Powerboost Exhaust Heat Exchanger Delete

[trabo]

You guys are such fuckin’ nerds…

I love it!

Sponsored

 

[Snakebitten]

And the Powerboost is an intoxicating platform for an automotive nerd. I swear it's half of the reason I'm so smitten by the dang machine.

 

[amschind]

Mostly over my head, except that I think the turbos require more volume cooling capacity and the high temps they generate negate the need for below ambient temp to draw away the heat. The difference of potential is already there.(I relate most things to voltage and current like pressure and volume so forgive me).

I also now must learn what a rankine cycle is, so thanks for that professor.

I will say however, that high ambient temps do seem to exacerbate the condition(reducing available pressure), and thin air likewise(reducing available volume) sir.

You're absolutely correct about cooling performance. Look up Brayton and Rankine cycles... They're not very complicated but once you have a name to put on them you'll see them everywhere around you.

 

[Samson16]

Will do and thanks.

 

[HammaMan]

FWIW the PB's AC compressor has been seen pulling 3.4kW. That's about the same power I've seen a 4 ton multizone mini split pull at full tilt. The PB is essentially a 2 zone mini split without a 4 way valve (seems like a missed opportunity, or unnecessary cost depending on who is counting the beans.) The condenser coil on the other hand is a bit small and needs lots of airflow to actually be able to get rid of that amount of heat.

Turbos are damn hot under load. The cold side at 18psi is ambient + 130F, at 80 degrees it's creating air nearly hot enough to boil water. On the exhaust side, well you can see turbos glow red hot on the dyno with high performance engines. That's not good for their life but still it's damn hot. Water cooled turbos (it's really just the bearing / oiling area that gets cooled) pretty much killed the need for a 'turbo timer' that'd idle the vehicle for a few minutes to help cool things down with oil still flowing to prevent the oil from cooking in the bearings. There's nothing to gain with the turbos themselves receiving refrigerated liquid.

Now having a little air to water supplemental intercooler that gets some nicely refrigerated water on the other hand would help drop boost air below that of ambient. The last ICE lightning did this. No reason something couldn't show up in a "R" variant of the powerboost. Of course ford would probably want $100k for such a vehicle.

Curious if anyone has seen what / if ceramic coating the header / turbine housing / downpipe provides in the thermal realm. Just doesn't seem as popular as it once was.

 

[Samson16]

FWIW the PB's AC compressor has been seen pulling 3.4kW.

Holy Cow Batman! 12A@283V give or take!

And your input is worth a great deal sir. Thank you.

 

[amschind]

I'm going to lay into my plan for fashioning a delete for the PB, but I had a thought which may be a different path to take. I'm trying to make the bypass less janky (to incorporate the preformed U bend, I had to use two aluminum adapters and two other lengths of hose for a total of 4 new hose junctions on the bypass circuit. If I can just make a larger loop of one length of heater hose and hose clamps, then I potentially have a bypass which I could fit in the field if the need arose. That matters because my major concern is that the heat exchanger valve fails open and starts endlessly heating the coolant with the exhaust: that could strand me. If I have a bypass that I can install quickly with a screwdriver and pliers (to get the factory hose clamps off), then my best case is that truck works as intended while the worst case is that I have to install my bypass on a dark roadside after waiting an hour for the coolant to....cool.

One big question: for those who have replaced their heat exchanger plastic elbows, how much coolant leaks out during the operation? Is it a steady flow until everything is sealed or does only a bit leak out? I need to know so that I can keep a sufficient amount of spare coolant in the truck for refilling after the bypass install; it would do little good to have the bypass successfully in place after draining all of the coolant onto the road side with no means of refilling the system. Also, it didn't seem that there was any special care required to address the air introduced by the replacement of heat exchanger parts; I assume that it just burps itself with no help?

 

[HammaMan]

....

I wouldn't be overly concerned about loss. What you do have to realize before you go entering a stupidly hot loop is that it's pressurized and that bastard will get ya good if you go unhooking a coolant hose. You can fill the entire loop w/ water if heat is the issue so just carry water with you. Water is better than coolant in heat capacity.

The 'best' approach I see is a valve that is a T and it's either A>B or A>C where A/C stops flow to heat exchanger via an H bypass simply returning coolant to the engine.

 

[amschind]

I wouldn't be overly concerned about loss. What you do have to realize before you go entering a stupidly hot loop is that it's pressurized and that bastard will get ya good if you go unhooking a coolant hose. You can fill the entire loop w/ water if heat is the issue so just carry water with you. Water is better than coolant in heat capacity.

The 'best' approach I see is a valve that is a T and it's either A>B or A>C where A/C stops flow to heat exchanger via an H bypass simply returning coolant to the engine.

That's a GREAT IDEA.

 

[amschind]

MAJOR UPDATES:
So I engineered a solution, complete with schematics and 3D print files (see below, a Bill of Materials of nearly $15,000, CAD and CFD assisted engineering as well as reverse engineering Ford's module.

Just kidding. I tried talking to the folks that make the Servo Buddy, they told me to pound sand, so I finally said screw it and just unplugged the stupid servo connector. Would you believe that NOTHING happened? To test further, I unplugged the in/out temperature sensors and THAT immediately throws codes, but if you plug the temp sensors back in and clear the codes they're gone. I'm currently running laps around Houston running errands with the servo connector disconnected to see how long it takes for that to throw a code. If it doesn't, I'm going to install the coolant loop bypass and get my cat back custom exhaust done tomorrow. I'll test that on a long road trip and if that goes well, I'll finish up by replacing the cats and front exhaust section.

Bottom line, the solution is to unplug the servo, leave the temperature sensors installed and plugged in and use their 3/4" heater hose barbs to install a length of 3/4" ID heater hose with an exhaust wrap. Total BOM should be about $75 if you buy nice DEI house wrap and $50 if you buy cheapo Amazon hose wrap (which is probably just fine).

I'll report back with pics of the bypass once the exhaust is done as it'll be much easier to see without the heat exchanger in the way.

 

[UGADawg96]

MAJOR UPDATES:
So I engineered a solution, complete with schematics and 3D print files (see below, a Bill of Materials of nearly $15,000, CAD and CFD assisted engineering as well as reverse engineering Ford's module.

Just kidding. I tried talking to the folks that make the Servo Buddy, they told me to pound sand, so I finally said screw it and just unplugged the stupid servo connector. Would you believe that NOTHING happened? To test further, I unplugged the in/out temperature sensors and THAT immediately throws codes, but if you plug the temp sensors back in and clear the codes they're gone. I'm currently running laps around Houston running errands with the servo connector disconnected to see how long it takes for that to throw a code. If it doesn't, I'm going to install the coolant loop bypass and get my cat back custom exhaust done tomorrow. I'll test that on a long road trip and if that goes well, I'll finish up by replacing the cats and front exhaust section.

Bottom line, the solution is to unplug the servo, leave the temperature sensors installed and plugged in and use their 3/4" heater hose barbs to install a length of 3/4" ID heater hose with an exhaust wrap. Total BOM should be about $75 if you buy nice DEI house wrap and $50 if you buy cheapo Amazon hose wrap (which is probably just fine).

I'll report back with pics of the bypass once the exhaust is done as it'll be much easier to see without the heat exchanger in the way.

I'm disappointed, I really wanted the 15k option with BOM.

 

[amschind]

It will throw a P237C at random on restart, but highly variable. I believe that it should be possible to clear it and then get an inspection done before the code recurs, though Texas is stopping the practice of vehicle inspection, so the CEL is a moot point for me.

 

[amschind]

Alright, just got back from the exhaust shop where I had a Flowmaster DBX installed basically where the stock resonator sits. Cats are still 100% stock, but next step is high flow cats plus eventually adding high flow manifolds (once they're available). Exhaust tone is audible over 1700 RPM, but on par with road noise from KO2s under that
RPM. Cruise is usually about 1300-1500 so I don't think I'll hear any change at highway speed. One note, I wrapped the pipe near the coolant bypass loop as the hose was a little warm where it was within 1" of the exhaust. This is likely overkill, but I prefer to spend a little to avoid a problem than try to solve it at the worst possible time. Getting the hoses off was a pain and my hands are torn up from the sharp heat shields, but it confirmed my decision because of how miserable this would've been on the side of the road in West Texas at 11 pm.

 

[Tank]

Alright, just got back from the exhaust shop where I had a Flowmaster DBX installed basically where the stock resonator sits. Cats are still 100% stock, but next step is high flow cats plus eventually adding high flow manifolds (once they're available). Exhaust tone is audible over 1700 RPM, but on par with road noise from KO2s under that
RPM. Cruise is usually about 1300-1500 so I don't think I'll hear any change at highway speed. One note, I wrapped the pipe near the coolant bypass loop as the hose was a little warm where it was within 1" of the exhaust. This is likely overkill, but I prefer to spend a little to avoid a problem than try to solve it at the worst possible time. Getting the hoses off was a pain and my hands are torn up from the sharp heat shields, but it confirmed my decision because of how miserable this would've been on the side of the road in West Texas at 11 pm.

So...what was the verdict?...
Can the Heat Exchanger be removed?
What's needed to make this happen?

 

[amschind]

So...what was the verdict?...
Can the Heat Exchanger be removed?
What's needed to make this happen?

My situation is unique because Texas is doing its last vehicle inspection this year; my CEL is cosmetic after October. So getting rid of the heat exchanger was simple in that I plumbed in a 2' length of heater hose between the hose barbs on the temperature sensors and covered that with a velcro flexible heat shield. I am going to pull the electronics off of the heat exchanger ,which I had initially intended to sell, in order to get the CEL to vanish by simply connecting the wires. The temperature mismatch code isn't an issue for quite some time in Texas (I have never actually seen that one just the "whole unit is missing" codes). Whether you leave the electronics hooked up depends upon what bugs you more: a meaningless CEL or a dangling hunk of e-waste taped to the underside of your cab. My feeling is plug it in and zip tie it in place for inspection and otherwise tolerate the CEL, but it is subjective.

I'll post confirmation that process works, but I see no reason why it would not.

Sponsored