The only reason the water would get too hot is if the IC’s radiator and/or pump were too small for the application. The system must be able to reject as much heat as it can absorb. This is one of the difficulties of homemade water/air set-ups.

 

Yep 'twas the pump or should i say pumps.. I was too cheap to pay too much for a pump when the whole thing was just an experiment to see if it'd work. I was also using an A/C condensor to cool the water too, and that was probably not quite up to the task either. But i just wanted to see if it'd work with a modified air to air, and it did (sort of)

 

did you have a heat exhanger also or did it just circulate to and from a water tank?

 

It really had little to do with the radiators or the pump.&nbsp It's more a matter of capacity.&nbsp Cooling capacity is more dependent on cooling medium (i.e. water/coolant/ice), especially when we're talking about getting intake temps under ambient.&nbsp When it comes down to it, do you want 20+ gallons of water sloshing around inside the car?&nbsp That's a real waste of weight for such an advantage...

For racing (non-drag), the KISS principle applies, and you can't get any simpler than an A2A unit...

-Ted

 

hey just go out and get a CO2 cooling system, it probabaly won't heat up since its in a bottle behind you really cold and it will only cost like 7 bucks to refill the bottle.

 

Exactly, and it's the fact that water can absorb over four times as much heat energy for the same increase in temperature that makes it suitable for road cars that don't experience long periods of sustained boost, but short spikes of heat that the water easily absorbs. I've never seen a water-to-air system that uses much more than a gallon... I couldn't agree more. Air-to-air intercoolers work best on track cars.

Have a read of this article. It explains how intercoolers really work.

 

Uhhhhhh......with all the BS hitting the fan here, may I ask how many people here have actually owned and extensively driven a car with water/air cooling? I have a great deal of experience with both a GMC Syclone and a Lotus Esprit Turbo, and neither of them have any trouble keeping their air charge cool.