This is something that has been bugging me for awhile. I have a 400E that is very sensitive to intake temperature. The cooler it is outside, the faster it goes. I have had a couple dozen cars over the years, and none have ever been so profoundly affected by intake temp.

I have an evaporative cooler in my house that cools the air temp at least 25 degrees. And it moves 7500 cubic feet of air a minute! Why wouldn't this same concept work for a car? Understanding that getting the right air to water vapor mixture would be tricky, it seems to me that compared to all the complexity of turbos, superchargers and NOS, a water vapor system could be done very simply and for low cost.

But - not being an engineer, I am sure there are some good reasons this kind of concept hasn't been pursued. One thing I can think of right away is that most parts of the country are already humid, and adding more humidity to the intake air stream wouldn't work very well. But for those of lucky enough to live in low humidity climates (Denver.) it seems like this OUGHT to work?

Any feedback or ideas from the smart folks on this forum?

Thanks -

__________________
Mike in Denver
'93 400E Now DEAD - Rear ended and totalled.
Replaced by '02 C32 AMG - FAST!

I'm a long way from thermodynamics classes but the answer has to do with the power gain from the cooler charge being less than the power loss to cool the charge. I suppose you can duct your cabin AC to the air cleaner and see what happens.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Your biggest problem may be the water tank for the device. Similar devices are marketed to motorhomers, although instead of cooling the air, they drizzle a stream of water in front of the radiator (coming from the motorhomes watertanks) in order to cool the radiator on steep grades.

I think those old canvas bags you see hanging in front of radiators on cars crossing the desert in the 1930's did the same thing. Perhaps you could hang a canvas bag full of water just in front of the air intake.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

You're at 5000+ feet in a normal aspriated car. The colder it is, the denser the air, and the more power you get. At that altitude, you are WAY down on power, you will notice anything that increases it.

I'd bet you wouldn't notice this anywhere near as much at lower elevation.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

Peter gets the gold star on this one. and to go one step farther when racing way back when we use to install cool cans. we ran our fuel lines thru them and would fill the can with dry ice. condenses the fuel molecules. combining cold air and cool fuel you can pack more into the cylinder.

and those canvas bags well they were for drinking water or could be used in the radiator. the air passing thru worked on evaporation to keep the water cool. [when i was a kid my dad always had 1 or 2 on when we crossed the desert to vegas or phoenix. man it sucks getting old]

your car if from the denver area should have been jetted out to run in the thinner air. [your car might be able to tune in the fuel / air ratio] just like when i took the 68 road runner up to reno and it bogged out something fierce. ran way too rich. just a big black cloud of gas belched out. back then carter carbs sucked had to take the top off to re jet unlike the holleys.

the symptom you might be experiencing is that fuel / air mixture is too rich and as the air condenses it's catching up with the fuel increasing the air mixture to fuel so the engine runs a little cleaner.

if you guys think back there use to be an after market product that injected water into the fuel system and had claims like 15 or 20hp. my father in law used something like this water injector on his 64 ranchero. didn't last long.

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Thanks Much!
Craig

1972 350sl Red/Blk 117k
1988 420sel charcoal/Blk 140k
1987 420sel gold/tan 128k
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Thanks for the input so far!

First, I am not having jetting problems and the car doesn't run badly. I know all I need to do to get 20% more power is move to sea level! (I think that would be hard to explain to my wife, however..........)

My idea was not so much to cool the radiator or fuel, as to directly add water vapor into the air intake stream, cooling it and making it more dense as well, I think. I realize a water resevoir would have to be on board somewhere, and maybe that's the real buggaboo. You'd probably have to fill it up daily, unless you had a huge tank, which would be heavy. But conceptually, I don't think anyone has come up with a good reason it wouldn't work yet.

More ideas?!

__________________
Mike in Denver
'93 400E Now DEAD - Rear ended and totalled.
Replaced by '02 C32 AMG - FAST!