Project Icey Reservoir-*WARNING* Lots of DATA

First and foremost my thanks to Steve, svt4svt for letting me do this and also to SID297 and Lightning Larry for recommending me!! :coolman:

Steve contacted me about this product and asked if I'd be interested in installing it on my truck in addition to doing some testing and providing feedback. Of course I jumped at the chance. I was honored to be approached and had high hopes for this mod. I wasn't disappointed in the least. On to it, this is going to be a LONG post so stay with me.

First the product and it's installation. This is somewhat of a beta model and some of my notes and suggestions are going to be used for production changes. :thumbsup:

The Icey Res is simply an evaporator inside a coolant reservoir for the IC fluid. I goes in place of the stock washer fluid reservoir. The installation will require evacuation and recharging of the air conditioning system which should be done by authorized servicemen for legal reasons.

Stock setup:



The IR box itself.







I first drained the i/c system into a catch pan and reused the fluid after it was filtered. With the washer res removed you can see the two lines coming from the condenser. They are both high pressure lines from the a/c compressor, the top line is coming into the condenser and the lower line is going out and that is where the high pressure (small line with a tee) line goes for the Icey Res.

With the IR bolted in the upper HP line was too close to the bottom fitting. I simply pushed the lines down some to gain clearance.



After repositioning the lines there's ample room.



The low pressure line (large one for the IR) goes to the outlet side of the accumulator reciever/dryer. In his haste to get this to me the replacement longer bolt wasn't included. No problem, I went to the hardware store and got a metric automotive stud 8x1.25 thread and it was 60mm in lenght IIRC, it was $1.30. I then just re-used the factory nut to install the new line inbetween the stocker.



Here is the low pressure line installed



The high pressure line has good clearance with the other stock componentry as well.






With both lines installed it's pretty much done. I removed the hose from the outlet of the heat exchanger where it goes into the intercooler and moved it to the lower fitting on the IR and then used some hose I already had to go from the IR back to the i/c line on the engine.

The fluid path goes from the stock res to the pump, through the HE and then to the IR before going into the intercooler and then back to the stock res where the cycle repeats.



The new lines come with the properly sized fittings and O-rings so all you do is bolt it in! Here is the finished install.



As I said this is a test bed and the hose I used and it's routing can easily be changed. The system held an ADDITIONAL gallon+ of water when I refilled it, another bonus!! epper:

Now the results. Take a break if you need to, this is a lot of data but it has pictures. :thumbsup:

This morning I drove to work which is a 25 mile trip mostly on highway. Ambient temp was 70* according to the in-cab readout. I datalogged the whole way using live link.

Startup


After getting up to full operating temp on the highway allowing the IAT2 temps to peak and stabalize I turned the a/c on, represented by the red line that makes a "Z", the yellow line is the IAT2 temp itself.



This is after the a/c is turned on thus activating the IR. It's easy to see the IAT2's drop and by looking at the timestamp numbers at the bottom of the graph between screenshots you can see how quickly the temps rise and fall.



AC turned back off, temps go up.



I waited for the IAT2 to "peak" each time before turning the AC back on to repeat the results.



AC back on after peak.



Temps go back down.




The last 10 minutes of my drive is stop and go at low speeds. When I got to work I popped the hood and measured the actual IC fluid temps.



I repeated this process this afternoon. The outside temps ranged from 97-101*

Same type of screenshots and process.

Startup


OP temp cruise



AC on and off, temps fall, rise to a peak then fall again.
















The last few miles was stop and go in 100* temps going slowly. I got home and parked, turned the a/c off to let the temps peak and then back on to see if they'd drop again and they did!





I shut it off and measured the fluid temps again.



Pretty damn impressive IMO given the conditions. At no time have I observed any condensation on the IR box so no worries about water egress. With the system operating I can FEEL the difference in throttle response even in the 90*+ temps and HIGH humidity here in GA.

That's ****ing awesome.

How long until this is available for purchase?

Just had a thought... don't a lot of tracks have rules against using AC anywhere in the staging lanes or on the track?

Still a valuable mod for street use, though.

Well thats pretty damn cool (no pun intended) and insanely easy hookup. Great info and great job on the data log

i want this now, bob. even after driving for a half hour on the highway, you can feel the difference the heat makes. what would you estimate the cost of the system to be, just a guesstimate would be good.

Steve should chime in soon to provide pricing and availability info. I notified him via email of the thread.

As for track use, I'm not sure about the a/c rule but it would make sense. I did tell Steve that I didn't know if or when I could make a track visit to try that part out so I have no info there.

Fade 2 Black said:

Steve should chime in soon to provide pricing and availability info. I notified him via email of the thread.

As for track use, I'm not sure about the a/c rule but it would make sense. I did tell Steve that I didn't know if or when I could make a track visit to try that part out so I have no info there.

Click to expand...

Excuse my ignorance on this ... but are you saying that the HP gain from this system (by having a decrease in IA2 Temps) will outweigh the HP loss of having the ac on??

I have had the same setup for about 5months that I have yet to installl...LOL

I will be plumbing mine up soon....and wil be re routing the path so that the IC fluid gets cooled by HE first and then into the CHiller and then into the IC.

THe AC can be set to shut off when you go WOT in the tune...

I don't know. I don't know how much HP the a/c uses when on, nor do I know how much the IR will add, I can only speculate and I'm not going to specualte.

However, since the a/c is disabled when going WOT in the tune then there is no parasitic loss when accelerating hard. Throttle position determines at what point the a/c is diabled in the tune and can be changed. The time that the compressor is deactivated after reaching this point can be set as well.

Mine is set to shut off at 750 counts (3.66 volts) and stays off for 15 seconds minimum.

sweet

kinda the same princple got the lightning concept how it used the ac to cool the intake air..

nice
how did it affect the ac? still nice cold air?

For track use, It could come in handy to cool the IC fluid temps and IC before each run. might help with consistency

What Dave said. Even if you can't run with it going down the track, you could use it right up until you rolled outta the staging lanes....

wow Bob! i had no idea you were going to post so much info and actual screen shots. simply awesome! :thumbsup:

id actually like to use them on the website. better than anything i could come up with, lol.

The ICey Res is designed and manufactured by Bust Big Racing of Chatsworth, California. There are some local F150 owners who do have this product but but True Forged will now be the sole distributer of this item for now. We are in the process of putting together some deals for retail dealers to carry it as well.

We have the first batch being finished up this week. We will have 9-10 ready for sale by the end of this week or the next. The price will be $600 plus shipping (probably $20-25). We are still in the process of setting up our credit card sales process so for the first batch we will only accept money orders but we will be offering free shipping for those who do jump in on the first group purchase as an incentive. we will have powdercoating and polishing options available as well. within the next few days i will post a thread for the group purchase and all details regarding it.

We are currently in the process of designing an Icey Res system for the terminators as well. As soon as that system design is finalized, we will be working on a universal, remote mount system that you can mount in your battery location, trunk, bed or wherever! :beer: This universal system will work for people who own superchargers such as Vortech, Procharger etc.... after that, we will likely be developing a "drop in" system for the GT500.

The box that Bob tested did not have a drain vavle but we are currently working to include one in the box for those that wish to drain the fluid in between passes at the track. It is not guaranteed at the moment that we will be putting them in the ICey Res or in the first batch of ten. We will do so if it is feasible and it will not affect the price of the unit.

here are some more pics of the unit not installed:

i was also under the impression that this unit would be valuable on a road course since you dont have to get of the vehicle to drain the ice box and refill it with cold water. you can still cram ice into the stock IC resevior (if you keep using it) but we dont advise doing so in the ICey Res as it may damage the core.

Fade 2 Black said:

I don't know. I don't know how much HP the a/c uses when on, nor do I know how much the IR will add, I can only speculate. Theory states that for every 10* drop in air temp you get approximately 1% increase in HP. If so then a 10* drop in temp of the air going into the cylinder may be higher. For my truck in street trim that would equal 50 rwhp or more, speculating of course.

Click to expand...

What numbers did you use for the 50rwhp estimate? Just curious, I'm not seeing that big of difference in the data.

I like this product over what the other company is doing because this looks much easier to install and maintain. For me, I'd like to see what it does at the track. As for running the A/C at the track, if they see you dripping water, you might get talked to. If you are dripping water, it is bad ettiquite toward the other racers. Of course one could argue that any street tire car driving through the water box without doing a burn out is just as bad.

Insulating the AC lines and even the box should improve performace also - but may not look as bling.. :-D

-Mark

Thanks Steve, glad I exceeded your expectations.

Didn't the gen III have some sort of a charging system that made it so the AC wasn't actually running while you were getting your blast of cooling? Thought I read it worked like a self-charging 50 shot of nitrous.

Fade 2 Black said:

Thanks Steve, glad I exceeded your expectations.

The estimate I used is generally accepted knowledge for tuning. If I'm making 500 hp and the air temps drop 10* which equals a 1% increase in hp then that equals roughly 50 hp. This is the same concept that was used on the prototype Gen III L for those who remember.

Click to expand...

didnt ford say it was onlly effective for 10-12 seconds? if so, is this sytem different? does it last longer? the only way i see it being useless after a 1/4 blast is maybe heat created by load and rpms. maybe because the a/c shuts off at WOT? im kinda lost on as to why it would only work for such a short period of time. i guess my main question is will this system keep those same temps after multiple WOT runs?

Fade 2 Black said:

Thanks Steve, glad I exceeded your expectations.

The estimate I used is generally accepted knowledge for tuning. If I'm making 500 hp and the air temps drop 10* which equals a 1% increase in hp then that equals roughly 50 hp. This is the same concept that was used on the prototype Gen III L for those who remember.

Click to expand...

I understand the formula, but 1% of 500 is 5. I didn't see a 100* drop to equal 50.

-Mark

Ford did say that. I don't have the data to answer your question boner at this time as I haven't done any high load, high speed testing yet. The best way to tell how quickly the system recovers is to measure the actual fluid temps while performing such tests and I'm not setup to do that.

HE type and size as well as conditions can all determine recovery time I guess.