Thread: water to air and air to air. pros and cons

Had my mind set on a water to air setup, but after talking to a friend I'm not to sure. He said that the w to a setup was mainly used for dragstrip and after every run you would put more ice in. My car is going to be somewhat of a autox, weekend car that sees the dragstrip once a month. Would a air to air better suited for this?

I found my rant in another thread (on the old forum though):

http://www.sr20forum.com/turbo/266455-water-air-intercooler-set-up.html

Brent

The search function causes havok on my phone haha I felt like an idiot when my friend made his arguement, I also knew you would be the first to post on this. Do the ambient temps in w to a still beat a to a even without ice water?

Lol rant reading engaged.

I did intake air temp measurements on and off boost at the beginning of a 30 minute track run and at the end. I used no ice at all. It was about 85* outside at Gingerman Raceway in Michigan. I saw about 20-30* increase in intake air temps average at the end of the track run. This will happen with an air to air as well though as the IC itself heats up. Air flowing over a heat exchanger matches what air flowing over an IC does. I will post a pic of what I have on my P11 this weekend. I just put this setup together over Christmas after TOOQUIK helped weld up a new front radiator support for me.

Brent

I was running a wta set up for quite some time with good results. I would say the only 2 real drawbacks with a water to air set up is the added weight of the components and the problem of water taking quite a long time to cool down on its own once overheated. But heat soak is an issue with any inter cooler set up really. If you have a good efficient system set up for your application it will easily hold its own against air to air inter coolers and excel in some areas as well.

I am only now running an air to air set up due to my bumper looking goofy without a huge inter cooler behind it. LOL

Air to water can cool below ambient temps whereas air to air can only get to ambient temps.

votionspeed type 2 kit

Not a bad price for a full kit. Quality? Not to sure, what kinda stuff are you running Coach?

Thanks for the input Blair and Insane.

Seems like a good starter set up. How much are they asking? I would upgrade to a bit better of a pump IMHO such as a jabsco pump. I can't recall the model number but it more robust, flows a lot more water than the bosch and can be re built.

I was running a pwr barrel style water to air intercooler for a while with good results with a jabsco pump, jaz 3 gallon fuel cell and a large b&m trans cooler for a heat exchanger. Really old pics, i fine tuned the setup quite a bit over the years. busnessman_24 is currently running my old set up on his awd nx.

Heat exchanger under the rear of the rear of the car?