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Basic Idea
Living in the desert can
mean trouble for a turbo car. Turbo cars generate extra heat, and extra heat,
combined with high temperatures can mean power loss and even strong detonation
for your car. As you probably know there are plenty of intercooler spray kits
available out there for 100+ dollars. But why spend that much when you can
get the same results for less than 15 dollars? First thing you must realize
is that I own a WRX Wagon. This installation costs you the use of your
windshield wiper fluid pump. Lucky for me, the Wagon has two pumps; One for
the rear, and another for the front. If you own a sedan, you only have one
pump and will lose your front wiper fluid spray. Still, the idea is very
simple; we just disconnect the pump from the main line going to the rear of
the car, and replace it with new line that runs to a number of spray nozzles.
To activate the spray you simply need to use your fluid button. Sedan owners
will have to pay a little more to fabricate another button to activate the
pump. I’m going to be attempting to wire that to save my rear wiper. |
And the 15 dollars goes
to….
Along with some irrigation
tubing and 6 T fittings, I bought two types of nozzles, “Arizona Mist Nozzles”
and “DiG Fogger Misters” designed for irrigation. I had to experiment before
I could determine the right nozzles. First off, the Arizona nozzles made the
best, finest mist. In fact it was so fine that it evaporated to fast. Also,
had trouble with the pressure in the line, the nozzles would pop off from
slowly building pressure. Fogger Misters from DiG were nearer to perfect than
most other nozzles we tried. It made a good 360 degree mist that spread over
more area than I needed. We returned the un-needed nozzles and were refunded
courtesy of Home Depot.
  
Disable Wiper
The problem behind this is;
to activate the pump you use your fluid mist button, which unfortunately also
activates your wipers. To solve this, we simply just disable the rear wiper.
Remove the gray fabric-like material. It is latched on by small plastic
push-in clips. It’s very easy to remove, once removed you’ll see the plug for
the rear wiper. I can only describe it as a light yellow plug that requires a
pair of pliers to disconnect. Once un-plugged, let it hang there and
reinstall the cheap upholstery cover. Now you can use the pump without having
a wiper wiping your window. As I mentioned earlier, if you own a sedan,
that’s another story. You’ll want to wait. I’m in the process of to splicing
the wires and attempting to make an alternate power source and button to
activate the pump. I’ll be posting a write up on that in the near future too.
Assemble Lines, &
Connect Pump
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Once you unbolt the
reservoir you’ll see two pumps; one for the front fluid misters, and the rear
fluid misters. The black one is for the front, and the white one is for the
rear. Just by activating each one, you’ll notice the white pump seems more
powerful. It’s more powerful because it needs to pressurize the longer line
going to the rear of the car. This makes it more ideal to use in this
situation. Cap off the line going to the rear, and let that hang there, its
short and won’t go anywhere so don’t worry. Wash out your reservoir of any
remaining washer fluid. Now connect the line, and reinstall the reservoir.
‘Very simple no?’ |
Scoop/IC Nozzle fitting
I attempted a number of
designs around/surrounding my Intercooler, I even considered drilling a hole
on the intercooler flaps on the sides to hold up a metal bar to aim the
misters perfectly. However, considering the work, and mess I came up with a
much easier way to lever and aim the misters. The first setup (figure A) was
used with a coat hanger and zip ties. This worked well and the intercooler
was no longer hand burning hot after driving around. However, certain parts
of the intercooler were still hot, and the nozzles were to close to the
intercooler. Then I came up with the 2nd setup (figure B) which
worked much better. It required me to punch extremely tiny holes in the
rubber shrouding, and 5 zip ties to secure the nozzles and T fittings. The
intercool was getting spray to all areas; in fact I think it can be considered
overkill. (The STI has only one mister)
Figure A |
Figure B |
Conclusion
The ultimate test happened
when I drove to the beach with my friends. A 3 n’ half hour trip, an extra 45
minutes from heavy stop and go traffic, which caused some heat soaking. After
the trip, the intercooler was warm to the hand. Keep in mind, if the
intercooler feels cool to the hand, the intercooler spray wouldn’t be very
effective at all. Considering desert hot weather in my area, a “warm” touch
is a big improvement over the “Oh Sh*t! I burnt my pinky” touch.
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