has any one thought of converting an intercooler to a radiator? are the passages big enough to allow coolant to flow through? obviously there would have to be modifications made.

 

why would you do that? trinna make it seem like u turbo? lol buy one of them whissle things n put it n ur exhaust lol

 

well, you can block off one side of the intercooler, and fit you intake piping onto the open side. BOOM! you got a CAI.

 

because of having to run a half size radiator i want a full size one, but i dont want to spend over 400 for a custom one from one of the guys on here who makes it. plus it will tuck up nicely under the rad support.

any other stupid comments you would like to make?

 

i'll try not to include stupidity in my commenting

i like the creativity of this idea, however there are some concerns that would need to be addressed such as fitting and routing the hoses, adding a fill cap/pressure relief and adequate cooling capacity.

the last one is the one that i'd say is the pivotal factor. an intercooler is optimized to move heat from gas (air) to gas. radiators are optimized to move heat from liquid to gas. because of the difference in heat capacity and transfer rate of the fluid compared to the gas i feel comfortable jumping to the conclusion that either one in the other's "equipment" would be awfully inefficient. needless to say, inefficiencies are something you want to avoid.

keep up the creativity though. if it takes 100 bad ideas to get to one really good one, it's well worth it.

 

my thoughts are, chop off both ends, have them welded shut, then add 2 ends backdoor style, weld them. then after thats done, have it pressure tested and see if it will hold up to heat stress levels(with liquid instead of gas involved) and then mount a neck for a rad cap and call it a day

 

It seems like a good idea, and in theory it should work, one thing to consider is that this unit is made to extract heat from air, not from liquid. A question that needs to be asked is, will I get the same BTU transfer of heat from the proposed radiator and the factory orginal, if not then your just running hot fluid right back into the motor and cause overheating. Unfortunately unless you study the physical properties of matter, you cannot determine this( lots of caluclations involved, properites of metals, determining rate of air flow...ect ect..), it will be simply trial and error. In the end you may have to spend the $400.00 on top your proposed unit. I wish you good luck in your endevors.

 

interesting.

i would still consider alternatives first. that seems like a fair amount of work, even for an experienced welder/fabricator who likes to tinker.

have you considered a dual core half radiator or using some other OE radiator and just welding in mounts to the bulkhead? maybe from an early model accord..?

 

no the topic of this has already been covered by some welder/fabricator on this site but im not paying 400 for a radiator that was custom made. id like to get my own setup done but if i HAVE to then id mabey...MABEY get that one.

 

It seems everybody forgot something here...
Honda radiators are designed to and do "flow" top to bottom. The hot coolant comes in the top of the radiator, and, when the thermostat opens, cooler coolant is pulled out from the bottom of the radiator. As coolant cools in the radiator it "sinks" to the bottom. Basically, the coolant is forced to travel down through the radiator.
Intercoolers, on the other hand, flow across. There really won't be anything forcing the coolant through all of the intercooler cooling surface. Again, as coolant cools it sinks and this would allow the warmer coolant to simply pass across the top of the cooler coolant and back into the engine not having been effectively cooled. Used as an intercooler, the air pressure does a better job of transferring evenly through the intercooler. Liquid pressure acts differently than gas (air) pressure.

 

Snaps SON! This way I will never have to buy a new filter ever again! I am going to do this and get back to you guys!

 

very gewt point sir, i completely forgot about this. sshhiiitt!