Cadillac STS-V Intercooler cooling – gathering more parts

Tim C keeps working on his STS-V — he has done a turbo kit then returned it to stock at this point.  His product offerings include a front mounted heat exchanger, an upper supercharger pulley service, and a new product on the way, a cold air intake.  He has a new website coming for sales and info; stay tuned.

As the next experiment in my intercooler cooling quest I have decided to try the ZZP S3 front mounted heat exchanger.

ZZP S3 Intercooler Front-Mounted Heat Exchanger

Here is the ZZP info on this part:

Intercooler heat exchanger (radiator) for your liquid to air intercooler system. This HE is the largest most well thought out radiator we’ve produced to date. With a 1.8 liter fluid capacity, it holds more liquid than any HE in the Redline/Cobalt market and with 4000 sqare inches of fin area it cools better than anything currently available!

  • All aluminum construction
  • Drill 4 holes into existing bumper support
  • Overall measurements of 32.5×6.5×2.25
  • Core measurements of 28×6.5×2.25
  • 2 row, dual pass
  • Maximum cooling, minimum weight, fully tig welded and pressure tested
  • 2 stainless bolts and nuts
  • Includes 2 fittings and 4 hose clamps
  • 49″ of 3/4″ hose
  • 6.4 pounds

Here is a link to a tech article ZZP did on the S3 comparing to OEM and a competitor.  Their conclusion was that almost any 2nd HX works about the same, but it is a nice write-up nonetheless.

A different popular choice would be the Frozen Boost 101, but I really like the ZZP info and research, and I like that Tim is doing so much experimentation on what works for these cars, so I would like to test out the S3 on my STS-V.

I’ll have to decide whether to put the OEM HX back in and then use the S3, or stay with the 45321 and S3.  Best would be to test each set, but I am not sure I am up for those installs; we’ll see.

My current tests suggested the system is at a higher equilibrium temperature with the 45321 than it was with the OEM HX.  This week I am continuing to monitor the fluid level and then hope to retest after it has burped air for the week.

3 thoughts on “Cadillac STS-V Intercooler cooling – gathering more parts

  1. On burping… I just ran the pump with the engine off for a few minutes to get the air out… there’s a intercooler pump relay you can jumper in the fuse box to manually run it.

  2. There is a setting in hptuners for delay after engine start before the intercooler pump starts. I have set this to zero for now and the pump runs whenever the battery power is on.
    I have run it quite a bit but up to yesterday the coolant in the fill tube was still bouncing up and down sometimes.

  3. Pingback: Cadillac STS-V inline flow-through intercooler tank | Cadillac Conversations

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