The automotive industry is a crucible of ideas, where innovation is often tempered by practicality. While liquid cooling has become the standard for internal combustion engines, challenging conventional wisdom remains a hallmark of automotive ingenuity.
Garage 54, a group of Siberian enthusiasts known for their outlandish experiments, has taken this to an extreme. Facing an unusually warm spell a mere 30 degrees Celsius, but considered scorching by local standards they devised a radical solution: cooling a Lada engine with liquid nitrogen.
This audacious attempt to defy conventional cooling methods is just another chapter in their relentless pursuit of automotive experimentation. Garage 54, the mechanical mavericks, have ventured into uncharted territory by developing a liquid nitrogen cooling system for an engine.
Given nitrogen’s ubiquity and its use in various industries requiring extreme cold, the idea of using it as a coolant is intriguing, yet audacious. The Garage 54 team, accustomed to Siberian winters, took on this challenge, transforming a Lada Samara’s cooling system to handle the bone-chilling liquid.
While the engine successfully operated at frigid temperatures, the setup was rudimentary, with the nitrogen tank haphazardly placed and the system lacking a closed loop. Consequently, the nitrogen rapidly evaporated, limiting the cooling effect. Nevertheless, this experiment proved the concept of extreme engine cooling using liquid nitrogen, opening doors for future, more refined iterations.