Supercharger auxiliary cooling expansion tanks-the newest rage among the overheating 2015 and 2016 Chevrolet Corvette C7 Z06

Stating that the buyers of the latest +General Motors Chevrolet Corvette flagship, C7 Z06, purchasing it under the premise of the "most capable Corvette ever" are stupid and ignorant would be actually an understatement.  In reality, these people are like victims of a vicious strain of automotive Dow Syndrome and Alzeheimer's combined into one profit generating (for +General Motors and aftermarket "performance" vendors) package.

Apparently the symptoms of this delicate condition include absolute lack of math and general cognitive skills, combined with absolute adversion toward physics, thermodynamics, material science and most of all, common sense.

From the very beginning of C7 generation, anything involving the latest Corvette and especially the latest flagship has been nothing short of continuous special olympics, with retarded contestants running around in disorderly fashion, with GM and aftermarket vendors moderating the heavy traffic.  Overall, a very entertaining situation and one that seems to be getting better with each new day.

If the stupidity of dealing with flawed design of the flagship and its drivetrain by adding more power while engines continue to self destroy due to overheating left and right was not bad enough, here is the next addition to this never ending comedy: idiots trying to cure effects while failing to undertand the cause and adding auxiliary cooling system expansion tanks  to the undersized heat pump called TVS1740 supercharger.

To the credit of these numbnuts, they are not the only ones falling victim to the aftermarket suppliers and vendors chargin bscene shitloads of money for something that manages not to just accomplish nothing but with supercharged engines, make bad situation worse.  Owners of cars like Mustang GT500, Camaro ZL1  and Cadillac CTS V fall into exact same trap, failing to understand the basics of fluid dynamics and thermodynamics or even basic physics.  Yet somehow, they spend not  just hundreds but thousands of dollars on something they do not understand at all.

Here is an example of someone replacing the OEM  supercharger intercooler expansion tanks with aluminum aftermarket replacements and this is actually not as nearly as bad as the junk being sold to the dumb owners of C7 Z06 (in Mustang's example, these are direct replacements of OEM).

Before (tanks made out of plastic, material with low thermal conductivity, allowing the front intercooler to function better)

After (aluminum is a great thermal conductor, allowing tanks to act as heat sinks, raising underhood temperatures and decreasing the front mounted intercooler's efficiency).

But... if this is bad with Mustang owners, it is considerably worse with the Corvette C7 Z06 owners.
Clearly, these people have no clue what they are doing while spending shitloads of money.

How does this work with the Z06 owners?  Apparently there are aftermarket suppliers of performance parts who decided that it is time to cash in on the Z06 overheating problems.  A couple that come to mind are Granatelli (yeah, like the fat slob who used to annoy TV viewers with his obnoxious STP commercials and who is dead physically but not in the spirit of ripping people off) and a place that sounds like Area 51 contractor, Late Model  Racecraft.  Of course there are others but since the others have the same M.O., these two will do for now since they all claim more coolant in the supercharger cooling system is the way to fix everything.

And why isn't Vic Edelbrock jumping on the opportunity?  Due to integrity or too busy with other things that sell better?  LOL



So what do the Granatelli and LMR folks do?   Both of them decided that there is not  enough coolant circulating through the turdy supercharger coolant system.  According to them, the cooling will be somehow more efficient, with better IAT's that supposedly will result in adding more horse power.

To accomplish this, both  of these places will supply the desperate Z06 owner with a very pretty looking aluminum tanks that can add UP TO 2.5 GALLONS of extra coolant to the supercharger cooling system.  Now, considering the 4.5 quart that factory installed system includes, extra 10 quarts is huge addition. 

Will this do anything?  Well, only for people who believe that lower temperature radiator thermostat will lower overall cooling system temperatures, the logic is not very different (until the thermostat fully opens and rest of the system fails to cooperate to run cooler).

So what are the problems here?

First of all and this is not related to the cooling system but weight and weigh distribution.  Additional 2.5 gallons adds about 26 pounds (20 pounds for coolant mix and about 6 lbs for the tank itself).

Although this does not sound like much, it actually is a lot, considering the location and mounting height of the extra tanks.  The tank sits in the front section of the engine compartment, ON THE DRIVER SIDE.  This is bad due to the fact that the driver sits on the same side and the car already is front biased (51.4/48.6  actual stock wet weight distribution).

And the mounting height?  There is a good reason why GM placed the OEM tank on the driver side and down low,  the weight of the driver offsets the weight of tanks and low location helps keeping center of gravity low. (Mustang GT500 location sucks, with this aspect).

The only problem with the low location of the Z06 OEM tank is the fact that air is lighter than coolant and in order to evacuate the unnecessary air, the expansion tank should sit higher than the top of the radiator, like on GT500 .  (Z06blower cooling system  is next to impossible to bleed for this reason and has to be vacuum filled).

Now, let us talk physics, fluid and thermodynamics and some material science.

As with GT500, the OEM tank is made of plastic for good reason, it does not conduct heat well, thus, allowing the front intercooler to do its job more efficiently (the greater the temperature differential between the coolant and ambient, the higher the heat transfer rate, this is a basic law of thermodynamics!!!). 

With an aluminum tank however, the tank itself becomes an additional heat exchanger, expelling the heat where it is needed the least, in the engine compartment that already has very poor air circulation and heat extraction.  Certainly, a tank with 2.5 gallon capacity can heat up quite nicely, given the little blower's ability to heat up the air to about 250 degrees at WOT!!!  Considering the capacity of this aluminum tank, there is a potential to exchange quite a bit of extra heat, certainly not helping with the heat soak problem Z06 exhibis in addition to overheating engine coolant and oil.

Suppliers of these uber expansion tanks like to argue the point that metal tank is resistant to cracking due to thermal expansion and pressure build up but in reality, the pressure of the supercharger cooling system is considerably lower than of the engine at about 6 psi vs. 15-20 psi in the engine cooling system, thus, the bursting tank is next to impossible to happen.  Of course none of the tank suppliers bother to provide any pressure measurement test results to validate their claims but this is not surprising.

Could metal tank be used if one insists?   Yes, it could be but the design would have to include heat barrier, containing the heat instead of promoting premature heat exchane outside of the intercooler. 

Considering the insulation needed, the plastic tank is not only lighter but it is also cheaper and more effective but where would the suppliers be if any of the car owners put their thinking caps on?

With regards to the added extra coolant capacity, the cooling system of the supercharger has its design capacity based on the heat exchange rates and pump flow and pressure rates which need to be
necessarily taken into consideration before coolant capacity is increased.

Like with electricity, addition of the second tank creates more junctions/restriction points.  Restriction points can and usually do result in changes in flow rates and pressure of the entire system.  These changes may or may not warrant upgrade of the electric pump and as already stated here, Z06 flagship uses a cheap and inefficient pump, unlike the last ZR1.

Have any of the suppliers of these tanks conducted any tests and verified a pump upgrade is not needed?  Absolutely not!!!

Incidentally, an additional selling point for these tanks is their use for ice packing that should help the only thing the new flagship can do, drag strip hero runs.  However, this better be a quick one, due to the heat the turdy supercharger generates.  The extra bonus is the fact that ice contains air and when ice melts... LOL

One of the aftermarket suppliers takes matters further than just the counterproductive tank, by offering a matching intercooler UPGRAYEDD!!!  The problem becomes even worse in this case because this idiotic upgrade is still located in front of the radiator, emitting lots of heat and restricting the flow but due to its extra density, the flow restriction is even worse than with the stock intercooler.

Clearly, the OEM intercooler allows for much higher air flow THROUGH the intercooler fins than the aftermarket version that should exchange more heat.  More heat and less flow is a big disaster waiting to happen for those who fail to understand the actual problems involved here.

What should be interesting is a warranty claim with one of these expansion tanks and even better, with that upgraded intercooler.  Will GM honor any claim with these changes being made?  For all practical purpose, either failure of the supercharger or the engine can be easily attributed to these "upgrades", quite a risky proposition, considering the worst case scenario.



The cost of these idiotic tanks is right down impressive, $750 for Granatelli's attempt

 and $700 for the LMR version

 and $1000 for the air flow restricting intercooler.