water to air intercooler

[jdwk]

I really applaud the effort here, and it certainly isn't hurting anything, but I think any extra cooling from the water is negated by the extra amount of airflow it takes to cool the water. You are also using energy to pump the water, which may be small, but more than nothing.

I don't believe the heat absorbed by the intercooler is negligible. Also, we aren't just talking about heat absorbed from the engine bay, but also heat from the compressed air. A large enough heat exchanger could in theory dissipate enough heat to reduce the intake charge to a stable temperature assuming both airflow and waterflow were sufficient, but I've never seen such a system in practice. OEM's probably just use the law of diminishing returns to size their I/C's and H/E's, as every car I've ever seen at the track (both strip and road course) benefits from a cool down period, and/or ice.

Chiqles reported that the temps went 24 degrees above ambient when parked. I would need to put an IAT sensor on my throttle as well, but my guess is that an FMIC or even an SMIC has little to no effect on temp when parked. The turbo is not compressing air at idle and while air will heat up when flowing through that small furnace, it's probably much less than 24 degrees.

Since he has a sensor on his throttle, and has gone through various IC setups and is happy with his current results, we can assume that he is equaling or bettering his results under his driving, however, I don't believe in race applications or even at idle, this setup offers much benefit.

 

[CHIQLES]

Now I looked up both thoughs cars and there both supercharged not turbocharged and if there hooked up like the caddy that I took the water pump from that caddy was supercharged and did use the radiator coolent to cool the air but me dmention are useing seprate cores to cool the water so the engine temp plays no effect to that water temp but I have seen the relation when my air temp start to climb to high so does my engine temp.

 

[CHIQLES]

That is true I don't race and a air to air is more common on the track due to the fact that air to air systems work better when going over 60 also if an accident happens there is no extra fluid on the track also if an accident did happen and the core cracks or leaks hydrolock. My heatexhanger actualy works better when I'm driveing 35 and works just as well at 60 but I'm still in process of getting a fan on my heatexchanger just incase of supper heavy traffic. I have not experinced that yet.

 

[jdwk]

I am 99% sure both cars use a separate cooling system for the I/C. Yes they are SC'd, and that is the reason they had to use an air to water I/C. There is simply no space between the SC and the intake to put an air to air. However, the concept is the same, simply cool the intake charge that has been elevated by compression.
There are quite a few centrifugal S/C kits out there for the Mustang/Vette crowds, and AFAIK all of them use an air to air I/C.

 

[CHIQLES]

I'm glad you got on here jdwk you brought up good points and I hope we informed people with good info...but in the end I did this to be differnt sometimes being differnt comes with benefits and regret I haven't hit regret yet but its there and will pop its head out eventualy.

 

[jdwk]

Yeah sometimes being different is all the value you need. And it's great we have pioneers like you to test theories out like this, because you really don't know until you try.

 

[CHIQLES]

Well thank you for the compliment there are a lot of people on this forum who do the same there is not much support for our car so its upto us as a community to come up and devolop products and ideas to compete with the rest of the automotive classes out there who do.

 

[CHIQLES]

So I'm swapping the fluid back out the straight engine ice was a no go. I mean I go outside the out side temps are around 52 I expect the air to be in the 50's but there in the low 60's wich is good but before I did the swap they where right on par so I'm going to go 50/50 although the bottle says not to. And that's not the only reason it just holds temp way to long drove for 10minutes at 65 and air temp did not change. I guess no chemical can pull heat as good as water. Well ill post my results later

 

[jdwk]

That's correct. Water transfers heat better than any coolant. There are additives such as Water Wetter that claim to increase the cooling capacity but real world tests have shown it to be negligible compared to straight water. What the additives do however is add a lubricant and anti-corrosion properties so you can run straight water.

However, I tried this trick and our iron block didn't care, and started rusting severely within a few months. Took me forever to clean it all out with various flushes and cleaners. Now I just run 50/50 in all my cars.

 

[CHIQLES]

system running alot cooler been as close as 6deg to ambient with normal driveing. But here in cali we havent been above 65 for awhile so findings are none concluesive. wont truely know the affectiveness of the system till summer truely hits then the fun begins.. also right now my highest engine bay temp has only been 119.

 

[CHIQLES]

Update system running well. Was 78 deg out side today my ait temp was reading 75 what I'm thinking about is moveing the reservoir tank to the front of the car due to the fact that my water can only drop as low as my underhood temps. Although the trunk would work I just don't want to rout the water lines that far and the fact that air would be hitting my tank would aslo help in cooling.

 

[dmention7]

I wouldn't worry too much about the reservoir location. Your heat exchanger is going to be doing all the work of cooling the water off, and unless you get a really huge reservoir, the water is only going to have a residence time of several seconds anyways.

 

[CHIQLES]

I've been thinking do I need a resavoir hmm...what if I was able to fit a small atv radiator in the small space where the old smic was it should hold enough fluid to run everything new project...

 

[CHIQLES]

well today the out side temp was 92 degrees and the engine bay temp was 135 and the air temp was at 103 at the lowest and at 122 after stoping letting the system heat soak while going to the store.
this is what i picked up for 50 bucks...

small radiator and fan

 

[CHIQLES]

ill be working on putting and wireing that in next week..
i also did this small project this morning came out ok but could have came out better..

 

[jeffmsp]

looks like the perfect size for the rad in stock smic location, I dunno about that dent though did you test it to see if it leaks?

should be more than enough with the fan, you could also do some ducting to it. I think someone used to make a duct for the stock smic that would work perfect, just copy the design.

what is the cheapest you guys have seen that barrel style intercooler going for? Months ago I had a chance to get one for $150 cash. I wish I grabbed it now.

 

[CHIQLES]

Actually on the other side there ducting but I will also add to it. The berral style I belive is actually the best desighn for this car due to the cact that you'll use the whole core of the intercooler

 

[mazdaspeedp]

nice little intercooler. Too bad you said it dosent pull though all the way through. You should forsure tune the car and see how it goes

 

[CHIQLES]

I know that's in the future..right now I need to finish this project and chill out for a while and leave the car alone.

 

[CHIQLES]

heres a video of the setup just need to wire the fan later.