[s-cars] Air to Liquid Intercoolers - Comments??

[mlp qwest]

Sure, try the Swedes, Laminnova are said to have a corner on the market.

 http://www.laminova.se/products/indexprod.htm

The air to water unit can be extremely compact (disregarding the water to
air heat exchanger unit for the moment.)  Downside, requires two (2x) heat
transfers vs. the usual "standard" air to air style.  On the + side, can
make for much more mounting flexibility in tight or difficult intake air
routing situations.  Spearco also makes several version of air to water
exchanger units.  The Laminova exchangers are the choice of Kleeman which
has done some very high end big $$ Mercedes supercharger cars.  Here (for
Joe P's benefit) is a fairly lengthy Subie forum thread on use of the units
  http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread/t-106295.html
Volvo http://www.v-performance.com/recent.html#cooler
Keene Bell supercharged Miata's
http://www.v-performance.com/recent.html#cooler and
http://www.kennebell.net/superchargers/mazda/miata/miata.htm

For the "best track car" buffs, as used in a Caterham ->
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/roybooth/willfly/laminova.html

If you search further, IIRC you'll find a Texas entrepreneur a la Buick
Grand National with a drag racing set up for using your "surplus" A/C to
pre-chill the air to water reservoir for close to 0° C (i.e. well below
ambient in any event) charge air cooling, at least until you heat soak your
water reservoir.

RE:  item #2 on your list, NO, it, or at least the charge air to cooling
medium portion of the system, does NOT have to be larger than an air to air
exchanger.  That in fact, at least in my limited experience, the primary
attraction of the Air to Water system.

HTH
Mike I've done 3 different FMIC air to air systems done, now which works
best? Pederson

~-----Original Message-----
~From: s-car-list On Behalf Of Lewis, Gary M
~
~No one seems to talk about them on-list.  Seems like a great way
~to dial in boost/timing maps when intake temps are nearly certain,
~or at least in a tight range.
~
~My suppostitions...
~
~Downsides:
~Weight  - gotta add water and pipes
~Space/Package  - gotta be bigger than a air to air intercooler
~Throughput  - I'd think with the bigger packaging, you are
~sacrificing some IC size, and size equals density
~
~Upsides
~Packaging  - "But you just said..."  Yeah, but these keep the air
~cooler than the same size air to air.  If you can put in the same
~size core, you should have more density.
~Air Temp Certainty  - Should make software programming easier
~
~And of course, the twist.  Use an air to air intercoler, then
~water inject.  I believe this is the best solution.  I nearly did
~this on the 200 TQA, but I found (and bought) the S6 TQA
~
~Comments welcome...
~
~Gary Lewis
~
~1995.5 S6 Avant, Green/Ecru, RS2 MAF, RS2 Exhaust Manifold, RS2
~Injectors, Custom Turbo (K26 Turbine, Factory K26 Cold side (Audi
~Works '999' P/N) with 50mm intake and custom Innovative Turbo
~compressor wheel), Bilsteins, Eibachs, Big Reds.
~
~1990 200TQW, K24 Turbo, 1991 TQ Intercooler, 1.8 bar, Bypass
~Valve, Euro's, Bilsteins, Redline in tranny and diffs, FOR SALE
~