make a bracket and mount it behind one of the headlights.

 

use the trans cooler tab?

 

Oil Cooler is not a good idea, especially a bar and plate kind. I would try to use a tranny cooler that's more radiator styled tube and fin.

 

RPW uses these with their high end turbo kits. It's really the best way to go if you can afford it.

 

its only good if you can get the heat out as fast as it goes in. water will hold onto the heat once its saturated for longer than an air to air will, but on the flipside making the water cold will do alot more than trying to make the air to air intercooler cold. much like intercoolers, a cross flow heat exchanger works better than a zigzag, be mindful of your flowrate when setting things up.

 

Spearco Liquid Intercooler


Custom Fabricated Aluminum water reservior.... mounted in place of the windshield washer bottle.



Overview of the reservior


We welded on a 2 inch tube onto the top of the tank, then found a sufficient size and shaped radiator hose that fit the bend and fit the 2 inch tube, using that as the filler neck for the reservior....sealed with a rubber cap. Ill get you a better picture of this as soon as i can.

Any water pump will do, but generally the more water it flows the better. The spearco pump only flows like 4-6gpm i beleive. Just to give you an idea, my water pump flows 26 gallons/minute. The new Jabsco Cyclone centrifugal pump. Runs pretty quiet and will last a long time. Heres where i bought it from: http://www.pumpbiz.com/products/index.cfm?fuseaction=pump_model_detail&product_id=11913

As for the heat exchanger, you'll want to get a tube and fin type cooler like Kris has mentioned.

Feel free to ask any questions if you have some...

 

I wish someone would test the temp or before and after use of a A-W intercooler. I am kind of wondering what the temp changes are, and are they substantial enough to justify the cost of the setup and gain, as well as the pressure drops due to the intercooler.

BTW, Bryan I bought a V1 blower

 

I mounted mine under the drivers side headlight/turn signal. To open it I have to remove the headlight but that's not really a problem.

 

Air-to-Water has seemed a good route to me as well. Look into PWRs "barrel" type I/Cs. They flow EXTREAMLY well and will handle most HP applications.

 

Yeah except they cost well over a grand for a 600hp one.

 

pwr barrel i/c will be another choice if i cant find a good spearco one. Im trying not to relocate my battery. Something similar to this

. I believe the one they use flows 700 CFM. Not sure if thats good or bad since i havent calculated it yet.

How much water does your reservoir hold (kinda looks small)

 

700cfm sounds way too small. But I think the v-5 G Max's out at 800cfm @ 25PSI. So if you would be hitting around 20 psi, I think you might be fine. You don't want to be overloading the intercooler.

 

im probably gonna run 5-10 psi on my turbo set up. (i have a old xtech non intercooled set up.) How did you wire up your water pump. Does it turn on when your in boost or just when you hit the throttle

 

I have my pump wired to my battery with a switch routed to a button under my dash. Ill having it running whenever the car is on all the time.... and on cases where im out on cruise nights, when we are sitting in the parking lot with our cars off, i will keep the switch on so the pump keeps circulating the water through the system to allow it to cool down better.... also prevents heat soak....

If you make a few passes and then turn the car off, the water sitting inside of the intercooler will heat up. Thats why i have it routed to a switch.

Also note, you shouldnt do this with On-Demand pumps (like the pumps in methanol/alcy injection kits use). You should only do this if you have a circulation pump thats made to run continuously.

 

How efficient are those intercoolers? I imagine the must be pretty good as long as the water stays cool.

 

If you add ice to the system, you can get temperatures BELOW ambient.... there is no way an Air-Air intercooler can acheive this unless you use an intercooler spray.

Water has the highest specific heat out of any readily available compound. This means it absorbs alot of heat but the temperature doesnt rise as much. (Takes more heat to raise the temperature).

Distilled water has a specific heat of 4.186 joules/gram °C. This means it takes 4.186 joules of energy (heat) to raise the temperature 1°C, and absorbs more energy.

Oxygen gas has a specific heat of 0.92 joules/gram °C. It takes less energy to raise the temperature (it absorbs less heat).

Alot of drag cars use liquid intercoolers.....and for good reason.

Also, why do you think they dont air cool engines anymore?

 

Another thing i would like to add about the efficiency aspect. Typically, Air-Air intercoolers need a large holding area to hold the boosted air so that the air passing through the fins cools it efficiently enough, hence the 1-2psi pressure loss with most air-air intercoolers.
With liquid intercoolers, since water has a higher specific heat, the boosted air is cooled MUCH faster, which means the system does not require a large holding area for the boosted air. This equates to less pressure drop, and less heat.
Generally, the longer pressure stays in an area, the more it will heat up.

The only downfalls (and i dont really call it a downfall, some do) to liquid intercooling is (1) the weight of all the components plus water and (2) finding space to mount all the components. In my opinion, you just need to be create with it, find a spot that would be best, and fabricate your own shiat . Besides these "downfalls", ill use liquid intercooling in every boosted car that i will own in the future.

 

What would be cool is set up a small fuel cell in the trunk and run lines up front to the cooler and radiator. Now that would be a cool trick if you can pull it off. :elvis:

 

BTW... heres a good read if you arent sure about A/W Intercoolers :bigthumb:

http://www.are.com.au/feat/techt/airwaterinter.htm

 

Sorry to revive such an old thread but I'm curious if anyone is still running a water to air intercooler on an SDS system. I'm looking for something that will fit behind the passenger side bumper cover, under the headlight. I have vent grills in place.

I'm starting off around 7-9psi and will be using meth injection to start. Later, much later, I hope to increase the boost levels. I'm currently piecing together a kit for my build and am eyeballing the following from frozenboost.com:

Type 4 WAIC (opposite side inlets)
Liquid/Air

Type 117 14x12x2" heat exchanger with 10" or 12" fan
Air to Water Radiator

OR

Type 113 11x12x2 heat exchanger with 7" or 10" fan
Water to Air Radiator Cooler
*This is my backup plan in case the Type 117 14x12x2" won't fit on the passenger side.

And then of course the Bosch pump.
Water to Air Pump 0392022002

I'm not sure if a reservoir is actually needed or if using a remote fill cap like this one will suffice: Remote Radiator Filler Cap
I guess if I need to use a reservoir I could reinstall my wiper fluid res and use it?

Anyone have any suggestions, tips, etc for the WAIC install or a list of parts that are known to fit? Any/all advice welcomed! I WOULD LOVE TO SEE PICS of any custom sidemount WAICs used. I'll need all the help I can get coming up with a good HE bracket design and mounting solution.

 

Anyone have any thoughts on a good aftermarket coolant reservoir for an air to water intercooler setup? Is a reservoir even really needed? Frozenboost seems to claim the reservoir is an optional item.

The water inlet should come from the pump, and the outlet should lead to the radiator, then the reservoir (if equipped).

I'd like to add one but am having trouble determining who makes one that is ready to go out of the box.

Mishimoto has one that looks ok but there only seems to be one nipple and with it being at the bottom of the reservoir I'm not sure that would function properly. Why is there no second nipple/hose for the overflow hose? Isn't that needed to prevent pressure from building in the reservoir or is that function handled by the radiator cap?:

Mishimoto Aluminum Coolant Reservoir Fluid Tank | eBay

And I'm guessing that all the generic catch can reservoirs should not be used for coolant due to the breather filter many of them include?:

Unless someone has a better idea I think I may use the Mishimoto tank and have a 2nd nipple welded in at the top for connecting an overflow hose. I also think I may use one as my meth reservoir as I seem to have run out of room for the big square one that RIPP provided.

FWIW, I ended up using a Type 19 intercooler, a Type 113 heat exchanger with a 10" fan, Bosch/Cobra pump, 3/4" hoses, and an inline fill cap. Just need to figure out the reservoir part of this then the WAIC project can be scratched off the list. Any advice welcomed as I have never worked on a cooling system before. This is all pretty new to me! :runaway:

 

Thank you for bumping this thread! This is what I plan on running in the E30, i'm just worried about the efficiency. They say that AIR to AIR IC's is far more efficient for daily driving. The only place that I see were WATER to AIR shines is drag racing with ice added.

 

Air to air is impractical for me. I'm not modifying the bumper or frame and I can't afford a bunch of crazy pipe welds. My WAIC was straight forward with just one 90deg pipe welded. If it doesn't work I'll pull it off. I plan to have a per and post air temp sensor so I can verify it is working and how effective it is. I don't expect to be hitting boost back to back often or anything over 10psi anytime soon. I'll also be using methanol injection so I think I'll be ok with water to air.

I just need to figure out the proper reservoir setup. Any idea what you will be using for that? In the trunk or under the hood?

 

I'm planning out a turbo build for my 3G. I was planning to run a air/liquid intercooler for daily driving. I figured I could save time and space on piping. Any downfalls for this setup?

 

Space and reliability. So you run a few feet less of intercooler piping, but you pick up the need for a heat exchanger mounted in the same location as an air to air IC, have to run electronics and water lines and you will spend just as much on a crappy water to air setup as you could a high quality air to air setup.

Water to air setups are far more prone to heat soaking than an appropriate air to air. The heat exchanger has to be away from engine bay heat and all your lines insulated if you want it to be an effective setup. On anything bigger than a stock motor turbo setup you will require a reservoir which also takes up space, also insulated, and also somewhere engine heat can't get to it, in order to keep cold fluid on hand so that doing a few runs doesn't toast the cooler.

Even then, the bigger the system gets the longer it takes to cool down. If you park the car warm on a hot day and the cooler heat soaks you'll have a lot more driving around to do to get the system cold again before you can get on it.

Of course, if you have an appropriately designed setup with the correctly sized components they make good intercoolers but the truth is they are not easier to implement then air to air simply because plumbing the piping really isn't that difficult.

 

Not sure why the heat exchanger would need to be mounted in the front unless you aren't using a fan. I mounted mine under the passenger side headlight with a fan mounted to it. You'll need to run wires to power your water pump and fan.

I went the WAIC route myself once it came time to do the piping. Still a work in progress though. I keep getting pulled off the project with other stuff though so I'm only about 75% done with the install.

Probably worth mentioning that I won't be tracking or racing my car in anyway so I wasn't looking to go all out on the cooling.