Water to air intercooler

[Guest Simon]

I know alittle about water to air inter coolers

 

if you know the benifits of them can you post them (also the down sides)

[slownrusty]

Air To Water:

 

Pros:

1) Excellent thermal efficiency from 0mp/h to about 30mp/h

2) VERY minimal pressure drop as no long IC piping to the front of the car as with Front Mount Intercoolers

3) Can be easier to install, as opposed to snaking long 2-2.5" Ic piping in the engine compartment for Front Mount Intercoolers (debatable)

 

Cons:

1) Requires a separate electric pump constanly cycling (most people use a Marine bilge pump)

2) Requires a separate rad mounted in the nose of the car, which will be like fitting a Front Mount Intercooler in the first place

3) Requires a separate holding tank for the coolant

4) Lots of hose plumbing, more chance of leak and more lines in your engine compartment

5) More electrical load due to the pump cycling all the time

 

I thought about running an air to water IC a few years ago, but abandoned the idea, as you see the cons outway the pros. So I am going the Front Mount Intercooler route soon.

 

Anyone feel free to add to my post.

 

Hope that helps - Yasin

[Guest RENN TURTON]

This may help a little. HTTP://COOLFLOW.COM/PROD1.HTM

[Guest Simon]

your site didnt work, page not found

[Guest De Schmaydee]

yeah kinda curious about 'em my self....saw the new supercharged mustang and it had one between the blower and the manifold....looked pretty nice....s

[Scottie-GNZ]

All lower case.

[BLKMGK]

IMO the pro do NOT outweigh the cons. Water cools more rapidly than air and an advantage to water is that it can be dropped below ambient with ice for short periods of time. You can also increase the amount of time it takes for the intercooler to heatsoak simply by increasing the amount of water involved. Friend's with Lightnings do this often with a cooler in the bed - ice and a larger water resevoir mean they can go longer before the intercooler gets warmed. With enough water you'll always be near ambiant - try that with just air. Water intercoolers can also be packed into a smaller space - think Vortech Aftercooler. The actual portion doing the cooling of the water can be put anywhere thatair can reach it - think MR2 with front or deck mounted radiator.

 

That said there ARE cons which mean that it's not the best solution for everyone. In a Z where there's TONS of room in th enose I'm not sure it makes much sense....

[Guest Zcarsmakemyheadhurt]

Not great for the street.

[Guest Simon]

Originally posted by Zcarsmakemyheadhurt:

Not great for the street.

Why is that i thought it would be better for the street. just what i have read some where, (you arnt on boost when you are sitting at the lights)

[BLKMGK]

Originally posted by Zcarsmakemyheadhurt:

Not great for the street.

Umm, care to back that up - read my post above. A body of water will remove heat from the air more quickly and will transfer that via a radiator to the air fairly well too. Think of it as a GIANT heatsink. Looked at a Cobra or Lightning truck lately? They solved the packaging issues and managed to intercool a Roots blower using water. Done right their IATs will be nice and steady and formwhat I've seen they did indeed do it pretty well. Fluidyne just released some nice heat exchangers for them too

[SHANE]

Umm, care to back that up

okay, who the hell wants to stop and change out the water in the I/C every other light? most racers change the fuild after every run AFAIK. second, does'nt ford use the engine coolant in their "intercooler"? how is 180+ deg water going to cool air? it cant cool it below 180deg can it?

 

on a side note, i talked to a guy at the track about his monster ass air/water i/c. it was on a C5 vette and at 15psi (i think) his inlet temps were below 50 degrees but that was with ice and water in there and he changed it every run.

[SleeperZ]

Yeah, for drag racing it can be a bonus to get cooler than ambient air. I was contemplating running an air/water IC on the street, building it myself, but good grief there is a lot of plumbing and wiring. I was simply not looking forward to toting around all that water, and still having to plumb a giant radiator out front to keep it cool - perhaps not necessary on a drag-only application, but very necessary for the street.

 

I gave in and got an air cooled FMIC, and it works great.

[Cody 82 ZXT]

second, does'nt ford use the engine coolant in their "intercooler"? how is 180+ deg water going to cool air? it cant cool it below 180deg can it?

The Fords use coolent but, it's seperate from the engine coolent. It also has a seperate radiator out infront of the main unit.

[TimZ]

Originally posted by SHANE:

quote:

---

Umm, care to back that up

okay, who the hell wants to stop and change out the water in the I/C every other light? most racers change the fuild after every run AFAIK. second, does'nt ford use the engine coolant in their "intercooler"? how is 180+ deg water going to cool air? it cant cool it below 180deg can it?

 

---

The OEM systems do use engine coolant, but they do this to keep the water from freezing. They DO NOT share the coolant with the engine. I'm pretty sure that the OEM engineers aren't that stupid.

 

Racers most likely change their fluid after every race because they are using ice water, the ice melts after every run, and they need new ice. I can't think of any other reason to do this. There is absolutely no reason to do this in a production air to water IC - they need their fluid changed about as often as does the radiator.

[SHANE]

Racers most likely change their fluid after every race because they are using ice water, the ice melts after every run, and they need new ice. I can't think of any other reason to do this. There is absolutely no reason to do this in a production air to water IC - they need their fluid changed about as often as does the radiator.

they change the water because it gets hot. those spearco units can only cool off so much air before the water heats up. like i said they are good for one run.

 

unless you guys are talking about some kind of crappy mess with pumps and radiators, then you have NO advantage over a front mount air to air. how is a radiator out in front gonna cool the water any better than an air to air would cool the charge?

[Pop N Wood]

There are very real advantages to decreasing the volume of the intake path. Less lag and better throttle response.

 

In this sense a water cooled intercooler is potentially "better" than air cooled since you don't have to route the intake plumbing to the front of the car and back. Also the volume of the intercooler itself can be less since water removes heat better than air.

 

But without the ice you are may be right. The air to air exhanger could theoretically cool the intake air to near ambient temperature, whereas the water intercooler will have a slightly higher minimum temp (since the cooling water, without ice, can only be ambient).

[SHANE]

since the cooling water, without ice, can only be ambient

thats what my thinking is

[Cody 82 ZXT]

One thing is for sure you'll never get cooler than the ambient air without ice or something like that. Also It would seem like you would need to factor in the fact that the radiator cooling the "Water" would only be so efficent and never get the water to as cool as the ambient air anyway. I guess it would eventually but, it would take awhile without a ton of surface area.

 

Anyone see the pictures in Maximun Boost? The cars that are in there have several small radiators in the front and anywhere else they can fit them. Sounds like a leak just waiting to happen. Dosen't have to be but, certainly opens up the possiblities more than it would otherwise.

 

Thats what ya need a water leak infront of a high powered turbo car. Doesn't sound like fun to me.

[fl327]

you could always hook up that nx n-tercooler system and run either nitrous or c02 to cool that intake charge, id run c02 just because it wont catch on fire spontaneously, you never know with that open air nitrous spray, you could be on the freeway, somebody throws a ciggerette out the window...ouch

[Owen]

Yeah, a little water spray or CO2 on an FMIC makes a great difference I hear. My friend has one on his turbo MR2, stock mounted location, and it cools the intake charge just great.

Owen