intercooler setup- this a good idea??

[zarnah]

Ok well this might be the dumbest idea ever, or it could be the start of something great........

Just about to put my new engine in my wagon and I noticed my old water to air setup in a dark corner of the garage (I now run front mount) and it got me thinking- could I run my front mount and run it into the water to air intercooler as well for "super-cooling"? ie

turbo----piping----frontmount----piping----water to air----intake manifold?

I had a good look and mocked it up and I can modify the old Ypipe to run the oposite direction and join up to the piping coming from the front mount.

Any gains to be had from a setup like that? ??? ???

If anything I wouldnt have to hear people tell me the pros/cons of frontmount/water to air- "no worries mate i'm running one of each" lol

[WRXER]

Sounds quite interesting, personally I go with the argument of "If it had good gains, then it would be done before/replicated on numerous occasions".

I'll be interested in seeing what others say, but personally I question this as I have never seen this setup done on anything esp in track setups where good ol DIY ideas can rain supreme in regards to getting cooler temps.

But I will be curious to see what it would go like if you did do this setup.

[Guest Rugged_RS]

sounds crazy, wouldnt that just be making the air take longer to get where it needs to go though?

[BC5RA]

Think about it.

If you are going to have your water tank sitting as a collector for the FMIC air then the air will heat up to whatever the temp of the water is in the tank.

Essentially you'll be adding a restriction to your setup.

And if your not going to circulate the water in the tank then watch it heat soak.

[zarnah]

no i was thinking of hooking the water to air up properly with the pump/heat exchanger etc, just thinking if the air is already cooler when it goes into the water to air, and that cools it even more, then its gotta be a bit of a gain somewhere?

[zarnah]

and as for the air taking longer to get to the intake, I dont think it would end up much longer anyhow if I modify the Ypipe decent enough..... maybe I should try it just for shits n giggles, got a spare ypipe I can hack up and a spare frontmount cold side pipe......

[Guest Rugged_RS]

I guess its worth a shot lol

[pl0x]

Yea i think that could be quite a good idea lol

keep us posted to see how well it works

[DRFVDR]

would also give u a good place to chuck iceblocks in for the track/drags

[Guest]

No its not a good idea.

WAIC by its very nature is not as efficient as Air to Air intercoolers

Running intercoolers in series is inefficient.

For example say your turbo adds 100 C to the charge air and your FMIC is 80% efficient. So takes out 80C of the rise in temp then. (So the charge air now 20C above ambient). Say intercooler 2 is also 80% efficient then it takes out only 16C out of the charge air. Which might be worth 2% more power. I don't know the weight of a WAIC but since its full of water its probably quite heavy. Which reduces your power to weight ratio.

And that example maybe to conservative. I have seen tests done on a 1.5bar 400hp WRX with a hybrid fmic with charge temps only 8C above ambient.

Then as said above you have doubled your restriction with another intercooler which is doing stuff all. That will lose you power and give u more lag. I would suspect a Legacy WAIC + piping would have a pressure drop of around 2psi worth about 16kw atw.

If you've got a decent FMIC then you most likely have no problem with post intercooler charge temps. As most aftermkt fmic are too big anyways.

The simple solution is to actually test the temp of your intake temps after the fmic. And see if you need additional cooling. Then get a bigger or better FMIC.

[Flash]

Run one or the other if you dont want MAJOR turbo lag!!

Why not just run water injection or water/methanol injection.

Thats whats next on my wish list!