Mysteriously Cool

26 Oct Mysteriously Cool

We’re capping off this week with a look at our progress on the mysterious build, which we’re considering capitalizing in future posts.

Right after we finished that last mysterious box for the mysterious build, this new mysterious box arrived on our doorstep. Okay, okay, it’s not very mysterious — it’s an intercooler core, manufactured right here in the USA by our favorite core company, Bell Intercoolers. All their cores come with a solid warranty, so you can’t really beat ’em.

This is going to be an air-to-water intercooler setup, so cold water will be running sideways through the intercooler core while the air passes through it in the opposite direction. This allows the water to suck even more heat out of the air, cooling and condensing the charged air, allowing for greater power. After all, when you’re building mysterious things, you want the air as cold as possible. Mysteriously cold, as a matter of fact. Either way, we started assembling the walls for each side of the core, and taped them in place to make sure the fitment was spot on. No welding just yet, but that’ll come soon.

Did we say soon? We meant now. Two of the walls of the intercooler core will contain A/N nozzles for hooking up the water lines, whereas the other two sides of the core will have more traditional charge piping connecting to it. While constructing these walls, Tom finished off the welds for the charge side of the cores, and here’s a small example of his handiwork with aluminum. That side was then taped to the core as well, to make sure nothing was warped during the welding process.

With the majority of the walls constructed and ready to be welded to the core itself, we set about making the mounts that would be the final step before the finals welds take place. Just like with the, um, other mysterious box, this one will be utilizing the set-screw-and-corncob-pipe mounting setup, which we’ll finish up after the box itself is welded to our satisfaction and pressure tested. In the meantime, it’s back to the lathe to create these mounts by hand, which we’ll then set into holes drilled into the box’s walls.

Just like last time, we’re welding these mounts from the inside of the box to prevent an overabundance of exterior welds on the box, which can take away from its aesthetic value.

And that’s where we are at so far. The next step is going to be incredibly tricky. Not only do we have to make sure the box’s walls are welded to the core itself, we have to make sure the weld penetrates to the point where there’s no possible leaking between the air side and the water side. This is going to involve some high-amperage welding, slightly larger beads and a good deal of pressure testing, as well. It’s not going to be a short process by any means, but we’re confident that we’ll then have the intercooler looking and performing exactly how we want it, and we’re not ones to settle on fabrication.

Have a great weekend!