On the subject of moving water too fast I have this information:
The Bell Intercoooler engineers (Bell is who we get our cores from) told me that you can’t move water through the intercooler too fast. End of story.
The Griffin radiator guys (Griffin does our custom heat exchangers) told me you can’t run the water though the heat exchanger too fast. End of story.
The Meziere engineers, who I have dealt with a lot while doing our testing told me you can’t run the water through the system too fast. No cavetas, no “but in this case”, etc. It can’t be done. End of story.
EVERY single time we have gone up on pump size, or in one case ran two 55gpm pumps in series the IAT’s and IC water temps (we sample water temps in the IC system) have gone down. Every time.
This is all I will say about water speed. I refuse to get in a pissing match over this. If someone disagrees prove it. It is as easy as that. But short of proof backed up by testing I will take it as hear-say.
As for the Lingenfelter test, Saleen results, etc:
Cooling systems are very, very complex. A test conducted on one cooling system will not give you the same results as another if different parts are used. In this case the intercooler. The Saleen intercooler is VERY, VERY, VERY restrictive in comparison to a Department Of Boost, Whipple or GT500 one for example. Because the Saleen IC is more restrictive it has different needs. Pump flow and pressure are not the same thing. It looks to me like a Saleen intercooler is going to need a higher pressure pump than a DOB/GT500 type IC. Take a look at the GM (ZL1, ZR1, CTS-V, etc) IC’s too, they are very restrictive. That may explain Lingenfelters results.
The IC is the biggest restriction in any intercooler system.
If you put a high volume but relatively low pressure pump on a restrictive system it will not show huge gains. Consequently if you put a high pressure low volume pump on a low restriction system you will not see big gains either. Different tools for different jobs.
We have not done testing as “scientific” as Lingenfelter has on the Meziere pumps. But we didn’t see a need to get so crazy with the testing. Every time we put a bigger pump on the IAT’s went down. Not just a little, a lot. And the water flow was visibly more. Not just a little, a lot more. We also have the benefit of all the testing Ford Racing did on the Cobra Jet program. They were having problems vaporizing the fluid IN the IC using the GT500 water pump. They got just plain bonkers with the testing (70 different data points!) and ended up running the Meziere 55gpm pumps.
The Saleen solution may be to run a different style pump like that Stewart. IDK.
Other issues:
Do you know what your pre blower IAT’s are? Most people don’t. If you are putting hot air into the CAI your IC doesn’t stand a chance. I have my car set up to sample pre blower IAT’s (I call them IAT1’s), I measure them at the air filter. When it is 80deg out my IAT1’s are 90deg while cruising down the freeway (best air the car will get). When I am at a light they are as high as 115deg! Pretty hard to keep the IAT’s down when the “cold air” you are using is already hot.
My next test/project is to lower my IAT1’s by getting air from outside the engine compartment with a completely sealed “airbox”, and we are going to heat shield EVERYTHING before the throttle body, etc. I can watch my IAT1’s, as they go down so do my IAT2’s (post blower). They trick is getting those IAT1’s down all the time.
Food for thought. I also sample engine compartment temps. When driving around town on a 75-80deg day I have seen them get up in the 175deg range. And I have hood vents! That is what you are battling.