Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

Which one is more efficient for cooling the charge and keeping diffusion of the charge to a minimum?
I am looking at short term runs like the duration of a dragstrip run and not continous running in autocross.

Re: Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

That is hard to say but I would go procharger, all the aftercoolers I have seen sit over the motor! But in drag racing I have seen many cars with NO intercooler for the blower.

Re: Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

It depends what your intensions are. If your going to drive the car mainly on the street and occasional dragstrip use. I would go with the air/air intercooler from ATI. If the car is basically track only than I would do the aftercooler and you get to put ice in it for better cooling charge.

Re: Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

Your going to say this is biased because it's from Vortech but for what it's worth.. Facts are facts.. Read this word for word before you make up your mind..

And for what it's worth.. Heatsoaked in 2 hours of stop and go traffic.. My Aftercooler core is merely warm to the touch.

http://www.vortechsuperchargers.com/...s/science.html

Re: Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

I am leaning towards the Vortech unit, mainly due to all the C5 belt slipage problems with the ATI setup. Is the location of the aftercooler that important. As long was the coolant temp is 'cool', wouldn't that make the effectiveness of the aftercooler the same reguardless of where it is located?

Re: Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

Road Racing? Air to Air
Weight savings? Air to Water
Reducing tubing/boost loss? Air to Water
Drag Strip? Air to Water w/Ice

Re: Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

Anyone else.....

Re: Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

I agree - what you want to do with it is part of the equation.

If drag-only, watch the class rules. I just read a power-adder class that does NOT allow intercoolers and does NOT allow cog belts. I think it was at Englishtown.

Personally my experience is only with air-air intercoolers. I've heard air-water are better for chilling. I've also heard of people spraying nitrous across the front of an air-air intercooler to chill it better.

All in all, it would seem that an intercooler that is out front someplace will cool better than a box under the hood and over the engine. It gets hot in there!

Re: Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

True, I don't like the location of the F-Body Aftercooler.

Then again, the water reservoir and water to air heat exchanger/radiator for the F-Body aren't over the engine, just the aftercooler. Water to Air exchanger can be located up front too and water reservoir is away from the heat.

Re: Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

Air to air in all applications. Air to water in a car is not really air to water, its air to water to air. In a boat, yes. For that reason it can't match air to air.

Now, if you use lower than ambient temperature water, I guess I can see that it could beat air to air, but how the hell do you get ice water into the system?

Re: Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

Irregardless of which has better temps, they say that water is 9x more conductive than air and transfers heat much more efficiently.

So even if air to air might be a bit cooler, it can't conduct/dissipate the heat as well as water.

Re: Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

and the big q is...

What combo? :)

Re: Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

sorry, air/water setups weigh more than air/air setups. You have the water, the pump, the lines, the cooler itself, the tank, and the tubing with all of that

Re: Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

air to air is more efficient.
ice melts pretty quick in the heat of the engine compartment. there are other pulley setups at limit belt slippage..ATI IMO

Re: Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

K, will call it even on the weight savings, but I'll trade that topic for ground clearance on the Corvette. The Air to Water being superior in that respect.

I sit about 1" off the ground. Last thing I need are dual intercoolers scraping everything and knocking the air tubes loose.

Re: Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

From what I have seen, the C5 ATI kits are having major belt slipage problems. MMS has a new bracket that should fit, but that is another $300. $300 is not a major amount of money, but it is the principle of it that ATI should have done it right the first time.

Re: Vortech's Aftercooler vs ATI's Intercooler
 

The C5 ATI's definitely do setup to ATI specs (sucks).
Andy at A&A and Mike at MMS have come up with good solutions for the C5 ATI kits.

I still prefer the Vortech belt and secondary cog system for the C5. If I had an F-Body I'd go ATI.