Peltier coolers in a car?

g60 · 04-13-2002, 06:38 PM

I'm thinking of building a air/water intercooler for my car, and thought it would be cool (heh) to use a peltier unit to cool the resivour.
It's going to have a a/c condenser to cool the water when the car is moving, but if i'm stuck in traffic I think the water is going to get pretty hot.

What I'm wondering is, is this going to kill my alternator/battery?
Here's some. 6amp, 50watt for the 1.5" ones, so I guess probably not.
And the real question, will this put any dent in the temprature of a 5 or so gallon tank?

ppgt94 · 04-13-2002, 09:23 PM

I hope you have a good soft suspension

CrazyLittle · 04-14-2002, 02:56 AM

Umm - what're you running that runs hot enough to need a peliter to cool it with?

Aaron Cake · 04-14-2002, 11:24 AM

The output of Peltiers isn't even close to what is required for this. Don't waste your time.

What's wrong with a standard Air-Air intercooler?

jboy · 04-14-2002, 03:28 PM

A few cars ago I had liquid cooled an old and heavily modified RODEK 2300 pushing 1600Wrms x 2 into a 2 Ohm load by making a thin tank out of the outside of the case/heat sink, running to a auto transmission cooler (about 8”x16”x1.5”) mounted under the rear bumper with a small electric radiator fan that kicked in if the coolant reached 90F, a 12Vdc fish live-well water pump, and a 1/4 gallon tank.

Before this was done the trunk would heat to about 130F and the amp’s heat sink would burn you as well as melting internal solder joints

After the amp never failed again, the trunk stayed cool, and the internal amp temp never broke 100F

Some other pointers:

Have the water pump pull from the bottom of your reservoir feed into the bottom or lowest point of your heat sink(s) drain from the top of your heat sink(s) to the bottom of the radiator and from the top of the radiator to the reservoir.
This keeps air pockets to a minimum and is self-purges any bubbles.

Your reservoir should be the highest point in the loop

Remember this should be coolant (antifreeze) not just water, one cold night and you’ll know why.

All tubing, tanks, pumps should be compatible with coolant.

g60 · 04-14-2002, 05:06 PM

Thanks guys.
I'm putting a vw g60 engine into an old Scirocco, so i'm going to have to fabricate something anyway, air/air or air/water. I'm leaning towards air/water just because it's different, and uncommon.
I think i'll try out some peltiers anyway, just as an experiment

Aaron Cake · 04-14-2002, 05:44 PM

Don't waste you time or money with the peltiers. They can barely cool a can of Coke, let alone an intercooler that has been actively generating heat.

spud42 · 04-14-2002, 10:39 PM

when you are idling you are not producing boost so the air wont be hot and the water shouldnt get hot...

g60 · 04-15-2002, 02:03 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by spud42
when you are idling you are not producing boost so the air wont be hot and the water shouldnt get hot...

True, but it will be heating it a bit...
Oh well, I have a extra heatercore lying around, I could add that to the system with a big fan on it...

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