Well like the title says I was wondering which holds lower AIT on a street car. I have a A2A now and was thinking of switching over based upon a couple of peoples experiances. I was wondering if some of the turbo experts could chime in on this.

 

do a search this question has been asked a ton

basically in a nutshell
A2W-race only, a better overall system has limitations on street
A2A-best for street and daily use, not as efficient as A2W
hope that helps
Thanks
Ed
Firebird455@gmail.com

 

ehhh bullhockey only con of an A2W is weight correctly setup its a much better setup on the track and street A2A takes up a whole lotta space and is effective to a certain point

 

I'm kind of curious why you'd say that... Care to explain?

 

Let's think about this for a minute. Air to water= more weight, plumbing water as well as air, additional electrical for a pump, and still can't drop IAT's any lower than an air to air on the street. On the racetrack you can dump ice in the water tank to drop IAT's below ambient, which is a real advantage, but that is track only.

 

Water does a lot better job of transfering heat especially compared to air...hence why our engines are water-cooled instead of the old-school air-cooled technique. And a2w would work better on the street as well pending you had a way to get the heat out of the water (heat exhanger) and you will still get almost no pressure drop while the a2a will have a lot more.

But for simplicity and $ reasons, if it's primarily a street car you will be better off with the air to air. But the a2w will always work better when setup right. It just might cost more, take up more space, and be more complicated.

 

Air-to-Air is way more common for road racing or any kind of driving where you are consistently running under boost. It does not load up with heat like an Air-to-Water. Just as the water is more efficient in absorbing heat in the first place, it suffers from reduced efficiency when it tries to shed that heat back from water to air. If you are running under boost and constantly pumping heat into the A2W system, the water gets hotter and hotter. It also heats the charge air when you are not boosting, once the system is warm.

A2W is better for drag racing if you have a large enough reservoir and can use ice. It's also useful if you don't have much space where you could put a properly-sized A2A. Your application will determine which works best for you.

In Corky Bell's book "Supercharged!" he says: "When space permits an adequately sized air-to-air intercooler to be fitted and given access to decent airflow, it will always prove superior. The only excuse for a liquid-based intercooler is when severe space restrictions exist or the vehicle is intended for drag racing or maximum-speed runs, where an iced coolant can be used...".

Jim

 

My car is a weekend only type car and track use will be a good bit.

 

water has a better cooling efficiency than air, it is also being plumbed through a heat exchanger. Most factory cars come with Air to Water intercoolers.
-cobra
-lightning
-Mercedez
-jaguar
-Toyotas (some models)
-Typhoon/cyclone
-Auzzie Subies
and many more. Factory setups are designed by engineers, wonder why they would pick this setup, must work better or be somehow more efficient

 

However Porsche uses a A2A core...

It just depends on what you're building the car for. In my opinion, space is also a huge factor, that's why I am going A2W. Also, the electric pump on an A2W system is one more thing to break.

Both A2W and A2A will do a fine job... would probably want to stay away from the A2W if you were going to be under boost for long periods of time (like racing on a road track) and might lean towards A2W when drag racing. Both are fine for street driving.