Cooling Inlet Manifold on Supercharged RV8

topcatcustom · Post by **topcatcustom** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 9:25 am

Hi, I am using an Edlebrock Performer manifold underneath an Eaton M112 blower, I know these produce a lot of heat so am I right in thinking- forget about the water connections on the inlet manifold and completely bypass it? I thought the reason for the water heating was to stop the 4bbl carb from icing but with the heat the SC will produce the last thing I want is more heat!!!
Right or wrong?!

Sean D · Post by **Sean D** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 8:32 pm

Ooh, that's a tough one.
Unfortunately, the manifold pretty much forms part of the coolant circuit. Coolant comes out of the front ports in the heads and into the manifold.
The Eddy makes things more complicated as it directs the coolant back deep into the manifold before it can come forward to the thermostat.

Would be difficult to bypass it.

Boosted LS1 · Post by **Boosted LS1** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:37 pm

You can heat shield the manifold from underneath which may help a bit.

topcatcustom · Post by **topcatcustom** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 10:45 am

Yea I thought about that just a while ago... what a bugger, guess I'l just have to try and keep the whole thing cool- 75-80degs?! According to the David Hardcastle book you can loose something like 10bhp for every 10degs over 75 or something..?! But of course you may struggle with emmisions if its that cold

Paul B · Post by **Paul B** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 9:14 pm

topcatproduction wrote:Yea I thought about that just a while ago... what a bugger, guess I'l just have to try and keep the whole thing cool- 75-80degs?! According to the David Hardcastle book you can loose something like 10bhp for every 10degs over 75 or something..?! But of course you may struggle with emmisions if its that cold

I toyed with the idea of cutting off the front part of the manifold that passes the water and fitting unions/adaptors straight onto the heads, maybe tap a thread in there, thence to an adaptor for thermostat and outlet to the rad, so the manifold would not be getting wet. I believe the water only needs to come out the front of each head, so that would leave the rest of the manifold dry.

I never actually did it, as I couldn't see any real point in doing it on the motor I had.

topcatcustom · Post by **topcatcustom** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 9:21 am

I was thinking a similar thing but then have thought- the air coming from the blower is going to be over 100' and the water in the manifold will be about 75/80! So..... it may actually do more good than harm leaving it! Also I dont see what the outlet on the back of the EP is for as like you say the standard manifold only has one on the front...
Never seen an EP plumbed up in the flesh before so what are you supposed to do with the front and back water outlets?

Sean D · Post by **Sean D** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 6:13 pm

The rear port is an outlet to the cabin heater matrix. The return from that matrix will then go to the water-pump.
The front port - the small outlet in the thermostat housing - is the stat bypass. This also goes to the pump.

Huh, would you believe, I'd also mulled over the idea of bypassing the manifold. In this case, blocking off the ports between heads and mani' and drilling and tapping some ports into the fronts of the heads for a remote stat.
With that done, the manifold could in theory be rigged to a separate cooling circuit and used as a crude charge-cooler?
Wasn't sure how such a daft idea would be taken so left it as 'difficult to do.'

topcatcustom · Post by **topcatcustom** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:39 pm

Not a bad idea but I dont think the air rushing over the surface would cool much atall- it would need fins or some kind of heatsink inside for the air to get into more contact with the nice cold ally I think!

Also there may be trouble when the block warms up to 80 odd degrees and expands and the inlet manifold bolted between heads is freezing cold and doesnt want to expand with the block!!!!