Custom swirl pot for the intercoolers
The intercooler system needs a reservoir, a way to add coolant and a way to bleed air. I decided to combine all three into a swirl pot. A swirl pot de-aerates coolant by swirling it around the inside of the pot as it flows from top to bottom, allowing air bubbles to break up and rise to the air pocket under the cap. The swirling action is created by aligning the inlet and outlet to be tangential to the inside diameter of the pot (if you look at the swirl pot above you will see that the fluid will swirl in a clockwise direction). The system is filled until the swirl pot is about 2/3 full to ensure adequate space for the coolant to de-aerate, while also providing a sufficient volume of coolant in the swirl pot to prevent pump cavitation.
It was a fair amount of work to fabricate the parts and a lot of welding!
While I’m going to hide the stuff I don’t like (e.g. electrical, coil packs, etc.), I want the cool parts of the key systems to be visible. With that in mind I located my super trick oil filter mount to be symmetric with the swirl pot in the rear window. This location accommodates a 5” tall filter element and enables me to easily check for debris through the view port.
I’m looking for a weld on sight glass like the one shown here for the swirl pot. If you know where to get one, let me know.