Thread: water to air intercooler

Are you serious? Do you know how long it takes to heat soak water in a properly done water to air system? Well, I do, as I have used one. I hot lapped for 30 minutes on my system and the intake charge air temperatures recorded at the TB only increased 2 degrees (and that is still colder than ambient temperatures because I started about 30 degrees below ambient). I don't mean to sound like an ass, but I see how it looks that way. It just seems that since most people don't want to pay for water to air, they try and make it sound inferior. The only inferior part about water to air is the cost and that it requires a pump to run. If th e pump dies, your water doesn't flow. HOWEVER, that doesn't make the car undriveable. I dropve 4 hours from Detroit to Traverse City, MI with no pump on and i boosted off and on on the highway and taking off and my intake charge temps didn't climb up and I had no issues. You dyno tune the car to run with minimal water flow and ambient temperature water temps. Then, when you are racing, you run more water, more flow and possibly even ICE and you have a nice safety factor in there with increased performance.

Brent

thankx for the info, im going to be running something similar to that exchanger but smaller, i will be adding a fan to it aswell to help it cool better.
one of my concerns is the pump.... what should i be looking when buying a good quality pump? should i just be looking at the flow rate? whats the average GPH that i should look for in a pump?
the car is not going to be driven very often on the streets just ocassionaly on the weekends

thankx for the help coach and i will be defently keep that in mind when dyno tunning the car.

a lot of us mustang supercharged guys use the ford lightning pumps.some thing similar to this.SVT Lightning Cobra Electric Intercooler Water Pump :eBay Motors (item 230407001827 end time Dec-09-09 09:17:30 PST)

The jabsoc ( centri puppy ) was a great pump rebuilable and all brass pump , but hard to find , as for flow I dont remember , the old forum has some stuff on it , and I google air to water setups , and see what others on running , and look at possible replacment pumps for the Cobra and Lightning ....

I'm using a bilge pump for a boat not expensive and reliable

ive seen a couple people use that pump and they all like it.

Are you using a heat exchanger? When I think water to air, I'm just thinking a simple water to air setup for a drag car, using ice water reservoir, pump, and the intercooler... not a dedicated heat exchanger for the water. I'll refine my previous statement with a caveat - "unless you're running a heat exchanger."

I will add that an air to air system is the simplest intercooling design and you won't worry about one more system to maintain or repair.

go water air, you won't regret it. You will get tons more room up front too.

The drag setup with an ice box seems to be what you are looking for. Fill it with ice and it will last you all night at the drags.

I was going to say, even without an exchanger, the water/air unit can last a day of lapping sessions on one bag of ice.