Intercooler Plumbing
 

Question. Curious if this would work, a buddy and i were discussing this. He runs water psi relief valves. Wondering if you had some adjustable relief valves, that opened up at a certain psi, and plumbed relief water into the intercooler. For example, his water psi valves dont start bypassing water unless he is on plane, so no water would be going thru the intercooler at idle, just while on plane at say 3k rpm and above. Anyone done anything like this? I was told the intercoolers dont really need more than 1psi of water psi per lb of boost.

Fixx
 

intercoolers are probably being gravity fed from through hull pick ups, he could add a 2 stage sea pump but the only down fall is if he has efi the injectors may puddle in the intake and load up at idle,same goes for cold hearted Holley carbs..

He could always do like Jet boats do. Most jet boats dont run water thru there exhaust at idle. When they start to throttle up they either have a handle they turn to let water flow in or they use a check valve that opens and lets water thru when they reach a certain water pressure from the jet. Most intercoolers are fed like mrfixxall stated, right off a single pick up in the bottom or on the transon plumbed into a sea strainer and then up to the intercooler. Like you already stated also, intercoolers dont like a lot of water pressure like the engine itself does. I have seen a few intercoolers explode from to much water pressure and it really makes a mess of the inside of the engine.

Good luck.

Mine has no pressure releif valves. Most builders do not want flow at idle. I don't think the relief valves are a bad idea though.

joe,
How much water pressure does he run now? If you are looking at going this route make sure you have enough water with one pick-up to keep the engine temps, oil temps and inter-cooler feed under control.

Kris