I was thinking for some time, not going the conventional air-air IC, wouldn't a 2 water-air IC be more beneficial as you coul reduce piping and practically mount it near the TB therefore reducing lag (even though it's SFA)...only problem I can see is where it will get its water supply but that can be rectified by just hooking the ICs up to the washer bottles? Thoughts? Ryan
Water to Air IC's are normally quite large. You have to plumb them up on both turbo's too. The water system is a closed loop with it's own water circulation pump and radiator. It's a bit of a complicated system. To be honest I don't think you would be able to reduce the pipe run by much without going a custom cooler. It's also quite heavy. And expensive. Too hard basket IMO.
Inefficient, in both space, weight and cooling ability. Your cooling 2 mediums now. Using ambient air to cool the water, and then water to cool the charge air. You can't just use the washer bottle how will you keep the water cool? it's just going to heat up and then your going to get no intercooling at all.
Well realistically I was thinking with a kit you get a radiator for the cooling so you could somehow t- bar the inlet and outlet hoses to both the ICs...also the sizing for the ICs aren't as drastic as they once were... Especially with a TT application you could use for example 2 ICs rated at 300hp... Mounting should be too much of a problem because you could mount it where the original IC piping was aswell once it's been removed.and if heat soak is a problem you could also add a heat shield (if you really wanted to) Ryan
The problem is, you won't get better sustained cooling with a water to air system, especially a DIY job. IC's will never get your charge to ambient, nor if they are immersed in water will they get your charge air to the temp of the water. The problem with water to air IC's is that your ambient water temp increases everytime you come on boost, and we now need to rely on the air temp to cool the water down. Air to Air IC's located in a good spot with good air flow, will have a constant stream of ambient air, that doesn't increase in temperature, and requires no further cooling. The only reason manufacturers have used them in the past is space constraints, and needing to place the IC's in the engine bay. Otherwise they are far outperformed by air-air IC's. The only form of motorsport that uses water-air IC's is drag racing, and this is because they fill the resevoir with Iced water, below 0deg, and it only has to last one pass. They don't cool the water
