I was looking at the edelbrock air gap intake manifold and a thought struck me.
What if the air gap was used as an alternative closed loop cooling system.
Weld on a couple of adapter plates, plumb it and run a seperate coolant system with it's own radiator(maybe a trans radiator), or air conditioned air.
Would it be worth the hassle?

Why?

John 8)

Well, the selling point of the air gap manifold is to provide a cooling surface to the bottom of the manifold, right?
I'm just suggesting a different medium other than engine compartment air.
It would be better than throwing bags of ice on the manifold to cool it down.

Cooler air is fine but refrigerating the intake manifold is too extreme. If the intake is cold enough there will be no fuel atomization and gas droplets will form and drop out of the airflow; very bad for power, drive-ability and fuel mileage. You're thinking in the right direction El Kujo you just went a little too far. I bet if you had a AirGap manifold and could design a box that isolated the manifold, carb and carb intake from the rest of the engine compartment; and then feed the whole system with cool outside air you would have a noticeable improvement in power.

Agreed, you definitely don't want it too cold.
However, when it's 110 degrees at the dragstrip and everybody elses times are dropping...hehehehe
I bet a decent sized intercooler with 2" hoses scavenged from a newer diesel engine would work nicely.

Also that air gap would be a great place to stash some NOS injectors. It would take some work, but I don't think anyone would ever find them.
Just a thought. 8)

why not just get alky/water injection. cool the air before it gets there.

A long time ago I saw some designs for a cooling system that basically used a funnel shaped device rifled and finned in a spiral pattern. The action of bolwing air into the large end of the funnel produced cold air at the small end.

I am sure someone could create a fan based or even a ram system where the cold air could be used to cool the intake manifold.

8) Back in the 60s I wached Dick Landy put crushed ice in the cold air box on his 68 charger and gained 2 tenths on the next pass. Just remembered that reading this thread! That was at U.S.30 Dragstrip in Indiana.

PaPa John

It's been comercialized. Check this (http://www.exair.com/spotcooling_products/asc_frmain.htm) out. I am sure it could be adapted for automotive use.

8) Back in the 60s I wached Dick Landy put crushed ice in the cold air box on his 68 charger and gained 2 tenths on the next pass. Just remembered that reading this thread! That was at U.S.30 Dragstrip in Indiana.

PaPa John

Guys running turbos put ice around their intercoolers.

Just thought of a way to use the cooling vortex tubes that jayachtee is talking about.
The problem is to provide compressed air for the vortex to work and I'm sure nobody wanted to carry around a compressor in the back of their elky all the time, so how about a smog pump?

Also found another nifty gadget on the same website.
It's called an air amplifier and uses compressed air to accelerate air flow and boost pressure.
hmmmm.....

Forget the smog pump... use what I use for my air shocks. A electric air compressor out of a cadilac that was used for their suspension system. Easily wired up, compact, and can be wired into the ignition or a switch.

You wouldnt have to refridgerate it, you could make a seperate plumbing system using hoses that could withstand the heat of the underhood temps and use a seperate pump to run water through it. Hold the extra liquid in a seperate tank like the windshield washer fluids.

shadowhawk, what model and year cadillac did you use? is it just an electric compressor so that you can change the ride height on the go?