider your choice of blower. I say this not because the Eaton is bad (far from it), but because I found an even more awesome blower. You may have heard of it already; it is the Whipplecharger. Go visit http://www.whipplesuperchargers.com/sc_available.html. If their claims are true, their supercharger operates at something like *85% efficiency* (adiabatic), which is light years ahead of even the centrifugal ones. This puppy would blow the Eaton away, and the kicker is Eaton even helps them manufacture it. Go check out the page. Another added bonus here is that the smaller ones (more appropriate to your engine) are better suited for the tight spaces you are working in, as well as lighter I would think.

2) Your choice of an air to water intercooler is a good one. Our cars don't lend themselves to the air/air ones because of tight spacing and intake at the rear of the engine. There is a lot of experimentation still going on on water/air intercoolers, so everyone can contribute something to this effort. By far the coolest site I have found is a Yahoo groups site just for water/air intercoolers : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Air-Water-Intercoolers. Go get yourself a membership so you can read their mail archives.

3) There are some intercoolers for sale on ebay. An air/air intercooler can be adapted for water duty by passing the intake air charge through the side of the intercooler like the outside air does in a normal air/air application, and passing the water through the *inside* of the intercooler where the intake charge would normally go. Quite clever really. It may fit in your setup, it may not.

4) If I were you, I would fabriate a custom intake manifold myself. I would make the entire intake manifold, plenum, and intercooler one big piece. It may cost a little more, but it may reduce your space requirements and improve airflow. Maybe Spearco can do this? I would try and come up with your own air/water intercooler design, and see if you could fab it at a local machine shop. They can do some crazy stuff with modern machinery.

5) Spearco makes quality intercoolers, but you pay a lot for them. I think there may be cheaper alternatives, but you will have to look around. The cheapest would be to come up with your own design and have it machined per the suggestion above.

Good luck man and keep those pics coming.

**93SleepR** · April 5th, 2002, 12:44 PM

I was daydreaming the other evenign about some of the points ARTIFEX made and it occured to me that if you could get a custom casting made that replaced the lower half of the GSR manifold to provide a mounting point for a blower (either the Eton design or the Whipple) you could easily sandwitch the IC core in the space that is occupied by the stock GSR IAB valve plate. This would be a more compact design in my opinion and might avoid having to mount the blower so low. I also think that the runner design on the GSR manifold is a lot better than the JRSC design.

I have actually found a couple of foundries that work in aluminum and do custom casting. I will try to get a rough idea of the costs involved. It shouldn't be too outrageous. I'm an Architect and i design custom metal work all the time. There are a lot of places that do this.

Also, if i find a place that has reasonable costs it's not a crazy idea to re-engineer the JRSC alternator bracket to move the alt closser to the block. I'm a little concerned that the modifications to the standard bracket may weaken it significantly.

I need to get measured section drawings of the GSR manifold or get my hands on a spare one to play with.

Mike

**Artifex** · April 6th, 2002, 08:24 PM

92sleepR:

Very cool to hear your thoughts on this. It is very very cool that you are an architect -- we may be able to to business. I am pretty serious about these mods (as I can tell SC hybrid is). If you are interested in working with us on this, I would love to work out a deal. Your design skills would be very valuable here, and I am willing to compensate you if you want to help me (I don't want to speak for SC hybrid, can make his own choice [img]tongue.gif[/img] ).

On a side note, I tried to get flow/efficiency/power data from Whipple, but they didn't really answer my question. I may try again in a little bit. I am still somewhat skeptical about thier efficiency claims, so I want to see graphs. One definite upside though, is that the blower for my size engine (1200 or 1600 I think) are physically smaller than the Eatons.

Feel free to msg me privately if you want to negotiate some sort of compensation [img]cool.gif[/img] .

**99SIVTEC** · April 9th, 2002, 05:08 PM

I had tried to come up with something similar to this a few months back. The problem I ran into was the location of the alternator. Is the location of the alternator the same on an integra as on the civic SI? I would like to get a setup like this going asap so i'm very interested in more details.

**grand600** · April 10th, 2002, 02:26 AM

I am still here and have all the parts. Now it just takes time to put the new mani on. Hopefully a week or two. Dam the I/C is big????

**93SleepR** · April 10th, 2002, 11:54 AM

I contacted Whipple myself and yes, they wern't very helpfull. I get the sense that they are more interested in the domestic crowd right now.

No big deal really, I'm sure the information is available.

I got a response from the foundry and they are interested in seeing the design. They work with prototypes and small one-off jobs all the time. They can also heat treat and machine the casting any way you specify. As soon as i get my hands on a spare GSR manifold i will start on creating scaled drawings of the lower half. I really do think that this will work.

I currently have a JRSC on my hybrid civic so i would base the design on the mounting flange of that blower but the Whipple design is very similar and it may be as easy as specifying two diferent bolt paterns on the same mounting flange to get either one to work.

I will keep you all informed. I think this is an idea who's time has come and if we pool the brain trust on this board we could probably come up with something pretty cool.

SC HYBRID, Have you heard anything from Spearco about the IC core yet?

P.S. i think the alternator location issues could be solved by having a custom casting made based on SC HYBRIDS modifications. Price, of course, is the issue and the foundry won't be able to quote anything untill they have real designs.

Mike

**Holden** · April 10th, 2002, 12:00 PM

I have a brand new JRSC GSR manifold for sale if anyone is looking for one.

Make me an offer.

**2000GSR** · April 10th, 2002, 02:31 PM

You guys should start thinking big. I'm talking about getting a patent on that sucker and start mass producing them. If the price is right you could make a ton of money [img]biggrin.gif[/img] Plus I want one!!!

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ April 10, 2002 11:35 AM: Message edited by: 2000GSR ]</font>