mmmmmi do have that 225 stock IC cores and the couplers(except red shappire took one cuz his had a leak) but both cores and at least one side of the couplers

 

If some one doesn't mind explaining how the water to air intercooler works I would appreciate it. This idea is news to me.

 

http://www.frozenboost.com/stpg.php?...d=water_to_air

 

^ nice link, thanks

 

Cincy, The Spearco intercooler I got has a bung on it with a hose coming off it. It taps into the cooler so it would spray inside but I assume it's for water or something. Got any insight on that or what it is?

As far as your upgrade goes I say try the water to air, it's always cool to see new things for our cars, but we all know there will be haters.

 

Not sure what that hole would be for. It cant be water since the water has no place to go to disapate the heat. I had an old ebay core that had a hole also with the fins exposed. Not all that sure what it would be good for besides maybe venting some heat out.

I think i may just go ahead and do it this way since it wont add any piping, actually lower pressure drop over the stock unit, cool better than a smic upgrade (that dont fit on our cars w/o major cutting, and will be perfect for people regaurdless of turbo size. I know it will be great and my car really needs one since my dyno shows a 6whp and 34wtq drop off between runs due to heat soak and the worst part was the dyno was only reading 67* that day, cant imagine how much im losing at 90+ here in FL

 

What about a normal FMIC kit using the cross over pipe with a reasonably sized core?

I just do not like idea of a secondary water system to mess with, but that is just me.

 

That adds way to much piping. Sure its simple, but not the best way to do it.

I just put together the parts to be ordered for the w2a kit and hopefully if all the parts are in from a few places i can have it up and running this weekend.

As for the water system, all it will be is a slim radiator sitting in front of the of the stock unit with 2 lines from it and a pump. It really wont be anything major since it wont get hit with anything or require any real maintence except changing the fluids every couple of years if you want. I think when people see how easy it will be to instll and how well it will replace the stock unit most of you will be quite happy. Plus im sure many of you would like to keep your aliens and not have to remove the side inserts because you have piping poking out of them.

 

I have read that water to air will never be as efficient as air-to-air if you are not using ice. I personally have NO experience with w2a, and I was also thinking of putting one together last year to experiement (I was thinking of putting the heat exchanger where the current turbo outlet pipe is on top of the motor). What are your thoughts on overall efficiency? I understand that FMIC's are reaching 90+ %, and by offloading oil cooling to a dedicated remote oil cooler, the negative impacts on using an FMIC are much reduced.

I personally run an O.CT front mount (with aliens fully retained, BTW), and it works great. You can really feel the impact even at temps as low as 75F. I will be doing an oil cooler as well, but I have always been interested in a w2a system as well... Anyway, comments on my thoughts and ramblings are welcome!

 

The only issue with w2a is getting the water back to ambient temps. With a large enough rad, it shouldnt be much of a problem. The main reason to use them is for limited piping (unlike the crossover pipe idea) and that you can use a very small core (5x5x10) vs a larger a2a core (20x9x3 or larger) since water removes heat far faster. This results in basically no pressure drop (most are under a .1 psi... thats tenths) vs a a2a core that will have some psi drop since it requires far more space to fill. To take that a bit further, your turbo will have to produce 2-4psi more to get you the same psi at the manifold and this will cause more heat from the turbo for the ic to cool down.

For the 180, you wont have to add any piping, you will have no psi drop, and high efficiency result since water removes heat far better and faster than air. The rad that i will be using is 24x12x1 so it will have plenty of surface space to bring temps back to ambient and i will also be using a fan to help it and push more air through the ac and stock rad aswell so no one will have increased engine temps