Thread: Air 2 Water Heat Exchangers

I never had any heat soak issues with mine, i think it worked very well overall. here is an example. I was at an auto-x and it had to be high 80's or even low 90's and with how many people were there the car did alot of sitting. I think i did 9 runs at 10psi on a gt2871r on a uk 10:1 engine on 93 oct. with 5 gallons of water total sysytem volume with a 7lb bag of ice. The ice lasted over 3 hrs of sitting, and driving in the hatch of my nx with the sun beating down on the black plastic jazz 3 gallon fuel cell. I would like to see someone put 7lb's on a air to air intercooler after each run and see how long it would last. I even did like 5-10 fun runs at the end of the day and the water in the res. was still very cool to the touch.

The problem with an air to air set up is you are directly limited to how hot the air outside is. Ex if its 90deg. outside your car is gonna be a hell of alot slower than on a 60deg day. Where as someone running an efficent water to air set up can maintain lower IAT temps than an air to air intercooler on any given day regaurdless of outside temps.

This is also why alot of pro drag racers are starting to use or have been using water to air intercoolers. They can keep their iat's at bay and run faster times. In the end its all what works best for you and what fits in your budget. But alot of people would much rather just go with an air to air set up because they dont want to deal with extra plumbing and or wiring.
I also liked the fact of having a very small amount of piping under the hood.



These are a few example older pics when i first went water to air.

When myprojectB13 had that setup he always ran straight water so he could drain it whenever, wherever. If you get heatsoaked, you can just stop by the grocery store and pick up some ice and distilled water, lol.

Any way around it, it'll be unique. I can't wait to see what you do with it. I'm pissed at myself that I just let it sit around.

Sorry I just don't buy it. I've run the math and I've defined testing protocols on this stuff for lasers and pulsed lamps (air/air vs air/water cooling). If you don't have enough water or big enough of a heat exchanger you will heat soak no doubt so I don't doubt you have seen what you have. But if you do it right... there is NO way a air/air can be better than air/water. There are inherit efficiencies and thermodynamics that are there. The problem is I don't think anybody is doing any math or testing for sizing the systems, they just do what fits and it doesn't work.

I was talking with Eric (nissan crazy) earlier and he brought up a great point. Alot of factory cars use a A2W setup. Mercedes, Ford Cobra, Ford Lightening, etc. Those systems don't have a HUGE water reserve. I personally am not convinced for a street setup that a small 10x10x1 heat exchanger with the 1 gal reservoir and associated lines (guesstimating around 2 gal of water) will not be enough. That's approximately the same amount of water that is in the whole SR20 cooling loop. So with that being said, I think that with a fan, and a reasonable sized exchanger, I think it will work out great for a street car. Occasionally, if need be, I can drain out the water and fill it up with ice water or fresh water for a track day of some kind. Mostly though, this will be a street setup on my daily driver. That's the beauty of one of these systems.



Thanks again for hooking me up Looking forward to utilizing this.

Distilled water is for pansies. Its all about De-Ionized water I do sales for a water company during the day so I have access to as much of it as I need.

Oh really ....I was just wondering if it would help to insulate the reservoir if it is under the hood to help futher prevent heating the water from absorbing heat from under hood heat ??? or just put the reservoir in the back of the car to help curb it ...

You can't compare to engine cooling system size. The delta in temperature between ambient air and water temperature is huge making the radiator very efficient and removing heat. With the high delta it allows the radiator to dissipate a very high wattage of heat compared to air/water for intercooler.

And I know lightnings have heat exchangers are something like 20x10x1 which is enough for them stock. With something like 2-3 gallon capacity.

If you insist on the small heat exchanger with 2 gallon it should work... but you aren't taking full advantage of having air/water. Larger heat exchanger only mean cooler temps and less chance of heat soak. Make sure to at least get a 500 gph pump to ensure turnover of water volume through exchanger.

Bump...

Still looking for input. Taking everything into consideration before I buy something.

i would just get one of the large sized alum. heat exchangers sold on ebay. If i would go water to air again thats what i would buy, nothing was affordable back when i built my set up.

A big thanks to NissanCrazy (Eric).

He was kind enough to give me a heat exchanger he had laying around. Dimensions are 23" x 5" x 3/4".

Looking forward to using this

I am going to use a heat exchanger that is about the same size as my AC condensor. Then I am going to do some fancy work to get the air to force its way though the cores. I am going to try and keep my fans as a pull-through also. When I am done the car will look stock. The twin scroll mani, light flywheel, exhaust cutout, and shorter piping should all do wonders for response with my turbo.