Imola Racing and their fuel cooling

I know F355 challenge cars put insulation around the fuel lines and fuel filters, so the issue is real.

The thermodynamic question is: dose a lower fuel temperature alow the engine to produce enough extra power to run the A/C compressor to cool the fuel?

We know that running the A/C compressor to cool the incomming air is not efficient thermodynamically.

 

I would guess the benefits of 86'ing the A/C altogether would pay off greater than running the compressor to cool anyting. I've ditched the compressor/condensor etc on my Esprit, and shaved around 100lbs.

If you have to have A/C, and are really serious about lowering fuel (among other things) temps, then check this out.....

http://www.designengineering.com/cryo2_cryogenic_fuel_bar.html

fwiw-
Craig

 

What is the physics behind fuel cooling? Can someone post something intelligent regarding this subject?

 

And why in my P4 did they HEAT the fuel. In the P4 the fuel transfer pipe is nestled around a water line. In the TR the ac line (hot) runs through the fuel tank as well. Why?

 

Mitch will probably actually DO the math, but in general, for any liquid, vaporizing it cools about 1000 times better than keeping it liquid. A 100 degree temp change means very little to cooling the intake charge compared to the fuel vaporizing. So, the only reason I can think that they would cool it is because it is just plain too hot causing it to vaporize in the fuel line, also known as vapor lock. Vapor lock is uncommon in efi systems due to the higher fuel pressure, but at 200+F, its got to be getting close or it could be that the more volatile components of the fuel boil-off in the tank and they’re trying to control that. I just have no idea why they would heat the fuel on a P4, but it might be that it improves the vaporization some how, smaller droplets maybe???

 

nice collection of Ferrari tuners:

http://www.czechferrari.cz/ftuning.html

link from imola leads to a German distributor - I tried to find contact information before but got stuck there

the P 996 TT cools fuel through AC with a neat little fuel cooler - thought about this but never got around to digging the shop manuals out - the biggest hassel would be to loop the coolers into the AC circuit - I'll try to find and scan the pages over the weekend

 

I do remember a device to cool fuel, it
was a canister with coils in it with an inlet
and outlet to connect the fuel lines to.
You packed it with dry ice.
This is going back a few years.

 

Most racing regulations in a category that allows re-fuelling will have a section for fuel temperature.

eg, the storage unit in pit lane must keep the fuel within X degrees of ambient.

In the past, teams have cooled fuel right down and crammed in an extra X litres, to go further in the endurance race. In high ambient conditions this is extremely dangerous, especially at the start or any pauses in the race where the fuel is not burned off quickly enough and it begins to expand again....big danger park ranger.

In car fuel cooling is profitable, but how much is hard to say. In FIA N-GT rules, no fuel cooling is allowed, but in ACO it is.........yet any engine info from Michelotto says no difference in power etc.

Our Aussie N-GT cars have the fuel cooling, from an air heat exchanger in the ducting along with the steering oil and gear oil coolers. It drops the fuel temp from around 80deg c in tank (exhaust heat) to around 50 deg c in the rails. I wouldn't lose sleep if told to remove it.

 

The Imola Racing website is

http://www.dimex-automotive.com/

 

Sorry Brian I could not find the original thread we discussed the Imola Racing stuff in – here are a few remarks & observations

It seems to be fighting the impact of heat in the engine bay of the 360 is very important- both the Iola and Risi’s article show lots of mods in that space

- Imoal Racing are in Germany / Wiesbaden – rats I have been there over Xmas – however I should be able to find out more

- they seem to use the Tubi exaust

- the fuel cooler seems to be definitely something to look into – I am not sure what the size of the Imola cooler is but the one of the P cars is very small

- the 100 cell cat is also very interesting – I have not found one for the 360 yet; several versions for the 355 available

- the heat shields should be an easy modification or one could take an approach similar to the Risi cars – wrap the air box with gold foil – would be nice to see what they did to shield the cats; however what would worry me is exercise heat development in the shielded cats

- the Michelotte air box is very interesting – they enlarged the tube from the air inlet to the air box and increased the volume of the air filter covers (plus the filters?) – not sure about the Imola air box: Group M? but it looks like they increased the air filter covers too

- relocating the coolant expansion tank seems to be a common thing – the air box is really in the worst possible spot with cats & silencer close by - adding the expansion tank is a sin – I wonder how difficult it is to move it

my priorities are (don’t want to open the engine)
- larger cats with 100 cells
- improved air box (heat & size)
- others such as fuel cooler

 

most of the stuff on the web site is bla bla bal

the following pdf contains most ot the stuff they offer (in German)
http://www.dimex-automotive.com/de/imola/download_imola/F360_d0802.pdf

they offer three stages of engine tuning up to 438HP with no cats

 

Brian:

There is a company in the UK called Caracalla that sells alot of Imola products among others, I think it is caracalla.co.uk. I sent them a couple of email asking about their products, never heard back. Maybe you will have better luck. They sell alot of perfomance products for 360's and Maserarti

 

Let me know if they reply, I'd like to talk to them too.

 

there are a lot of "stories" around car and company - there is a good reason that the Web site is in a '02 state and they don't responde to phone calls if you get the drift (all second hand knowledge)

car is assembled from parts produced by different tuners:
- GruppeM Induction Kit,
- Painted Tubi Style Carbon Pieces
- Tubi Style Exhaust

don't know manufacturer of wing and bumper but it is not Imola I got told

car has been shown around in Germany for some time and was tested by German magazine: http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/d/47958

and ripped into pices from an engine performance perspective by http://www.autobild.de/suche/artikel.php?artikel_id=5560&artikel_seite=1

0 - 100km/h in 5.2 sec!!!! - missing power & increased weight

some more pics:
http://www.supercars.de/singlecar/46/879.html

 

Right on, Brian. Or for those who wish to refer back to their high school chemistry class, the relationship is easily understood by evaluating the simple equation:

PV=nRT

where P is pressure, V is volume, R is a constant, and T is temperature. The lower the temp of a gas, the less volume the same number of molecules will occupy. Thus, if temperature is decreased, you can fit more of the air/fuel mix in combustion chamber, thus making more during the combustion phase.

Ever been to a drag race and seen guys having coiled fuel lines running through a styrofoam cylinder packed with ice? Same sort of deal...

 

By the way, isn't there an article about Imola in the current issue of Forza Magazine?

 

Thomas,

I'm with you on the Challenge intake, heat shields for the cats and possibly larger cats - if it could be proven that they would outflow the factory cats. I have been planning to do these things for a while. I just want to chime in the the airbox cover issue. I think it's a bad idea to replace the factory Stradale fittings with anything else. If you look at the picture below and compare it to your intake system, you'll see that Ferrari altered the airflow considerably on the Stradale pieces. On the Modena, the air intake tubes just butt up to the filter boxes where your covers are contoured to smoothen and maximize the airflow.

If there's anything else you want to try, it would be great to have a guinea pig to test them out before my car comes in.

 

It's not that bad. If you look inside the airbox lid there, you'll see the pipes do not just butt up, but continue to form a nice trumpet.

The Stradale is an improvemnt though, but it's all part of the larger air mass meter and throttle bodies I think..........

Can a Stradale owner please measure his throttle body/butterfly size, and air mass meter inside diameter, and plenum chamber inlet holes......

 

ummm...that only applies after the fuel is vaporized, it does not apply to the liquid. Vaporizing is a very effective cooling process, by itself. I have watched dyno runs with fuel flowing through an ice box filled with ice then hot water, the hp is the same.....