using dry ice to cool down.....

[Steve@TF]

i did a quick search and just found one thread on the shelby forum. someone asking about putting dry ice in the reservoir and then people saying no dont do it, its a bomb!!

but that's if you drop it in and close the cap. then the gas has no place to go/escape.

what if you were at the track. you make a pass. then go back to the pit. you leave the car running so your pump is on (or manually turn it on), circulating the fluid. you drop a chunk of dry ice in the reservoir to cool the fluid down. when the temp drops, you pull it back out. meanwhile leave the cap off so all the gas can escape, which i believe happens immediately with dry ice.

someone mentioned that it has some kind of acidic property in it which would be in the coolant but i dont know how accurate that is. i was discussing this with a friend who is an engineer and as he mentioned they put dry ice in the punch at halloween parties. its just frozen C02, which sublimates into gas. if you seal it up, it will explode. but if you leave it open so the gas can escape, then its like a punch bowl. right?

the benefit of dry ice over regular ice is not having to drag a ton of ice with you to the track and having to remove fluid from the system as you are adding to the volume when you put it in. with dry ice, it would be like dropping in a blue ice pack and then pulling it back out. no real change in volume. no siphoning coolant out. and it will cool down much quicker.

 

[mkb116]

I like it! Who's gonna be the guinea pig???

 

[Steve@TF]

I like it! Who's gonna be the guinea pig???

someone with a motor thats about to pop anyways lol

 

[apex svt]

pretty cool idea, what the heck is dry ice worth these days? i went through 20lbs of ice in 3 passes last time i was out, about 5 buck worth

 

[Steve@TF]

pretty cool idea, what the heck is dry ice worth these days? i went through 20lbs of ice in 3 passes last time i was out, about 5 buck worth

might be about that much or a few bucks more. if it was $$, people wouldnt buy it for their halloween punch or for when they go fishing lol. but think about having 20lbs worth of ice in a small bag.

 

[Steve@TF]

we have a chain store here called Smart & Final. they sell dry ice. i just called. $1.49 a pound. minimum of 5lbs.

 

[jbs$]

To make this work well, you would need a separate coil, covered with a low freezing temp. liquid to drop the dry one into. If just dropped into water, it will become ice coated and the ice will reduce it's cooling properties.

 

[31BCobra]

As long as you leave somewhere for the pressure to escape to you should be fine.

The next question to ask if you really wanted to cover your ass is: Can CO2 have any negative effect on your coolant? I am fairly sure it won't and would just bubble out of the coolant when it sublimes. But you might want to ask someone more versed in Chemistry or your coolant manufacturer just in case.

 

[Steve@TF]

As long as you leave somewhere for the pressure to escape to you should be fine.

The next question to ask if you really wanted to cover your ass is: Can CO2 have any negative effect on your coolant? I am fairly sure it won't and would just bubble out of the coolant when it sublimes. But you might want to ask someone more versed in Chemistry or your coolant manufacturer just in case.

yeah that's why i was posting here. was hoping someone here was knowledgeable about chemistry lol.

i was wondering if there would be any residual effect in the coolant, like would it carbonate it? lol. but as my buddy pointed out, that doesnt happen when you put it in the punch/drink bowl at the party.

 

[Steve@TF]

To make this work well, you would need a separate coil, covered with a low freezing temp. liquid to drop the dry one into. If just dropped into water, it will become ice coated and the ice will reduce it's cooling properties.

i think im a little too dumb to understand exactly what youre saying...

but also, the intercooler system is a mix of water and coolant. which is to prevent freezing.

either way, i figured it would be better than ice since it doesnt melt and raise the volume of the liquid and you dont have to carry tons of it. and be pumping and siphoning and then have coolant that you need to dispose of. unless youre running straight water of course.

 

[Black02GT]

Hell if you had a proper vented container put a stock HE in there then dump some antifreeze or a bottle of everclear as a transfer medium with the dry ice. That would have to cool pretty damn well while never having to worry about pressure build up or unforseen chemical side effects. That would be the ultimate truck ice box.

Like JBS was saying if the fluid you using doesn't have a low enough freezing point it'll partially encase the dry ice and insulate it.

For a smaller project just bend some metal tube into a coil so that it'll essentially line the inside of say a 1'×1' cooler (dunno standard cooler sizes).

Only thing that could be a possible issue is if the IC fluid gets so cold, say circulating in the pits, that the moisture in the air starts freezing on the lower intake HE and blocks up like a home AC does some times.

 

[masterjr33]

i think what he is saying is.. if you drop peanuts in chocolate you get chocolate covered peanuts.
if you drop dry ice in coolant. you might get water ice covered dry ice.
coolant doesnt "prevent" freezing. it just lowers the temp that "freezing " occures..

it wont lower it to the point of dry ice not freezing the water...



long as you can vent it out you are good.

 

[RichM1983]

A comment about the CO2 creating some sort of acid. CO2 dissolving in water can create carbonic acid. Does it make it very acidic? No not really. You drink orange juice with citric acid in it and it doesn't have any ill effects on you. Would it create enough carbonic acid in your coolant to create problems in the system? I have no clue.

Look up carbonic acid in the oceans. Due to the elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations that we are currently experiencing its believed that this has created more carbonic acid in the ocean which has been blamed for the bleaching and death of many coral reefs.

Sams and Walmart carry dry ice too.

 

[cj428mach]

This is why I wanted an intercooler tank with a tank inside of it. I put ice water in the inner tank which helps cool the outer tank. The inner tank would have its own drain that would allow me to drain it regularly with out watering down my intercooler fluid as i live in a state that freezes.

Back to the dry ice I was going to try this....I had some omaha steaks that came with a bunch of dry ice, I put it in the freezer to use the next day or so and forgot about it but I'm sure its long gone by now lol.

 

[jbs$]

Think in these terms; the faster the ice melts, the more heat it is displacing.

 

[Steve@TF]

ill have to grab some this weekend to play with. my buddy suggested putting a large pot of water on the stove and setting it to a temp that is about the same as what the coolant temp gets to. put in some dry ice and see what the temp is after.

apparently, as the dry ice sublimates into gas and exits the fluid, it has less heat transfer. but to what extant. its worth giving it a try for a few bucks.

 

[BMR Tech]

I have a dry ice set-up designed that I have been putting off for about 3 years.

It is much different though....

Hopefully after Bowling Green I can have it working and share.

I will be using the Dry Ice to cool the fluid, but it won't be "in" the fluid.

 

[8gtoklr]

Bungee cord the ice to the supercharger...Get-ER- Done

 

[Steve@TF]

Bungee cord the ice to the supercharger...Get-ER- Done

from what i read thats a bad idea. would cause the metal case to contract/expand and the tolerance is already tight. i was reading a thread about it on another forum lol. im sure youre probably joking though lol

 

[8gtoklr]

i was LOL ...never be surprised