Ok, so full disclosure, I'm working on a SC LR4 project and this is part of it. Unfortunately, no one running in the LR circles really does anything "fun" with their engines. Mainly because no one is gonna race a 7000 lb SUV! LOL!

While I won't be racing my LR4, I do want to boost the power levels safely, and also address some of the issues these engines have. For me, I'm ditching the mechanical fan and water pump and switching over to Electric fans and pumps. I'm going to simplify the cooling system, delete the thermostat, separate the SC coolant from the main system and shrink the cooling stack by upgrading to a hybrid radiator/SC cooler. All of these are fairly easy to accomplish and fairly well documented across the board.

What's not documented too well is the heat sink issue with the SC. My plan is to address the standard items first, insulating the intake, custom exhaust headers, 200 cell cat and a 3" exhaust system. I also plan on making some 1/2" PTFE "insulation spacers" for the SC to help heat transfer from the engine to the SC.

Here's where I start to get "creative" and question why our engines are set up the way they are;

The SC setup on the Coyote engine is drastically different than our engine. (Please, this is not meant to start the whole "Coyote is almost an AJ but not" debate, it's simply to use it as a similar point of reference). The Coyote only has one charge air cooler positioned directly under the SC. The charge air passes through the cooler and is then turned and shot down into the cylinder intake runners. I believe there to be both pros and cons to this design. The Pros are; Direct discharge air cooling and minimal air turbulence by redirection (aka, it's almost a straight sot out of the SC and into the engine) The Cons are; Only one pass over the cooler, and the surface area of the cooler is limited to the footprint of the block valley/SC dimensions. Basically the intake cooler looks like this:



When compared to our SC charge air cooler, it appears to be a more efficient design. Ideally, Whipple has the right idea with their SC design as it incorporates both the direct SC exit cooling as well as it forces the air back over the cooler much the same way our SC's do. Whipple's design looks like this:



Why am I posting all of this? Simple, I'm toying with the idea of making a carbon fiber "taller" SC cover for my SC, but I'm also looking into going with a different SC and designing a carbon fiber (or aluminum) intake adapter. (Or maybe a combination of both)...not sure yet...but I am sure cost is gonna drive everything!
Making a taller cooler cover is fairly easy to mold and create out of carbon, but it definitely gets a little more challenging if I decide to try and tackle the whole engine SC interface. That said, it's not too hard to mill some PTFE and then you could just use that as your "flange" and open the rest of the runners up into an intake gallery....although I wonder if you'd run into lean/rich issues with certain cylinders benefiting from the air flow and others suffering from a loss airflow....but that usually only happens in NA engines.

I don't want to reinvent the wheel if there are those that have already done some good work with this issue? I am really curious to hear everyone's opinions on the stock charge air cooler bricks? Are they decent or could they use some serious love? (I don't have a lot of experience with this sort of air to water charge cooler). At the end of the day, it's all about greater airflow with less restrictions, while keeping the metal cool.