[cmg5461]

Well now that the systems are becoming cheaper and cheaper.. alas

http://www.frozenboost(remove).com/l...r-intercooler/

The sky is the limit with configurations.

Many benefits - higher ceiling for heatsoak, shorter piping = less lag, lower pressure drop through intercooler, higher efficiency.. etc

My question is do we have the room to do it?

[Sered]

Don't do it unless it's for a pure drag car and you'll be using an icebox or using a killer chiller. Streetability-wise, it can't touch an air/air.

Nearly all M3 s/c kits have air/water. The ones that perform more consistently are the air/air.

[tharptroy]

I am also interested in attempting this project at some point, though real life has me otherwise occupied at the moment. My plan was to go into this as an experiment and be willing to scrap the whole thing and go back to air/air if it could not be set up to work well.

what I had in mind was to get inlets that move the intakes to the passenger side, route the turbine outlets over the top of the engine and merge them into the intercooler which would be sitting just on top of the intake manifold. It would be a great deal of work, but I think it would be interesting to see the results.

[LaxIan55]

I have done this on a previous car build of mine on a big turbo SAAB, it was a complete headache. Too many things to go wrong and hard to monitor if everything was working correctly. Ended up swapping back to an air to air.

I will add that it did perform exceptionally well when it was working correctly. For drag and auto-x I would put ice in my water reservoir and my oat would drop to levels similar to a nice cool fall morning, it was a lot of fun but not worth the reliability issues on a daily in my opinion

Reminds me of the vid I saw on youtube a while back where a bunch of russian guys were racing TT gallardos, etc. Nothing but chillied vodka went into the tank lol

[csu87]

Originally Posted by FCobra94

Reminds me of the vid I saw on youtube a while back where a bunch of russian guys were racing TT gallardos, etc. Nothing but chillied vodka went into the tank lol

Thats my kind of intercooler.

Air to Water for a daily driver street car isnt practical. More of a headache than its worth. just get a meth kit if you want to drop IATs more than ambient.

If its a dedicated track car, then yeah, it is better and would be worth it.

[Mit_Boost]

Really 2 main reasons to go Air/Water (vs. Air/Air):

1. Drag Car = Easier to get ice cold IATs
2. Exceeded Cooling Efficiency of Air/Air

So unless you're #1, even the WR Power N54's haven't exceeded the cooling capability of an Air/Air system. Also, prob LOTS of headaches--plumbing, additional power demand for pumps, CAN integration, etc.

[Jeef]

Some People spray methanol/water mixtures on this platform to cool IAT too.

[cmg5461]

Originally Posted by Jeef

Some People spray methanol/water mixtures on this platform to cool IAT too.

external cooling will always be a much safer option. Hydrolocking an engine from a failing nozzle isn't worth the risk imo.

[Jeef]

Originally Posted by cmg5461

external cooling will always be a much safer option. Hydrolocking an engine from a failing nozzle isn't worth the risk imo.

That's why I said some. Everyone has there own thoughts about it