Water to air intercooler on a KA

[pr240sx]

Had anyone used this setup on a street driven KA?
I was thinking of it for the simplicity of the system and efficiency too.
As for intercooler options, I was planning to visit the Syclone/Typhoon forums so i can use one of their stock intercoolers.
If it work for a 4.3 V6 can work on a 2.4 I4 banger too

what do you guys think?

[wootwoot]

I think water to air intercooler is more complicated than air to air. There are better intercoolers than the cyclone/typhoons as well. Maybe try an intercooler off of an evo or srt4, you can get them use for pretty damn cheap on Ebay. Are you against a FMIC or whats the deal here hmm?

[pr240sx]

I am just looking for more options to intercool. Also, I think that the piping willbe easier/shorter.
I mentioned Syclones and Typhoons 'cause I already worked with them. I didnt know any other car that had water to air

[Jeff240sx]

The two cars he listed are air to air intercoolers. The oem air to water coolers are allright.. but made for a big engine, low boost, average power vehicle. We're jsut the opposite, wtih small engine and high boost. And pressurizing air exponentially increases the temp. I dont' think it will work how you're imagining it will (simplified). Air to Air doesn't have many disadvantages until you make sick power (400+), and adding a water cooling setup will mean the piping, tubing, hoses, water tank, pump, water cooler, and intercooler. Followed by wiring. If there is an issue anywhere in that system, it can be catastrophic. Issues with an air to air only seem to be a pipe blowing off, which with a screwdriver, can be fixed in 2 minutes.
So if you're dead set on air to water, get an aftermarket kit in my opinion. However, you won't go wrong with a standard air to air.
-Jeff

[Id-]

what wiring?

air/water is the best setup possible; but most people dont have the patience nor the know-how to set it up

it takes a air/water core (can make one from a air/air core actually), coolant tank, two lines, small electric water pump (can get a good brand for like $50, some stock fuel pumps work too, gotta research), and a cheap oil/water cooler from some junkyard car (or from autoparts place)..

basically the pump pulls water from the bottom of the tank through the line, pushes it into the core, it comes out the other side and is pushed by the pressure into the oil cooler, it comes out and is drained into the tank... pretty simple...
whats really nice is getting ice water in there ;)
this setup works best on a pressurized setup, you can also place the cooler BEFORE the core and get away with not being pressurized

only wiring involved is the pump itself, which is very simple; just run it off the ignition power on the ecu

[wootwoot]

It works really good with alcohol instead of water too. Its just a bit more complicated. Best set up for drag cars though

[90RS13]

It works really good with alcohol instead of water too. Its just a bit more complicated. Best set up for drag cars though

Actually, water has a higher specific heat than alcohol. Specific heat is the amount of heat per unit mass required to raise the temperature by one degree Celsius. The specific heat of water is....

1 calorie/gram °C = 4.186 joule/gram °C

(which is far greater than any other common substance.)

As an example, the sspecific heat of Alcohol is....

1 calorie/gram °C = 2.4 joule/gram °C

which, is still good, but not nearly as high as water.

Alot of people, mistake alcohol as having a specific heat superior to water due to the fact that alcohol engines run cooler. That's due to the Latent Heat of Vaporization. When a substance is going to undergo a change in form (from a liquid to a vapor, in this case), it has to absorb a certain amount of additional heat from its surroundings. Alcohol has to absorb about 2 1/2 times as much heat as gasoline. Of course, the alcohol flows through the engine so quickly that it can't absorb it's full potential, so you end up with an engine running about 20-40 deg. F, cooler than a gasoline engine, depending on specific engine.

At least I assume that's why poeple get mixed up.

-matt

[wootwoot]

I messed up because I believed what someone told me. Doh!