InvisibleSun

How many of you guys use these and at what power levels? How streetable are they (can you use one in a semi-daily driver or are they strictly track only)? Any details on setups would be greatly appreciated!

parish8

iTrader: (6)

right out of maximum boost.

air/air will have greater simplicity, reliability, lower maintence, lower cost, greater thermal eficinecy at higher speed.

air/water better thermal eficency at low speed, may have better throttle responce, lower boost loss, less compresor surge, take up less space.

that wasn't exactly what you were asking but i thought it might help. i have always been told a good air to air is the way to go mainly for the simplicity and lack of maintence unless you plan on doing the ice in the water trick and that would only be for drag racing.

sr71bb

iTrader: (3)

NORMALLY water to air is a track only setup because guys usually load the water tank up with ice and water and use this to thermally help cool the air. Not too practical on a street car.

Chris@AP-Engineering

iTrader: (-2)

I have a air to water intercooler for my car. I would have to say that with it's size a lone and where you can mount them that it is race only. Plus most guy's do put ice in them to help lower the charge. There is a bunch of other stuff that goes a long with them too, liek a water pump and lines.

InvisibleSun

Cool - thanks for the info. Looks like I'll try and stick with air/air.

MIGHTYMOUSE

iTrader: (59)

mine will be used as a daily driver.

the water intercooler is much smaller than air/air and in my case wont block the radiator (important to me)

water is 9 times more thermally conductive than air.

my research has shown with about 15# of boost you are leaving about 60hp on the table by using air/air vs air/water assuming water is at ambient temperature. nearly 90 hp when using ice.

also the discharge temperature will remain to be lower than any air/air intercooler until water temperatures over 100*F at that boost level... this is really an impossibility when you add a small radiator to the system.

if you can... do it!

there is more to keep track of but hey.. you allready got an F-1 going in there!

y2khawk

iTrader: (5)

If you're adding ice, get a BIG beer cooler for the track. You'll need alot of ice in a full day.

My dyno pulls were melting 10 to 12lbs of ice per pull, and the few track runs the car has seen resulted in 16 lbs of ice turned to warm water. intake temps remained a comfortable 75° to 80°, i'll have actual before and after temps on the cooler in the spring.

I've got no cooler for street use as of yet, althoug it's on the list.

MIGHTYMOUSE

iTrader: (59)

did you just say street use? lol!

whats the problem with tooling around on ambient temp water?

y2khawk

iTrader: (5)

yes i did

still toying with the idea of making the power tour

I'd like to get a water to ambient heat exchanger in there so i'm not relying on the IC cores to cool the system when outta boost. Cause how often does that happen??

MIGHTYMOUSE

iTrader: (59)

oh, i thought i saw a radiator or two on the car during the build pics..i guess not.. if you have no way to cool the water back down then.. you need one! i thought you were talking about converting to air/air for the street.. didnt sound right.

y2khawk

iTrader: (5)

you did see them, engine water and oil. There alot of heat to get outta the engine

whitt1

The air to water intercooler on my truck is fairly effective at reducing intake temps I'm presently installing a larger heat exchanger(a VW sirroco radiator)and a larger coolant resevoir.What I'm planning to do is isolate the heat exchanger at the track with valves so I'm running ice water only at the track.I'll use a radiator flush valve to drain the system between runs and simply replenish the ice water before I make another pass.

Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

I watched a friend's setup use up the ice on each run, so I would bring a big cooler.

InvisibleSun

It sounds like a great setup for the track but what about running it on a day to day basis? Assuming you don't drive on the city streets like you do on the drag strip would you be able to say, drive 90 miles on the freeway under little boost or in 20 miles in stop and go traffic with an occasional boost of boost without having to refresh your water supply? I gotta find my Corky Bell book....

parish8

iTrader: (6)

it would work fine on the street, not ideal for something like a road course but for short blasts it is great.

my question is if you have pleanty of time for the liquid to get to ambiant air temps will it actualy work better than an air to air?

MIGHTYMOUSE

iTrader: (59)

did you guys read my post above? of course it would work better.

parish8

iTrader: (6)

ok, that is one opinion, lets hear some others, the typical air/water is much smaller so it would have to work much better just to get the same results. lets say you are working with a core that is 1/3 as large as an air to air will it still work better?

2001WS6Vert

Using the stock Vortech aftercooler (which is small for my application) my IAT's rise from 90 to 150 in ten seconds during a drag run. I'll have to put some ice in there and see how it reads.