Luquid To Air Intercooling

[Jap_Muscle]

Hi Guys,

With summer just around the corner i thought it would be a good idea to look into liquid to air intercooling. the advantages are obvious with massive drops in tempreture compared to conventional air to air intercooling.

Alot of people say this sort of area is usually catered to Drag setups (which i am heavily into) but i think as a overall setup for the street it is unbeatable!

PWR Australia have some universial kits that cater for 250hp setups all the way to 1000hp+. After having a quick chat to PWR, i think the biggest obstacle, especially with high HP applications is the availability of space.

more info: http://www.pwr.com.au/#/view=products/s=is/

One of PWRs sales reps have recommended a 8" barrel for applications around the 400kw mark, but i am unsure if their "Universal Barrel Kits" supply everything needed to get the ball rolling.

Any thoughts or 1st hand experience? What do people think about fitting such a kit into an already compact rb26 engine bay? ect ect

Discuss

[Hibino]

Daily driving I really don't know how well they go but look at it this way:

Air to Air - The charged air is cooled to ambient temp (or close enough) via front mount.

Water to Air - The air is cooled by water. The water is cooled to ambient temp via air flow.

So basically once it heats up, it's only going to be cooled to ambient temp either way.

[axe s]

Have you thought of keeping your Air to Air and installing WaterMeth injection..

Far more benefits, don't need to worry about space and would cost about the same to get a good kit setup..

[Jap_Muscle]

Hibino - i think the point of W2A is that the temperatures dont fluctuate from 30-80 degrees especially on track days and hot summer days. W2A has proven consistant 30-40temps regardless of the situation.

i havnt heard of this water meth injection stuff buddy, any references or readups you can link me to?

[axe s]

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Wa...p;hl=water+meth

Snow performance do a good kit.. aswell as AEM..

[bubba]

W2A on a track is useless.

W2A is used for short bursts of power as water can take a lot of heat quickly, but in return takes a relatively long time to dissipate that heat. For sustained power A2A is better.

That is why track cars use A2A and drag cars tend to use W2A.

Would have its' benefits on the street but not sure about getting stuck in traffic, I imagine the system would heatsoak fairly quickly and stop providing any benefits.

Edited October 7, 2010 by bubba

[VB-]

sitting at idle in traffic, with no real heatloading on the cooler core, and the water circulating through a radiator/fan combo shouldnt see a sagnificant temp rise

Edited October 7, 2010 by VB-

[STATUS]

W2A on a track is useless.

W2A is used for short bursts of power as water can take a lot of heat quickly, but in return takes a relatively long time to dissipate that heat. For sustained power A2A is better.

That is why track cars use A2A and drag cars tend to use W2A.

Would have its' benefits on the street but not sure about getting stuck in traffic, I imagine the system would heatsoak fairly quickly and stop providing any benefits.

yeah at the lights or sitting idle they work in reverse, the under bonnet heat absorbs into the barrel and gets worse and worse as there is no airflow across radiator. A fix is a thermo that comes in at idle (closed throttle switch, with rpm hysteresis or speed sensor input)

[mattymagoo22]

Daily driving I really don't know how well they go but look at it this way:

Air to Air - The charged air is cooled to ambient temp (or close enough) via front mount.

Water to Air - The air is cooled by water. The water is cooled to ambient temp via air flow.

So basically once it heats up, it's only going to be cooled to ambient temp either way.

When moving, in a W2A the air flowing through a radiator can reduce the cooling liquid to less than ambient and when not on boost the air being drawn into the engine through the intercooler also cools the liquid in the system. A2A is most cost effective, but doesn't become effective until vehicle begins to move, water to air is ready to go all the time, apart from track use as mentioned.

Benefits of the W2A is shorter intake tract for better throttle response. The kits are not too much trouble to install, haven't done one myself, but my father in-law has one on his turbo diesel patrol and should be able to be done in a 5-6 hours by a competent DIYer.

[WHITER33GTS-T]

I had a PWR barrel cooler on my 4x4. It was great until under bonnet temps started to rise and then heat soak would take over and drop the power. It would be great if it had a dry ice box... And had a supply or ice with you everyday...

[zebra]

You can get 10L water tanks for the setups that you can mount in the boot with the pumps that will help with stop/start traffic, they are designed so you can fill the tank with ice cubes for more powerz.

I would never mount the w2a core near the motor or behind the radiator, which limits you to where you can mount them in a skyline.

[bubba]

yeah at the lights or sitting idle they work in reverse, the under bonnet heat absorbs into the barrel and gets worse and worse as there is no airflow across radiator. A fix is a thermo that comes in at idle (closed throttle switch, with rpm hysteresis or speed sensor input)

[mr 32]

ive seen a setup in a daily that managed to handle 500+rwkw

given it was a supercharged 8, the basic principles are the same still

[Rolls]

It can work better if you have a decent sized tank to account for heat soak when you are on boost for a long period of time and in summer. if the tank is undersized it will work better until the water gets heat soaked, then it will be worse than A2A.

How does water/meth injection compare to W2A/AA cooling?

[STATUS]

yeah we ahve few that come in and TBH i would not consider it unless i could fit it outside of the engine bay, i did a check where the car was left idling for 15mins with bonnet shut then did a power run and it was down on power significantly.

[VB-]

did it have a fan running constantly on the radiaoR (for the W2A system?) alot of people seem to only trigger fans, and in some cases even the pump(s) when it comes up on boost, cant figure out why?