The air/water intercooler thead - Page 3

bwrx03 · 07-02-2011, 10:17 PM

Got my tune today worst possible day being 90 degrees out, but had interesting results. First pull the air sensor maxed out and threw a cel. The intercooler has a **** ton of flow. The tuner kept saying how impressed he was with the intercooler and flow rate. Had a couple problems, first was the radiator for the IC. The radiator cap that came with it was opening when the water got hot after 10+ pulls. So they had to close off the over flow with some tubing, I'll be buying a 1.3 bar cap to fix that. Second problem is he maxed my injectors so I need 750cc's. So he turned down the boost to 15psi. Making 308hp and 338tq for now. Also the fan that was infront of the car stopped working so I was running hotter than usual.

To answer a few question. No you don't need a thermostat you just need a anti freeze mix

Ive seen people do a half size radiator then putting the IC radiator next to the smaller engine radiator. You could do that to keep your bumper beam.

My tuner loved tuning with this setup.

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OrbitalEllipses · 07-02-2011, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwrx03

No you don't need a thermostat you just need a anti freeze mix.

Figured as much.

blue_wrx_chic03 · 07-11-2011, 04:36 PM

i had a similar air to water setup on my car but i had a larger water tank in trunk and lager intercooler i think. for the heat exchanger i had fluidyne 03 cobra one from summit. my setup never got to hot and ever spit water. water temps stayed nice and low during dyno runs and street runs. even better was the heat was 90 degrees and the one bag of ice yielded three runs with air temps below 60 at wot.

bwrx03 · 07-14-2011, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blue_wrx_chic03

i had a similar air to water setup on my car but i had a larger water tank in trunk and lager intercooler i think. for the heat exchanger i had fluidyne 03 cobra one from summit. my setup never got to hot and ever spit water. water temps stayed nice and low during dyno runs and street runs. even better was the heat was 90 degrees and the one bag of ice yielded three runs with air temps below 60 at wot.

Any pics?

I decided put ice in my tank this morning. The ambient temp was 69 and the intake temp dropped to 59. Water temp gauge was below 70 that's all i know, when the gauge is below 70 it only reads LOW so I'm not sure of the temp. Unfortunately it only lasted about 25 minutes through traffic, then the water temp picked up to around 75 degrees and the intake to 83 degrees. I also put red line water wetter in the system, huge waste of money it didn't do ****.

Also i got my new radiator cap on so the leakage is stopped.

svynx · 07-15-2011, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwrx03

Any pics?

I also put red line water wetter in the system,

I'll be adding it as well when the system is finished (again, hopefully this weekend). It does help a little as far as keeping temps down, but the main reason is to keep the water from freezing during the winter.

bwrx03 · 07-15-2011, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by svynx

I'll be adding it as well when the system is finished (again, hopefully this weekend). It does help a little as far as keeping temps down, but the main reason is to keep the water from freezing during the winter.

I ran my car for 30 mins in 85 degree weather, the water temp was 80 degrees when i stopped. I put in two bottles of water wetter and jumped on the freeway and drove 40 miles. Weather temp raised to 87 on the way and the water temp raised to 84. I understand the non-freezing part, but it doesn't do anything for the temps. Atleast from what i saw.

blue_wrx_chic03 · 07-15-2011, 02:53 PM

i will find a pic of the rest of the stuff but i am running a 03 cobra water intecooler pump and fluidyne 03 cobra heat exchanger in the front. it was over 90 ambient while dynoing and then with ice air temps where 60 or less for about a hour.

blackpearl44 · 07-17-2011, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blue_wrx_chic03

i will find a pic of the rest of the stuff but i am running a 03 cobra water intecooler pump and fluidyne 03 cobra heat exchanger in the front. it was over 90 ambient while dynoing and then with ice air temps where 60 or less for about a hour.

How does your cobra watercooler pump compare to Meziere pump?

omiotek · 07-20-2011, 01:16 AM

so when doing this are you guys having to fill the water tanks daily? how do you go about hook up for all this for DD purposes... im doing a supercharger build on my gc. figured this would be better then air to air for sure.

svynx · 07-20-2011, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by omiotek

so when doing this are you guys having to fill the water tanks daily? how do you go about hook up for all this for DD purposes... im doing a supercharger build on my gc. figured this would be better then air to air for sure.

Quick answer would be no, you don't have to fill daily. Honestly in a perfect world you would only fill once. But, since there can be some evaporation from somewhere, it isn't a bad idea to check the level once in a while. As far as install, the main parts would be the radiator, pump, and the core. A reservoir box does help, but i feel that if the radiator is big enough, you wouldn't need one.

Update on my build: the reservoir box and the intercooler pipe with the bpv flange welded to it has a second coat of epoxy to seal any leaks. Just waiting for that to dry and I can install. Getting close now.

omiotek · 07-21-2011, 01:24 AM

gotcha. yeah im just debating right now if i should spend some extra money and go air to water or go air to air with my m90 supercharger build....car will be a dd here in chicago.

bwrx03 · 07-26-2011, 06:28 PM

Nice setup wrx_chic what kind of power did you make? If you don't mind me asking.

And any progress on your build svynx?

svynx · 07-30-2011, 04:42 PM

^^^ yup. Only a little though. All parts have been welded, sealed, and painted. All that is left is the install itself. I'm out of town right now, so the plan is to do the install on Aug 6 along with my trans work. It's been a long time coming now, but there is finally light at the end of the tunnel.

lager478 · 08-10-2011, 05:27 PM

debating on whether or not to go w2a, a little concerned about reliability though. What happens if the water pump fails? possibly blow up the engine?

bwrx03 · 08-10-2011, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lager478

debating on whether or not to go w2a, a little concerned about reliability though. What happens if the water pump fails? possibly blow up the engine?

I can't say for sure but I don't think it would blow the engine. The water in the IC would get hot as **** with prolonged driving, but if you're an aware driver you should know if your pumps are working or not. The pumps going out are my main concern and so far my bilge pumps have been awesome. What I've learned from all my electronics classes are that electronic motors last about 50,000 hours. Which for me is close to a years worth of driving. If I were you I'd do the same thing i did with the bilge pumps that have the quick change cartridges. I spliced in quick disconnect connectors for the power and ground to the pumps. Then bought new pump cartridges put on the same quick disconnects, so if I'm on the road when the pumps go out I can quickly change them. It's really up to you if you want a AWIC, but from my experiences they're the best IC for any application. Hope this helped.

lager478 · 08-10-2011, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwrx03

I can't say for sure but I don't think it would blow the engine. The water in the IC would get hot as **** with prolonged driving, but if you're an aware driver you should know if your pumps are working or not. The pumps going out are my main concern and so far my bilge pumps have been awesome. What I've learned from all my electronics classes are that electronic motors last about 50,000 hours. Which for me is close to a years worth of driving. If I were you I'd do the same thing i did with the bilge pumps that have the quick change cartridges. I spliced in quick disconnect connectors for the power and ground to the pumps. Then bought new pump cartridges put on the same quick disconnects, so if I'm on the road when the pumps go out I can quickly change them. It's really up to you if you want a AWIC, but from my experiences they're the best IC for any application. Hope this helped.

Thanks for the input, helped a lot.I guess a water temp gauge like the one you installed would be the best way to monitor the IC water temps? I like your quick change pump idea, I read your post about that earlier in the thread. What pumps did you end up getting? Im assuming you went to west marine or a similar store to get them. Would really like to try this out instead of going with an aftermarket tm or fm.

Only other thing I didn't really like was using my trunk space/not having my spare. Maybe I could mount the battery in the trunk and the fab a reservoir to mount in the engine bay.... it would have to be small though, maybe have heat soak problems? maybe mess up weight distribution also.

bwrx03 · 08-10-2011, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lager478

Thanks for the input, helped a lot.I guess a water temp gauge like the one you installed would be the best way to monitor the IC water temps? I like your quick change pump idea, I read your post about that earlier in the thread. What pumps did you end up getting? Im assuming you went to west marine or a similar store to get them. Would really like to try this out instead of going with an aftermarket tm or fm.

Only other thing I didn't really like was using my trunk space/not having my spare. Maybe I could mount the battery in the trunk and the fab a reservoir to mount in the engine bay.... it would have to be small though, maybe have heat soak problems? maybe mess up weight distribution also.

I went with Johnson's bilge pumps from west marine. I took out the spare tire when i put on bigger wheels,(nearly 2 years ago) since the spare would screw with the center diff mixed with the 18's i have on. I DO NOT track anymore, just from all the damage I caused my car. I have more than 90 hours of track time in this car alone, so I'm really not desperate for more. So i couldn't comment on engine bay heat soak. But anything in the enginebay will absorb more heat than the trunk. You could do what I think svynx is trying and put the box in a wheel well. Then go to a custom wheel/alignment guy and do a corner balance to make up for the extra weight.

svynx · 10-05-2011, 08:46 PM

I guess it's time to show the progress. I'm short one hose to complete this project. Seems like there is always something going on to hold me back from finishing this. Here's some pics thus far.

I've finished the piping from the turbo to the cooler. The hose that I need now is to connect the BPV back into the turbo inlet. Once that is done, the system is done. I've completed the leak test and happily found no leaks.

jaxscuby · 10-06-2011, 08:34 AM

looks nice..frozen boost kit?

svynx · 10-06-2011, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaxscuby

looks nice..frozen boost kit?

Yup

draco159 · 10-06-2011, 02:31 PM

So it just sits on top correct, you didn't have a bracket made or anything? Looks awesome!

Oh and what do you do with the two tapped openings on the TB side of it?

svynx · 10-06-2011, 04:21 PM

I didn't have to make a bracket because the silicone cuplings are stiff enough to hold things in place.
The openings there do not go all the way through. I'm just going to leave them be. I might fab up a bracket at some point just to add some stability, but it's not needed.

Disclamer: I'm only talking about the core I have. Some are bigger, or different sizes and might require brackets.

Alistairh · 10-11-2011, 04:18 AM

So, I've been toying with going WTA for a long time, and never really got the whole FMIC thing.

Thinking of grabbing a properly sized WTA IC from frozen boost, putting the IC directly between the turbo and the TB, and mounting the rad where my FMIC was.

Does anyone have dyno graphs showing decreased spool time? Seems to me that if you removed the 8 feet of intake piping, you might be able to spool a few hundred RPM's quicker.

svynx · 10-11-2011, 07:46 AM

I can't help you there. I really wasn't looking at spool time when I decided to do this. But common sence says that if you are switching from a standard front mount, your spool time will decrease because of you not having to pressurize all the piping and the much larger/thicker core.

Alistairh · 10-11-2011, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by svynx

I can't help you there. I really wasn't looking at spool time when I decided to do this. But common sence says that if you are switching from a standard front mount, your spool time will decrease because of you not having to pressurize all the piping and the much larger/thicker core.

That's exactly what I'm thinking as well.

I'm kind of curious if I could upgrade to a 35R from my 3076R and get more HP, and be well on my way to spoolin' by ~3300 RPM.

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07-02-2011, 10:17 PM	#51
bwrx03 Scooby Specialist Member#: 174372 Join Date: Mar 2008 Chapter/Region: SCIC Location: In a van down by the river Vehicle: Baby Im gunna butter your biscuits	Got my tune today worst possible day being 90 degrees out, but had interesting results. First pull the air sensor maxed out and threw a cel. The intercooler has a **** ton of flow. The tuner kept saying how impressed he was with the intercooler and flow rate. Had a couple problems, first was the radiator for the IC. The radiator cap that came with it was opening when the water got hot after 10+ pulls. So they had to close off the over flow with some tubing, I'll be buying a 1.3 bar cap to fix that. Second problem is he maxed my injectors so I need 750cc's. So he turned down the boost to 15psi. Making 308hp and 338tq for now. Also the fan that was infront of the car stopped working so I was running hotter than usual. To answer a few question. No you don't need a thermostat you just need a anti freeze mix Ive seen people do a half size radiator then putting the IC radiator next to the smaller engine radiator. You could do that to keep your bumper beam. My tuner loved tuning with this setup. * Registered users of the site do not see these ads.

07-11-2011, 04:36 PM	#53
blue_wrx_chic03 Scooby Newbie Member#: 34519 Join Date: Mar 2003 Chapter/Region: South East Location: Miami, Fl Vehicle: 03 WRX WRX blue	i had a similar air to water setup on my car but i had a larger water tank in trunk and lager intercooler i think. for the heat exchanger i had fluidyne 03 cobra one from summit. my setup never got to hot and ever spit water. water temps stayed nice and low during dyno runs and street runs. even better was the heat was 90 degrees and the one bag of ice yielded three runs with air temps below 60 at wot.

07-15-2011, 02:53 PM	#57
blue_wrx_chic03 Scooby Newbie Member#: 34519 Join Date: Mar 2003 Chapter/Region: South East Location: Miami, Fl Vehicle: 03 WRX WRX blue	i will find a pic of the rest of the stuff but i am running a 03 cobra water intecooler pump and fluidyne 03 cobra heat exchanger in the front. it was over 90 ambient while dynoing and then with ice air temps where 60 or less for about a hour.

07-20-2011, 01:16 AM	#59
omiotek Scooby Specialist Member#: 272090 Join Date: Jan 2011 Chapter/Region: MWSOC Vehicle: 2006 Subaru Forester SGM	so when doing this are you guys having to fill the water tanks daily? how do you go about hook up for all this for DD purposes... im doing a supercharger build on my gc. figured this would be better then air to air for sure.

07-21-2011, 01:24 AM	#61
omiotek Scooby Specialist Member#: 272090 Join Date: Jan 2011 Chapter/Region: MWSOC Vehicle: 2006 Subaru Forester SGM	gotcha. yeah im just debating right now if i should spend some extra money and go air to water or go air to air with my m90 supercharger build....car will be a dd here in chicago.

07-26-2011, 06:28 PM	#62
bwrx03 Scooby Specialist Member#: 174372 Join Date: Mar 2008 Chapter/Region: SCIC Location: In a van down by the river Vehicle: Baby Im gunna butter your biscuits	Nice setup wrx_chic what kind of power did you make? If you don't mind me asking. And any progress on your build svynx?

07-30-2011, 04:42 PM	#63
svynx Scooby Specialist Member#: 210371 Join Date: May 2009 Chapter/Region: MAIC Location: York, pa Vehicle: 2002 hybrid 16gxt '03 Lifted TS	^^^ yup. Only a little though. All parts have been welded, sealed, and painted. All that is left is the install itself. I'm out of town right now, so the plan is to do the install on Aug 6 along with my trans work. It's been a long time coming now, but there is finally light at the end of the tunnel.

08-10-2011, 05:27 PM	#64
lager478 Scooby Newbie Member#: 247163 Join Date: May 2010 Chapter/Region: South East Location: Jacksonville Vehicle: 2010 WRX Pearl White	debating on whether or not to go w2a, a little concerned about reliability though. What happens if the water pump fails? possibly blow up the engine?

10-05-2011, 08:46 PM	#68
svynx Scooby Specialist Member#: 210371 Join Date: May 2009 Chapter/Region: MAIC Location: York, pa Vehicle: 2002 hybrid 16gxt '03 Lifted TS	I guess it's time to show the progress. I'm short one hose to complete this project. Seems like there is always something going on to hold me back from finishing this. Here's some pics thus far. I've finished the piping from the turbo to the cooler. The hose that I need now is to connect the BPV back into the turbo inlet. Once that is done, the system is done. I've completed the leak test and happily found no leaks.

10-06-2011, 08:34 AM	#69
jaxscuby Sammo Hung Moderator Member#: 10613 Join Date: Sep 2001 Chapter/Region: South East Location: GTMO / S Ga / N Fla Vehicle: 2002 USDM WRX WRB	looks nice..frozen boost kit?

10-06-2011, 02:31 PM	#71
draco159 Scooby Specialist Member#: 204121 Join Date: Feb 2009	So it just sits on top correct, you didn't have a bracket made or anything? Looks awesome! Oh and what do you do with the two tapped openings on the TB side of it?

10-06-2011, 04:21 PM	#72
svynx Scooby Specialist Member#: 210371 Join Date: May 2009 Chapter/Region: MAIC Location: York, pa Vehicle: 2002 hybrid 16gxt '03 Lifted TS	I didn't have to make a bracket because the silicone cuplings are stiff enough to hold things in place. The openings there do not go all the way through. I'm just going to leave them be. I might fab up a bracket at some point just to add some stability, but it's not needed. Disclamer: I'm only talking about the core I have. Some are bigger, or different sizes and might require brackets.

10-11-2011, 04:18 AM	#73
Alistairh Scooby Newbie Member#: 268286 Join Date: Dec 2010 Chapter/Region: W. Canada Location: Alberta Vehicle: 2011 STi Dark Grey	So, I've been toying with going WTA for a long time, and never really got the whole FMIC thing. Thinking of grabbing a properly sized WTA IC from frozen boost, putting the IC directly between the turbo and the TB, and mounting the rad where my FMIC was. Does anyone have dyno graphs showing decreased spool time? Seems to me that if you removed the 8 feet of intake piping, you might be able to spool a few hundred RPM's quicker.

10-11-2011, 07:46 AM	#74
svynx Scooby Specialist Member#: 210371 Join Date: May 2009 Chapter/Region: MAIC Location: York, pa Vehicle: 2002 hybrid 16gxt '03 Lifted TS	I can't help you there. I really wasn't looking at spool time when I decided to do this. But common sence says that if you are switching from a standard front mount, your spool time will decrease because of you not having to pressurize all the piping and the much larger/thicker core.