Trunk ice box install help

[Unholy707]

Hey guys, I’m installing a half moon PNR trunk ice box. Looking for advice on where/how to plumb it? Which lines, which side of the car, etc. Any info would be greatly appreciate (and pics). Thanks!

 

[RGPIII]

When I had mine, I popped out one of the trunk plugs and ran the lines through it, one on each side of the car up to the back of the blower. I used 1 inch lines for the best volume.

 

[Marc W]

My first shot at that taught me a lesson. Knocking out the big drain plug on the passenger side was the fast and easy way to make a opening. Problem is now you have a big opening at the low point back there. Stray ice cubes are like mice. They scurry around and hide behind the tank where they melt. You now have water coming out of that drain hole at the starting line and the track officials go bananas. I suggest drilling individual holes that you can grommet in the rear facing side of the fender well on the drivers side and run the hoses over the top of that, inside under the plastic liner.

 

[Marc W]

I don’t have a good picture but possibly these will help. I’m not using them now but you can see the two grommeted holes in the fender well behind the new ice box I’m using now. Those were used when I had that side mounted PNR.

 

[Unholy707]

So where are you guys Ting into?

 

[Hickster]

Iza take da whole damn thang and scrap itster. I cunt believe youz dudes are still buyen dis obslutlete cheap crap. Wat's da hell wrong wit cha. Youz have 90% of da stuff alzready installed in you'll carz. You have taken dis back 2 da 70s. Dis buuck haz bean dun and thrown away. It is shit cheap crap. Howz dew youz want sum 1- 2 spell it out fer ya. Install dat junk and throw away da a/c unit that you can't uz. Hell, eye will saw saz it out fur ya and braze da caps back on fer free. Unhooly 1 frum Orlander, youz no bettah dan dis. Dat unit is ass close 2 a chill watah unit ass youz can get but youz bee goin da wrung direct rectum. Da equipment is alrady dare, use it. If any thang put in a larger raditeator fer anutter HX, praesure valve 2 ragulate, an air seperate whore, and every thang else is dare. Holy smokem if youz gots em.

 

[Unholy707]

Iza take da whole damn thang and scrap itster. I cunt believe youz dudes are still buyen dis obslutlete cheap crap. Wat's da hell wrong wit cha. Youz have 90% of da stuff alzready installed in you'll carz. You have taken dis back 2 da 70s. Dis buuck haz bean dun and thrown away. It is shit cheap crap. Howz dew youz want sum 1- 2 spell it out fer ya. Install dat junk and throw away da a/c unit that you can't uz. Hell, eye will saw saz it out fur ya and braze da caps back on fer free. Unhooly 1 frum Orlander, youz no bettah dan dis. Dat unit is ass close 2 a chill watah unit ass youz can get but youz bee goin da wrung direct rectum. Da equipment is alrady dare, use it. If any thang put in a larger raditeator fer anutter HX, praesure valve 2 ragulate, an air seperate whore, and every thang else is dare. Holy smokem if youz gots em.

Hickster I don’t have a chiller on my car, I have a 15. Going ice box so I don’t kill my compressor. It’s simpler.

 

[Hickster]

Hickster I don’t have a chiller on my car, I have a 15. Going ice box so I don’t kill my compressor. It’s simpler.

 

[Hickster]

Simpler is snot nass ass erely bettah. Youz all ready have da equipment fer watt youz wantz 2 dew. Sorry, don't mean 2 get in 2 youz bizness.

 

[Unholy707]

Simpler is snot nass ass erely bettah. Youz all ready have da equipment fer watt youz wantz 2 dew. Sorry, don't mean 2 get in 2 youz bizness.

No it’s cool man, I’m just not spending $2k on a chiller and then $650 on an aux tank plus lines and fittings. I’ll be in this tank for under 600 total. It’ll do it’s job I think, just looking for suggestions on how people plumb their lines. As long as it keeps temps below 100 degrees it’ll be worth it

 

[Hickster]

That's good. You know what you are doing. Good luck.

 

[Unholy707]

That's good. You know what you are doing. Good luck.

You say not to use all the chillers on the market lol, and now not an ice tank. What would you suggest?

 

[Hickster]

If it waz meester. I wood go with thr IC set up and use what you have. You have da 134A set up, the cumpress whore, HX, a system dat all ready wurks. Uze dat and add at youz leisure. Da utter stuff can cum later. R U setten up fer da track or around town? Whore Lander is hot ass crap dis time of yea. I lived and wurked dare fer ears. It sucks so duz dis place. Ize built da ice plant fer da penguin's at Sea Wurld. Sew cold had 2 use an Amonia plant 2 get it 2 wurk. Chill wata fer da peoples and an amonia plant fer da critters. 2 put dis in purr spective. I have built ice storage systems dat include,, short virgin. Weez had a chiller dat ran off of amonia at -34 deesneez dat cooled da glychol 2 da copper pipien to da 500 gal ice storage tanks. 6 of em. They made ice for da chill watah. We used 2- each 1,200 ton centrifical chillers to run duen da day 4 a/c duren da day 4 the persunell. We had a primary- sex undary pumpen stations. Electric WAZ cheaper at night sew we made ice at night and ran wateh thru da tanks 2 cul da glycol 2 make ice 2 make a/c duren da day. Short cumversun. Sew we had 2 diffurant systems. 1 fer night and 1 fer day time. Getter?? Then we developed anutter systum.

 

[Unholy707]

If it waz meester. I wood go with thr IC set up and use what you have. You have da 134A set up, the cumpress whore, HX, a system dat all ready wurks. Uze dat and add at youz leisure. Da utter stuff can cum later. R U setten up fer da track or around town? Whore Lander is hot ass crap dis time of yea. I lived and wurked dare fer ears. It sucks so duz dis place. Ize built da ice plant fer da penguin's at Sea Wurld. Sew cold had 2 use an Amonia plant 2 get it 2 wurk. Chill wata fer da peoples and an amonia plant fer da critters. 2 put dis in purr spective. I have built ice storage systems dat include,, short virgin. Weez had a chiller dat ran off of amonia at -34 deesneez dat cooled da glychol 2 da copper pipien to da 500 gal ice storage tanks. 6 of em. They made ice for da chill watah. We used 2- each 1,200 ton centrifical chillers to run duen da day 4 a/c duren da day 4 the persunell. We had a primary- sex undary pumpen stations. Electric WAZ cheaper at night sew we made ice at night and ran wateh thru da tanks 2 cul da glycol 2 make ice 2 make a/c duren da day. Short cumversun. Sew we had 2 diffurant systems. 1 fer night and 1 fer day time. Getter?? Then we developed anutter systum.

Mine is the 1234yf (or whatever) compressor. Maybe I’ll switch to the chiller, but this is for now, I don’t race the car on the street at all, I do drive it from time to time however. This is for the track

 

[Unholy707]

Sounds like you have a lot of experience with chiller systems, which is awesome

 

[Hickster]

I dew. I dew snot uzally axpress da systems we have designed . Dat We invented, but I wanted 2 axpress da knoledge of da systems weez have dee signed and snot talken 2 an idiot. Wen natural gas waz cheaper. We designed, built, and sold a machine. Dat ran off natural gas tat dehumidified wit chill watah and cunt troled da a/c same time. Ree mized me I still have 2 at da crane cumpaniez yard. I wurked wit da Trane Cum Pinny 2 invent and install deez eez equipments. Ware my cumpanies turned frum 1- 2- 5 of em. Out of cum trul. a $500,000 biz ness wit 5 employeeze turned to a $6,000,000 plus, wit 50 emloyeez wit managing 5 cumpanies. All chill water. Un fortuunately not ready 2 reetire yester. Listen to dis. I sold, installed, warranted, all da installs of da 1st 5 magnetic chillers on da east coast of da US. I think da cuntry fer dat. Talkin about a hard ass sell. Dis chiller is so far a head of it's self, no 1 wood buy it. Enough.

 

[Unholy707]

Wow

I dew. I dew snot uzally axpress da systems we have designed . Dat We invented, but I wanted 2 axpress da knoledge of da systems weez have dee signed and snot talken 2 an idiot. Wen natural gas waz cheaper. We designed, built, and sold a machine. Dat ran off natural gas tat dehumidified wit chill watah and cunt troled da a/c same time. Ree mized me I still have 2 at da crane cumpaniez yard. I wurked wit da Trane Cum Pinny 2 invent and install deez eez equipments. Ware my cumpanies turned frum 1- 2- 5 of em. Out of cum trul. a $500,000 biz ness wit 5 employeeze turned to a $6,000,000 plus, wit 50 emloyeez wit managing 5 cumpanies. All chill water. Un fortuunately not ready 2 reetire yester. Listen to dis. I sold, installed, warranted, all da installs of da 1st 5 magnetic chillers on da east coast of da US. I think da cuntry fer dat. Talkin about a hard ass sell. Dis chiller is so far a head of it's self, no 1 wood buy it. Enough.

Wow, that’s amazing Hickster. Didn’t know that

 

[zhc]

I come across a lot of ice tank setups that are not optimized in routing or flow and the results I see are lack luster in those cases.

With that said, here's how I would set things up.

If keeping the heat exchangers in then I would disconnect the bottom hose going into the supercharger. This line will now return to the tank, you can modify or replace this section of hose depending on how you decide to route the lines from there.

The feed line will run from the tank into to the supercharger input lower port. Everything else would remain the same.

You can run the lines either underneath the car or with a lot more work, through the cabin into bulkhead fittings on the firewall. Use heat protective wraps when routing anywhere close to heat sources like headers/exhaust.

This will retain the factory pump which I feel helps to overcome the additional head pressure of going through all the extra loops and turns.

For racing at the track, if you set it up to be able to turn off all water pumps until it's time to start up the car before going through the water box, most of the ice you load up before hand will still be there for your pass. Ice can last for over an hour in the tank in the staging lanes if you can turn off all pumps until it's time to use it.

When leaving pumps off in staging lanes, it's recommended to occasionally run them for brief moments to lessen the shock later when you turn it on. Either that or modulate them until you're comfortable with letting it run full time before pulling up to make your pass. I generally prefer the 2nd method myself. The sudden cold temperature shock has been known to cause intercooler bricks to crack and spring a leak. Pretty rare but some simple procedural steps and you can minimize risk here to almost nothing.

If you bypass or delete your heat exchangers then you can get away with a single water pump but it's going to get real hot if you drive around without ice for extended time.

Having heat exchangers bypassed or not only affects head pressure. With heat exchangers in, you may have less flow which can in turn lead to less heat extraction from the intercooler bricks. That's why I recommend keeping the factory pump in that scenario. I also have not found a "limit" yet on having too much flow in terms of how it affects IAT's. The more flow I can get, the lower my IAT's have generally been as long as there's enough ice water capacity to feed the supercharger during the run. I generally run 5-7 gallons myself which is plenty. If you're running less water capacity then you'll run out of ice water sooner with more flow which can lead to higher IAT's later in the run. In such scenarios, less flow might actually be better overall. Lots of factors at play and only real world testing will reveal what's actually best for a particular setup.

Here are some common routing or setup mistakes I see a lot.

Ice tank is plumbed to feed into heat exchangers first before going into the supercharger. Ice cold water will warm up going through the heat exchangers leading to warmer coolant feeding into the blower.

Kinks in the water lines restricting flow. Flow restrictions will result in a sharp rise in IAT's, worst than stock. It may start off good but then shoots to over 200F by end of the pass because of some sort of severe restriction in flow.

Air locked system, this shouldn't occur if you have a pump at the rear of the tank that will always have water to push through the system. I've seen some weird ice tank setups though where the pump is remotely located and would cease to pump water under hard acceleration.

Insufficient flow due to excessive head pressure. It works despite this but it's not as good as it could be.

Factory reservoir not addressed causing air to enter system and cause an air lock. The factory reservoir tends to suck air in through the radiator cap with rapid temp changes occurring in the system. You can also cap off the pressure cap vent port if you want to keep the reservoir for a factory look and this usually stops it from happening.

Here's a chart of my IAT's (blue line) on one of my passes this year. This was with a 3.8L Whipple making 24-26 psi, ambient was 82F, no nitrous.



ICT 45F (didn't change until after the pass)
Starting IAT 72F
Peak IAT 90F just over 6 seconds into the run
End IAT 86F

For MAT, it calculates about 20 degrees higher than IAT at these lower temps with ending MAT at 104F.

I use a 7 gallon ice tank with a EWP150 on the tank and the factory pump up front.

 

[Hickster]

Mon 2 dew all dat wood take longer time snot 2 beez on da track. Just run 2 moe HX wit freon in dem. Dats all. Ass tanks my bazoom. Mon dat is back in da 70s. Free on is cheap, can run ass low ass -60, can run in da HX and copper lines 2 and throw frum HX, tits itster. Flow swatch and whore regulaten, 3 way valve, dats itch. Spank da rest. I culd dee vize a vary cumplcated system, butt why?? Deeez guys R looken fer a quick, eazy, fast turd way sew day con get back to da track. 134A, ass xisten pump, raz dittor ator, pump, HX, coolen lines, and pipe en, will wurk. All frum da fact or ee.

 

[Hickster]

Ok Hooston,
If itster whore wa, I wood use a primarry sxundary loop, with a pump to run da a/c and a smaller pump fer da HX. With a switch to run 1 whore da utter fer da strip. I wood have an HX wit inhibuted glycol runin both wit 134A in each wit 1 fer da HX goen 2 da HX, swatch on, fer da switch on fer da strip. Free on, on, of horse, runin da temp to 34 deegrees butt high enuff snot 2 freeze da cooa lines whore HX ers witcn wood beeez raddiator and utters hX. Now ifster did unt 2 run a, ass anine coolant tank. Use SS tank wit copper lines in da interior. like da dudes R attempten 2 dew in da show of Muun shine show. Take a SS tank, line wit a coppa ah tuben filled wit 12 degreed glycol tank filled wit glycol cummin off da HX, no ASS ice a toll. Tank and lines inslut lated wit 3/4 inch Armaflex tubing / and tank at a 25/50 far raten for da idiots at da track. Fire wall made frum nineral wool, barre hair, industry called ray ted ass turd at 1,200 deer greez wit aluminized 016 met all . Deen goez ass faucy ass geezired.
Wit slut of time and $$$, I wood do an IC chilla set upster I, me, myself, and eye, wood deevise a whole new IC chilla planster. Evin doe dares is fine, butt I wood define itster. A new and dafrunt 3 wayz valven system, air sap whorator, dafaffrant pumpen station, moe HX ers 2 increase HP, daffarant radittator. It beeing aluminized fer da track and street fer less wate and da better heat dispursment. Moe HP. All less wate and bettah heat displacement. In my bruthah, my age waz 6, he taught wa cunt cernen about heat dis- displace, ment he was 9 and now he is an PHD and Iam an idiot. Wit no dee gree in street ingineering in HVAC buttster wurk wit it all. Haans on fer 45 ears end HVAC grand dad owned da largest a/c and appliance cumpany in Chattanuuger store fer 50 and died dooin it. I had nuttin 2 due wit it. He waz a major hard ass.