Intercooler sizing and placement

[Lawrence]

OK, so I have a 355 LT1 with all forged internals and a P1SC ready to go on there. It's going in a '55 Chevy, and the only place I can fit the intercooler is between the frame horns. I could put a thin one in at 90 degrees to the ground, or use one with a wider surface area parallel to the ground and fit a dam to guide air in. How do you work out what size you need? I'd like to leave a bit of headroom so that if I turn up the boost I wont need to get a bigger intercooler, but it's a street car not a race car, so it's never going to be that high.

[TurboLark]

you need to figure out what the airflow will be for the power you want. Then start looking at IC core flow numbers.
What power do you want at what boost? what is max rpm?
What do you want for Max power at what boost?

[Lawrence]

Hmmm, I dont have a target HP in mind. So lets say I want to have enough flow for 500HP, how do you calculate the CFM? Sorry for the daft question, I'm new at this.

[speedster]

Lawrence -
Call Tim at Ron Davis. He knows all there is to know about intercoolers. He has built many of the custom units for cars on this site. You can also PM on this site, he is Porschev8, or email him: [email protected]

Hope this helps.

[OHCbird]

I second that- Tim is a top-notch guy & Ron Davis makes great products.

[DeltaT]

Lawrence,

I specc'd this intercooler for 600HP with a little headroom, and had Spearco build it. The Core is 18H x 10.5W x 3Thick, and has a 3" inlet and a 3" outlet:



But then, due to my car's available space and my poor planning, I had to have a lower, wider one built. This is the one I ended up having Bell Intercooler build and am using:



There's plenty of space in the 55 for my original one, which is just sitting in its box in my garage. I paid $1200 for it. It is painted with the proper Eastwood Radiator Paint, very lightly on one side of the core only. The tanks are painted with Eastwood Self-Etching Primer and then finished with Eastwood Chassis Black. I will sell it shipped for $550. It could be mounted either sideways or up and down, depending on your setup. Send me a PM if interested.

Jim

[ProStreet R/T]

If it will fit, $550 for that spearco is a pretty smokin deal.

RE- fitting one in your 55' maybe ask Tom Nelson for some pics. I seem to recally him having put a TT big block in the same car.

Oh and you are going to want WAY more blower than that P1SC. It's going to be all but spent at 500hp. If you can track down at least a D1SC it will pay off huge and give you some room to grow.