Anyone running an air to water innercooler on the street? What kit, or parts you have? Any issuses?? And do they do a better job cooling over an air to air?

Thanks - Ron

 

im in as well

 

I have a 5 gal. tank in the rear, use a 03-04 Cobra water pump and have a 1" x 12 x 24" heat exchanger up front with dual fans with an adjustable thermostatic switch set at about 100 degrees. It works fine but the one thing I wouldn't do is repeated blast where the water couldn't cool fast enough. If you do that or road race I would use air/air. At the track I put a couple bags of ice in and get the core ice cold before a pass. It has a drain tube that goes through the trunk with a 1/4 turn faucet valve.

 

Anyone running turbos with air to water? Is it better than air to air???

 

Its only better in a drag situation, and that's only because you can add ice to cool the temps. Air to air is much better for street use

 

I have a turbo truck (6.0) with air to water, it has been good over the years. I use a small heat exchanger that cools the water and the Bosch water pump from the Magnuson kit. It runs about 10-20 degrees above ambient when driving it hard. I originally went this way because I could not fit the proper sized a to a in my grill without causing my engine to overheat....

Kurt

 

I was having this conversation with a few friends today actually. I wanted to run an A2W intercooler on the street. You need to make sure the core is a 'decent' one, the pump is big enough to push enough water to cool the charge, and a heat exchanger will be needed to adequately cool the charge.

In short, the A2A is a lot easier and cools the same amount for the most part. The only time you see the A2W 'excel' is in a pure drag instance where the car is tuned with ice in the tank, and they run ice in the tank at the track, and the car gets one hit down the track with ice cold water. Otherwise, since we are talking about a street application, you probably wouldn't notice the difference between similar quality A2A or A2W intercoolers.

I still don't know what I want to run haha

 

A/a does not cool when your sitting still or at the track when staging and spooling your turbo to launch.... My a/w idles at 10-15 degrees above ambient and after dyno pulls or passes still doesn't go above 15 degrees ambient...I don't have an ice tank but if your only 15 degrees above temp like mine that's hella lot better than most n/a cars see lol

 

in for info also!...

seems like a hassle to change ice/water al the time though...

 

That's the thing. You wouldn't change the ice/water if its a street car. You would tune it for however cold the charge gets from the efficiency of the core and heat exchanger. You can't be stopping at a red light, popping the tank open and dumping ice in before you go to race a mustang! Haha

That's why I said that drag only cars see the benefit of the A2W MORE than a street car because they only take one hit down the track and can put really cold water and ice in the tank to cool the charge.

 

The only advantages air/water would have over air/air for the street would be:

1- If you want the most out of your strip passes (ice water)
2- If space is an issue (the air/water core can go anywhere)

 

The main reason I wanted to run A2W was so I didn't have to cut up the front bumper and could have a more 'stealthy' turbo setup. When you see a huge FMIC it kinda spills the beans haha

 

/\/\/\/\ if you are worried about the look of an intercooler, paint it black! lol

 

A2W is a pain in the *** all around and is only beneficial at the track or if space upfront is the issue.

 

I didn't want to cut the bumper and have a huge FMIC hanging out there

 

Well, space is an issue in my case. I have found a A2W set-up on line. (frozenboost.com) but Im still on the fence on running it. Its either A2W or Meth/water inj. I was thinging of running meth/water anyway, but was thinking if I had a progressive system, I could turn it on sooner (2lbs) and keep increasing the amount as the boost goes up (12-18lbs) I dont know how much Meth/water i would use just driving around.

Ron

 

The roush kits come with A2W, I'm doing a FMTK in my 06 silverado. Its a daily and I dog it all the time. What's best for me?

 

It does actually. Even with no ambient airflow it will act as a heat sink during staging.

 

I'm with you on that. I used a "750hp" Garrett/Honeywell core on my 70 Malibu along with an 03 cobra heat exchanger and a submersible bilge pump.

Kept the a/c condensor and radiator in the stock location which was convenient.

If we're talking 4th gen F-body I you can fit a large enough air/air that's very efficient. In that car I would probably only go air/water if you were trying to do better than low 8's.

 

So would you not recommend it for my application? I didn't want to hack the front bumper.