Lower IAT's using simple method
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CLS55
Lower IAT's using simple method
I took my car out for its Springtime run and ready it for this years driving season.
I had what I considered to be higher than normal IAT's when going up a 7% grade hill for a 3.5 km distance out of our town on a warm spring afternoon.
I looked at the Intercooler and saw an assortment of bugs that had given their life when my CLS55 occupied the same airspace.
I cleaned them off with a soft brush and ran the hose through all the radiators. I saw a lot of crud come out and the stream on the driveway was quite dirty. With my engineering background and having some knowledge of heat transfer, I decided to attempt to use the existing units to allow better heat transfer.
I use a cleaner on my home AC condensor's and evaporators and decided to use it on my radiator, condensor, and other cooler (I assume they are either power steering or transmission coolers) to allow better heat transfer. What a difference. Once it started foaming the color of the foam quickly changed to a brownish ooze and with a good rinse, the bright silver color on all coolers showed.
I dropped the IAT's by 17 to 20 degrees on the identical stretch of road with the identical outside temperatures from this simple maintenance procedure.
I get the feeling that with a vehicle approaching its 10th anniversary, we assume that everything operates as new, but the coatings of dirt, guts and corrosion significantly impact the ability of these devices to shed the heat as they are designed to do.
I have nothing to do with these products in any commercial capacity, but wanted to let others know of a simple way to keep the IAT's lower without significant cost.
I guess you could upgrade to a newer or better unit, but I get the feeling that proper maintenance on these would achieve similar results and a lot less time, money, and bleeding knuckles.
I also straightened out a handful of bent fins so that they were fully open to airflow. I figured that this could NOT hurt as well.
This took me about 20 minutes and cost about $ 2.00 in materials.
Loving the cooler IAT's from this simple solution.
I had what I considered to be higher than normal IAT's when going up a 7% grade hill for a 3.5 km distance out of our town on a warm spring afternoon.
I looked at the Intercooler and saw an assortment of bugs that had given their life when my CLS55 occupied the same airspace.
I cleaned them off with a soft brush and ran the hose through all the radiators. I saw a lot of crud come out and the stream on the driveway was quite dirty. With my engineering background and having some knowledge of heat transfer, I decided to attempt to use the existing units to allow better heat transfer.
I use a cleaner on my home AC condensor's and evaporators and decided to use it on my radiator, condensor, and other cooler (I assume they are either power steering or transmission coolers) to allow better heat transfer. What a difference. Once it started foaming the color of the foam quickly changed to a brownish ooze and with a good rinse, the bright silver color on all coolers showed.
I dropped the IAT's by 17 to 20 degrees on the identical stretch of road with the identical outside temperatures from this simple maintenance procedure.
I get the feeling that with a vehicle approaching its 10th anniversary, we assume that everything operates as new, but the coatings of dirt, guts and corrosion significantly impact the ability of these devices to shed the heat as they are designed to do.
I have nothing to do with these products in any commercial capacity, but wanted to let others know of a simple way to keep the IAT's lower without significant cost.
I guess you could upgrade to a newer or better unit, but I get the feeling that proper maintenance on these would achieve similar results and a lot less time, money, and bleeding knuckles.
I also straightened out a handful of bent fins so that they were fully open to airflow. I figured that this could NOT hurt as well.
This took me about 20 minutes and cost about $ 2.00 in materials.
Loving the cooler IAT's from this simple solution.
Last edited by CGMark; Apr 11, 2016 at 12:14 PM.
