Air to Water Intercooler

[zlegros]

Reading up on the Hurricane HO specs I see it has an air to water charge. Which is a good thing to know owning one for maintenance Ofcourse, but also shows that Ram is serious about OEM and after market performance. Air to water is far more effective in keeping temps down and shows it’s a true performance vehicle. You only see this in high performance vehicles(Lotus, Focus RS, BMW M4 GTS etc..) Just good info to know for buyers

 

[MurphNH]

There was a good video on YouTube tfl truck. They had the lead engineer on and he went over why they went that way vs air.

 

[Dcchris311]

I used to drop some ice cubes in the reservoir of the CAC system prior to doing some runs. Helped with reducing heat soaked which what the water to air inter-coolers are more prone to. IF they are pushed hard.

 

[Cautionary Tale]

I vastly prefer Air to Liquid Intercoolers over FMIC and hugely dislike TMIC. I both appreciate RAM providing an air-to-liquid system and think it's a giant step in the right direction.

My only concerns are related to lack of knowledge on how to drive, maintain and care for turbo vehicles (especially liquid-to-air cooled), and how or if they will implement guardrails and notifications through the infotainment or dash to prevent the many issues that can cause damage and catastrophic failure. Maybe the knowledge is more widespread than I'd think.

I'd compare going from naturally aspirated to turbos like going from paper airplanes to rockets. Superchargers to Air2Liquid Intercooler turbos like 747's to SpaceX Dragon in terms of complexity, meticulous maintenance, and knowledge of how the vehicles reacts to determine potential issues (before a code has even been thrown).

Having only owned and built forced induction sports cars, the issues that pop in my mind are:
-presumably some of us will drive our trucks in mud or (dirty water), and that mud is going to get in IC radiator, and I don't see how computer is going to catch that and warn us to clean it out asap. The heat loads of Turbos vs Superchargers are vastly different, and a little mud shouldn't vastly impact supercharger performance and reliability as their cooling demands aren't nearly as significant but I'm sure someone has found a way to create an issue there.
-Is RAM going to ship our trucks with an included oil catch can and if so, how accessible as oil contamination and turbos are like bedfellows.
-Air2Water boost leaks, especially at 26 PSI can be significant and finding and being able to band aid can be difference between a tow or stranded on a trail.
-Heat soak - I'd imagine there will be temp sensors to warn of core heat soak, but knowing how to dissipate and more importantly how not to is critical.
-Will we have integrated turbo timers or is RAM banking on the fact that we all know after periods of heavy load (driving fast, hauling stuff, having fun) that we shouldn't immediately turn off the engine because the flow of oil to turbos also stops which then causes the oil remaining in the turbines to burn and carbonize within and forms deposits that no are left to damage the turbines. I'm sure there are fancy solutions to this problem, but turbo timers are effective and the simplest decision.

@Dcchris311 I hear ya with the ice cubes. My buddy designed a core with Spearco, and we group funded it back in 2000, and we did the ice thing, but we had to learn the hard way that coolant composition mattered immensely, and ice introduced minerals that caused scaling and corrosion damage. Even tried the wrapping reservoir with dry ice because we were full of awesome ideas. Fun fact, dry ice surrounding a stainless-steel reservoir will freeze it solid faster than it takes to get to starting line and take off We also didn't realize that every time we opened the reservoir, we introduced air into the system that needed bled, and on and on.

I recall when we used to black box everything with AVCR's, SAFC's, VAFC's, and turbo timers and then evolved to programable EMS. Now we have the onboard ECU parade that has it all plotted out and removes the guesswork and testing. I am very much excited to see how RAM tames 26 PSI dependably and see what guardrails they've installed to combat/eliminate owner ignorance.

 

[Cautionary Tale]

My setup looks so MacGyver'd to me now but that was almost 25 years ago and Air-to-Liquid IC's just weren't something you could find so we had to get creative. If I could go back in time and tell past me it would be better to just burn all your money, I probably wouldn't. He needed a little suffering

 

[A418t81]

There will be no need for turbo timers. That’s from the 90s. Not only are the turbos water cooled (which sets up its own convective current to help keep the turbo CHRAs cool) but it is very common for turbo vehicles these days to have a small electric after run pump which pumps coolant for a few additional minutes.

As for boost leaks, it is possible but it can’t get very large before the computer notices the increased boost control duty cycle without a commensurate increase in boost pressure.

Turbo tech and especially engine controls have come a very, very long way in the past decade. At this point it is very mature tech and boost pressure is literally nothing more than a number.

 

[Cautionary Tale]

There will be no need for turbo timers. That’s from the 90s. Not only are the turbos water cooled (which sets up its own convective current to help keep the turbo CHRAs cool) but it is very common for turbo vehicles these days to have a small electric after run pump which pumps coolant for a few additional minutes.

As for boost leaks, it is possible but it can’t get very large before the computer notices the increased boost control duty cycle without a commensurate increase in boost pressure.

Turbo tech and especially engine controls have come a very, very long way in the past decade. At this point it is very mature tech and boost pressure is literally nothing more than a number.

You calling me old? LOL

Interesting, I had an idea for an electronic pump but too many failure points for my liking, but as you said that was some years ago and we were using high end pumps from fish tanks. Oddly enough, I purchased my wife a turbo car new in 2017 that I had assumed would have some guardrails in it, plus she drives like an old lady, minus the 3" from steering wheel, and it's plagued with the exact same issues that plagued my 90's turbo Toyota toys and early 2000's Nissans. As you say the tech has advanced rapidly, so hopefully the future I had envisioned is now the reality. Either way, she lost her forced induction privileges.

Boost leaks always start small, but they happen. I wouldn't be trailing without a field patching remedy of some sort, I already have soap and water loaded

Since you seem more current, any idea on how a sensor could notify if debris blocking the IC radiator vents, corrosion in the system/fluid degradation, and if I was correct about thermal sensors for heat soak, which I'd imagine would engage some kind of nanny system until temps stabilize?

 

[gram10]

I have a b58, very similar to the hurricane, it pulls timing and load targets if intake air temps go over a certain temp, around 150 if I remember correctly. These cars have some many safeties it's crazy. You could make the same argument about a radiator getting clogged with mud, except in that case the engine could overheat. These new engines pull timing for thing like bad fuel, temps, etc.