Water to Air and Water intercoolers

[EZ-E]

Can anyone tell me, that if I were to switch, hypthetically, from my current air to air intercooler to one of the mentioned above, would it be any better for cooling then what I have currently.

 

I have done some searching, and it seems that they dont take up as much space, and use a lower cooler which I would guess is to cool the water from ever getting to hot.

 

Something like what the Typhoon and the Syclone use. I am not sure if any other manufacturer uses that same set up.

 

So based on experience, of the many minds here, which is better all around?

 

Is it just something for space savings or does it really make a big difference all around?

[slownrusty]

Toyota also used the Air to Water on the 1988-1990 Celica Turbo AllTrac.

 

I do not care for the air to water setups, for the following reasons:

 

1) More plumbing - more possibility of leaks

2) Extra radiator required

3) More load on the alternator

4) Extra water marine pump required

 

I'm a "lets keep it simple" guy.

 

For an all out drag car - sure, as the air to air will equal thermal efficiency of an air to water at 30mp/h, but for a "regular" driven street car - air to air for me.

 

Yasin

[Scottie-GNZ]

You will certainly save space for the I/C itself but the I/C is just part of the system. You also need a heat exchanger, tank and pump. Water definitely dissipates heat better than air but in the procees the water gets heated and must be cooled to be effective. At the track, addig ice is where it really shines but that is impractical for the street making it not much better than an air-to-air. As Yasin said, it adds complexity. Given the cost of air-to-air I/Cs these days, you can find a really efficient A-A that gives up very little on the street. Now if you are building a mostly track car, then that's a different story.

[Guest Z Draci]

Generally, water to air intercoolers are used in mid-engined cars where the cons of such system is out weighed by the cons of running long pipes for a standard air-air intercooler.

 

There are air-air intercooled cars that lose power during the course of a race because of increased temperature. For these cars, people spray alcohol or plain water onto the air-air intercooler itself to bring down the temperature. I think this is a far easier solution.

[Brad-ManQ45]

Let's put it simply - if you're gonna be on the throttle 1/4 mile at a time and no more - go air/water and have a dry/regular ice bin.

 

For road racing or constant boost situation, air/air wins out.

 

IF an air/air systgem and a air/water system are both capable of lowering the same boost to a certain temperature when "cold" (and over the same distance), at longer distances eventually, the air/water system will not lower the air temp to the same level as the air/air, because it loses efficiency as the temperature of the water goes up - there is a loss in efficiency in the transfer between air and water - the water will not get cooled down to the temperature of the air entering the radiator at the front of the car - in and air/air system, there is no loss.

[510six]

For the 1/4 mile I run a water/air IC that uses a 5 gallon insulated tank as the exchange unit as I don`t have space for anything else and it`s pretty cool having 70 * inlet temps on a 100* day.The setup can go through 20 lbs of ice for two 1/4 mile runs on a hot day.On a bad air day I make my own.For the street it`s methanol after 5psi.A air/air is definatly less complex and would add less weight on the street.

 

 

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