Water to air intercooler. thinking of using one, PROS and CONS from ppl who have used

[locote]

As the title says im thinking of upgrading my air to air for one off these.
Main reason car will look adsolutly stock with out the big F**KA hagging on the front..
But do they do a good job>>>
Do you just run water or proper coolant in them.,..

[d15z1SUX]

an advantage is when your stuck in a traffic jam it can still effectively cool. an air to air cooler wont really have much flowing air going into it in this situation. this can cause the car to overheat on a hot day sometimes.

[mooshie]

wont cool as much in flowing traffic but will cool better in stop start (although you can put a fan on a front mount) expensive by comparison
if you add an extra tank you can put ice in it for really cool temps (drag runs)
heavier (as if you will notice if you are going turbo

[aimre]

just paint ur current cooler black?

[locote]

I just got a few quotes and its not cheap for a good setup

I might just invest in some new shorter pipes and a GOOD air to air intercooler as the one i currently have is old and looks hell cheap

[LUD35]

water to air intercoolers have been proven.one of my dads good mates(errol) currently owns a Subaru RX with sti running gear stroked to 2.2lt making 510hp atw running a Gt35/40 on 28 pound :P its best time down the strip is 10.04.and yeh no intercooler in sight!! :D

[Professional]

Water spray into intercooler is a standard for EVO6-9 (not sure EVO 1-5). It has approved to have better result with this system in Japan.

[saxman]

Can't say which is better without knowing what kind of driving you're doing. Air/water coolers have a greater potential, however, there are only a few situations where this great potential is utilized. If this is anything but a drag car/top speed car, moving to an air/water cooler is going to dimish your overall cooling capacity, add a lot of unnecessary weight, and empty your wallet.


And having an air/water cooler doesn't clear up the grill area... you still have to have a good sized heat exchanger in direct air flow... it just has water running through it instead of air.

If you want the stealth look, have your current intercooler adonized black. That'll be the best option here.

[saxman]

Water spray into intercooler is a standard for EVO6-9 (not sure EVO 1-5). It has approved to have better result with this system in Japan.

Water spray on the intercooler(as is the case with the evo's afaik), water injection, and an air/water intercooler are three COMPLETELY different concepts.

[Zdster]

Water spray on the intercooler(as is the case with the evo's afaik), water injection, and an air/water intercooler are three COMPLETELY different concepts.

For the completely ignorant like me, can you explain the three concepts?

[Muzz]

water spray - setup that sprays a fine mist of de-mineralised water on the IC, contrary to what most people believe, the best time for the spray to activate is just before a burst of full acelleration, not so much during. you can buy computers that calculate when to spray automatically depending on quite a few different variables. Alot of people just use their windshield fluid spray, and simply run the waterlines from the widshield fluid pump to mist jets infront of the IC and manually activate it the same way they would activate the windshield fluid spray.

water injection - allows water vapor into the combustion chamber (pretty sure it injects into the intake somwhere), the water vapor acts to reduce detonation, allowing for higher compression ratios/more agressive timing etc. Somtimes the water is mixed with alcohol because it is combustable, and acts as an antifreze (alcohol injection).
the injection cools the air/fuel mixture slighty, making it denser, and when in the chamber it absorbs heat converting from fluid to gas.

Air/water intercooler - cools the intake charge using water instead of air. looks like a metal tank in place of the IC. Im not sure, but i believe the air enters the tank and runs through a heat exchanger device (like an intercooler), that is submerged in the tank of cool water. i believe the water is cooled by a radiator of its own? because of the small volume of coolant being circulated, it is only really useful for short durations like in drag racing and top speed recors as saxman mentioned.

[Mugen boy]

Im currently using a air/water setup on my sw20 mr2 , its seem to do the job quite well currently pulling 220kw atw on ~14psi , system runs a water tank in the boot , electric water pump and extra radiator at the front of the car,

pictures here are quite old setup looks slight different now but you get the idea

[locote]

i dont think ill be able to fit a desent size core in my bay any ways:)
no room at all..
a well what would be a good air to air brand????
are the hybrid cores good???

[saxman]

on an mr2, there are certainly some advantages, as a good fmic set up isn't really possible. There's no debate about air/water coolers working... they do... it's just that with the exception of a few circumstances, an air/air cooler would be better.


locote, I wouldn't stress as much about what brand... I'd be thinking more about determining what kind of frontal area you need, calculating what and appropriate sized core would be, and going from there.

[Muzz]

i suppose another benifit to the air/water intercooler is that it allows you to run much shorter piping between the turbo and butterfly, which im guessing would be good for engine responce.

[kraiye]

Im currently using a air/water setup on my sw20 mr2 , its seem to do the job quite well currently pulling 220kw atw on ~14psi , system runs a water tank in the boot , electric water pump and extra radiator at the front of the car,

pictures here are quite old setup looks slight different now but you get the idea

dude where's ur bov ?

[Mugen boy]

dude where's ur bov ?

Old pics its there, look for the terracota colours rubber hose coming off the air/water cooler attached to that is the BOV

[kraiye]

interesting, i never seen one attatched like that

[Mugen boy]

Its pitty much the same as attaching to intake pipe , just on this setup there is very little piping between turbo and throttle body , was just easier to have it plumbed out of the side tank of the water cooler

[strafe]

My quick rundown on water to air intercooling

Good Points:

* Shorter Inlet Tract, Better throttle response and less pressure drop
* Want better cooling for drag racing? Just add ice to the water ;).
* Water is more effective at cooling stuff down than air (Hmm, that might be why cars use radiators now :))

Bad Points:

* Water Pumps can break - Bit more complex than air to air intercooler that has no moving parts
* More expense due to the amount of parts involved

[joyride]

it would be beneficial to have a water to air setup if your environment is pretty damn hot.. like that guy who lives in the top end..