Bucket cooler to cool engine bay
 

I participate in the LOTO shootout and it typically is hotter than Satan's butthole out there. I was wondering if utilizing something like this to not only cool myself off, but to also plumb a pvc pipe of some sort into the engine bay to assist with temps would be beneficial. I have been told to run with my engine hatched cracked open to get more air in for the race, but wondering if this would even do anything to help the engine and if so, how much could it actually help?

I would guess no, its cold, but not nearly enough CFM to do anything.

are the engines actually over heating? water provides 100s of times more cooling than air can.

I've considered the above, making it out of an old cooler I don't use, or buckets work too. for sleeping on my 292.

As for cooling an engine? if the system did anything, the ice would be gone in seconds.

The engine isn't over heating no, it would just be to get some colder dense air into the engine for better performance was my thought. I wasnt sure if there would be any value at all and wanted to open the conversation up on the forum. Back when I use to own a Subaru STI we would put ice on the top mount intercoolers while we were sitting in the pits and then remove it and quickly go run. It was good for all of .1 of a second but it helped some.

I must be missing something....... It's been like 100-105 the past month here in DFW area (since you go by Dallas Baja), so how you gonna say it's hotter than Satan's butthole when the rest of August is supposed to be around upper 80's at LOTO. Do they not let you guy's swim while you wait? Honestly, if you want a quick cool off put a decent white wash rag in the cooler, put cold wet rag on your head hanging out the back like a mullet and put your hat on. Do like the Mexicans do. A fan will help.

Wont do a damn thing. Engine compartments do get hot; one engine manufacturer suggested that 175F is the limit you should try to stay under. Yikes! Generator room designers worry about this. I did the calculation once; 6000 CFM of ambient air was needed to keep the engine compartment down anywhere close to ambient. That's a big scoop and it needs just as big an exit hole.

I moved back up to Kansas, but lived in Dallas for 3 years. I agree its hot as hell there as well, last year I feel like it was 100+ and humid every day. There is a ton of traffic out in the channel while we are idling or waiting so jumping in would make me a little nervous. Im not too worried about myself, but was more so curious if the cool air would help the engine run better.

I figured as much. If something like this worked I would imagine alot more people would do/have something like this. Just wanted to get people smarter than I's take.

Marine engines are water cooled not air cooled.

If your bilge air temps are causing overheating problems like vapor lock, get more air in there. Run your blowers constantly or crack the hatch when off plane.

I do that all the time, and not that it would work here but I leave the hatch cracked until after I am moving just to shove some air in there before the side scoops start working.

Get a cool shirt system.

Engine temp should be plenty cool so I assume you are wanting to get some cool air to the engines?

My guess would be you need about 15,000 btus or more to make a difference in bilge with 2 big blocks in it.
Don`t know how many btus a bucket of ice is rated at but it`s not even close to what is needed. That ice would do nothing and be melted in no time.
You`d be better off putting on a small cooler and running fuel thru it. Cold fuel does way more than icing the intake .
That`s my plan anyway.

correct.
Many mild bbc’s consume 700+cfm of air. That’s nothing a bucket fan can feed. Would be better to source outside air just don’t restrict it doing so.

I remember reading many years ago abt Lingenfelter using nitrous to chill an inter-cooler.on one of his Salt Flat runs. He didn't burn the nitrous, just used it to chill the intake charge. Pretty sure the eng used forced induction. Don't remember how much he gained.. Kind of an oddball/expensive option but for a short run in hot weather it works.

How about an automotive A/C compressor on one of the motors and stick the condenser between the intake plenum.

Isn't that how Dodge does it on the Hellcats?

what make/ model of boat & what engine(s). ?

Any gains would be negated by the load on the engine from the ac compressor and I think you meant evaporator .. condenser is the hot side. With unlimited cold water seems unnecessary.

29 Fountain Fever with a single 525 EFI.

I am not having any over heating issues, was just curious if a little cooler air in the engine bay would do anything. Obviously much smarter people here have answered the question. This is a good discussion though.

Cooler air is better. But that bucket isn't going to cut it.
Also, in a closed bilge situation like a boat, more air (hatch cracked open) is sometimes helpful depending on the situation as the engines may not be getting enough volume of air from what vents the bilge has provides.

I too ran the Shootout quite a few years and had the same idea’s

I had twin 575s and after about 45 seconds to a minute, they would fade away a couple hundred
rpm with the hatch closed, raise it a bit and it wouldn’t happen, after eventually ripping the hatch off, there had to be a better idea

I ended up fabbing up a plenum that attached to the underside of the engine hatch, the opening was the
size of the flame arrestor, the plenums we’re ducted over to each side engine air intake on the sides of the boat.

Since the engine air intake wasn’t pulling from the engine compartment any more, I added 3 additional
4” air inlet hoses routed from the engine compartment up to the air inlets up on the side of the boat.

On one of those, I added an in line blower to draw air into the engine compartment to turn the air in the
engine compartment at low speeds, I ran a relay triggered off of the hourmeter to run the blowers.

The boat had 2 4” engine compartment exhaust ducts, so I was able to maintain
airflow in the engine compartment.

After the project was complete, I put a temp probe up in the plenum near the flame arrestor,
ran the boat the air temp was the same as outside temp, I put the probe in the engine compartment, it was 30* warmer as I recall….anyway, the project worked, It didn’t fade away and the hatch stayed on;)

Im not familiar with the air inlets on a 29 fountain, but where there’s a will there’s a way