Supercharger cooling system- Dodge Challenger Hellcat vs. Corvette C7 Z06

Forced induction cooling systems are always a very interesting subject and considering the overheating problems that already doomed the newest +General Motors seventh generation Corvette flagship, C706 gain extra importance when supercharging is involved.

In the most common form, supercharging, as retarded as it is, tends to be the cheapest and simplest way to generate extra horsepower and one of the major points of supercharging is the fact it uses relatively low boost levels, thus, alleviating the need to employ air charge cooling measures.

As the power demands go up, so do the blower speed and boost levels and according to the basic laws of physics, the faster anything spins, the more heat it generates and the more air becomes compressed, the more heat is involved as well. 

As of now, none of the major US automakers employ turbo charging as the means of generating top levels of power in their high performance cars.  Apparently this is changing (finally) with Cadillac's twin turbo V6, newest Mustang's turbo 4 (and matching Camaro) and of course the upcoming twin turbo V6 Ford GT.  Chrysler appears to be lagging behind the other two manufacturers but it is only a matter of time before it will be forced to catch up.

With (supercharged) Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 no more, only GM and Chrysler are currently playing the power game, with Corvette C7 Z06 and Cadillac CTS V on one side and Chrysler's Dodge Hellcat evil twins on the other side.

Although on the surface, both companies use supercharging, the approach taken is drastically different, with GM's LT4 design being the quintessential half ass cheap and ineffective cluster fuck.

This cluster fuck manifests itself in both, system's efficiency and power sustainability, with GM's LT4 turd fully falling on its face, dragging the current Corvette flagship down the shithole of embarrassment and humiliation as never before.

In reality, any supercharger based engine is a dinosaur and those that work better amount to a better mousetrap but some of these mousetraps seem to work better than others as it is the case here, when comparing the Hellcat design vs. the LT4 disaster.

Besides relying on different supercharger designs and displacements (Chrysler 2.4l whipple like twin screw vs. GM's 1.7l Eton Roots blower) both of these designs use air charge cooling designs that are quite different.)

In a nutshell, the LT4 design recycles the layout previously found on LSx and LS9 engines, without accounting for the changes to the turdy little supercharger itself which on its own makes LT4 "leader", +Tadge Juechter like a complete idiot and jackass.  Due to the boost and blower speeds involved in LT4 design, the turdy little Eton generates a lot of heat and that heat has to be removed from the air charge before entering the engine intake because hot air works great for douchebags like Juechter and Harlan Charles but it does not work at all for ICE power generation.

As apparently dumb and ignorant Juechter must be, Corvette team decided to cure the EFFECT instead of addressing the cause, thus,  the extra heat generated by the supercharger is in fact removed from intake air but it wreaks true havoc on the engine's cooling system, when combined with hotter running DI system, the oil to coolant engine cooler and its truly idiotic location, there is really no hope for any of the LT4 based cars to be anything but continuous failures.  It is absolutely inconceivable that someone would be so stupid not to comprehend the cause before trying to remedy the effects and in such idiotic way.

How about the better mousetrap, the Hellcat?  Right from the start, the better mousetrap is more efficient, robbing the engine of "only" 80 hp vs. LT4's 140 hp, this on its own explains why the final engine output is greater than the one of the LT4.  (if GM was not insisting on that idiotic underhood engine to hood gap, dictating the choice of the supercharger, the LT4 would be producing close to the Hellcat's output).

But there is more to it, the actual supercharger cooling system, allowing Hellcat to endure track duty consideraly better than any of the LT4 equipped cars.  Although both Hellcat and LT4 use dual element integrated heat exchangers, this is where the similarities end.  In case of the LT4, the hot coolant (and it is very hot at 248 degrees) circulates through a single front mounted intercooler mounted right in front of the engine radiator which is stupid all on its own.

With Hellcat, right from the start, due to the larger and better designed twin screw, there is less heat generated in the supercharge to begin with (the temperature does not exceed 220 degrees), thus, there is less heat to dissipate through the front mounted intercoolers.  Yes, it is INTERCOOLERS like in TWO, with the supercharger coolant entering the first, driver side mounted intercooler before heading out for the main (unfortunately) center mounted main intercooler.  Although the main intercooler still obstructs the radiator flow, there is considerably less heat being expelled through the main intercooler than in case of LT4.  Also, the first intercooler has its own air intake-through the driver side fog light opening.

Finally, unlike with the idiotic LT4 coolant to oil cooler, mounted right next to the catalytic converter,

Hellcat employs a front mounted oil to air intercooler mounted behind passenger side fog light opening. 

Is this still a mousetrap?  Of course it is but it certainly is a better one than the embarrassment called LT4 and C7 Z06.

So how is this possible that Chrysler figured out that better mousetrap while GM failed completely?  Certainly, it would be a great question to ask Juechter-without any doubt, this weasel would find plenty of excuses why his design is such a failure (he always does).