Red Tib

So I've been reading up on air and water intercoolers lately has anyone ever used a water cooled system? I've been reading that air cooled is better for long road races but water is better for drag. Any opinions?

turbosocks

faith is the only one i know of using a watercooled setup and then the kits that 'forgot his name' sells uses a watercooling system.. dave might chime in since he is friends with him and have something to add.



watercooling is typically a better idea from what i have read/heard but more expensive as it requires a heat exchanger, lines, water/air IC, water pump, etc.



i would almost always just stick with air/air IC unless i was really pressed for space in the engine bay.



air/air just requires some piping and some room in the front with some couplers/clamps

bmxer

Jattus is the name ... his turbo kits come with them. You can also get them on eBay ... and there a little pricey when your done with it.

03tibe85

They both have their plus and minuses. For a kit maker the air to water setup is the way to go because you can design a kit to fit tightly around the engine and use the same kit in any car with that same engine. Its MUCH harder to have multiple piping designs to utilize an air to air setup so in the end it will end up costing the kit maker more.



From a driver's perspective the OP is right. Air to water set ups tend to go more towards the Drag Racing crowd because of all the time spent waiting in lines and the ability to to run the water pump with the engine off to cool the intercooler. In road racing air to air set ups prevail because your constantly getting flow to the intercooler while your driving. Plus since there's no coolant plumbing or pumps to worry about there's one less failure point, which is key to winning a road race, finishing the race...



For a daily driven car an air to water setup would be best due to the stop and go traffic that tends to heat soak an air to air setup but they do tend to add more cost to a kit price due to there being more components.

daytonmvp23

Air to air is better if you are running an overall race car but Water is better for short spurts. However that being said there have been a couple of tuners who have used the AC system to cool their air to air system by putting the coiling coils around the intercooler so you have both setups. You run the AC system before the race shut it off before you start and you have effectively lowered the initial intake temps giving you slightly better start time and then the air flow takes over after that once you are down the track. Couldn't find before and after figures but seems like a good idea.

faithofadragon

rocking a water to air here



did it cuz of the way the holset compression housing is, it was natural to put the intercooler where the battery was



no real opinion on the setup yet, havent driven it to much.

MechaniX_034

I've had some experience with setting up the water-air, and normally use air-air. The issues are that the water-air setup does not have the same heat rejection capacity in terms of time as the air-air. In other words, the air-air setup will continue to reject(radiate to atmosphere) less heat for a longer period of time, but the water-er air will reject more heat for much less time(when the water heats up, it is very difficult to get heat out of for the time it spends in the core) So, this makes the water-air much more suitable for drag racing where the water will not have the opportunity to heat up to the point the cooling system loses its efficiency, and be unable to reject any more heat.

The air-air will continue to reject heat until a larger core is needed.