Are water to air intercoolers good for the RX??
 

I am currently looking at upgrading my IC and came across the water to air ic and like the idea,fit and price. Has any one used these or had an issue with the 13b and this type of ic? Thanks

how could it possibly hinder your performance???
make sure your ic tubing stays the correct diameter i dont see a problem

It really depends on your setup. Is a nice WA intercooler better than the OEM one?...YES

It all comes down to efficiency. Many people don't run them because of the other great options out there. When running a larger turbo & more boost, WA's tend to heat soak & can't keep up with the demands.

You will also have to mount an adequate heat exchanger with a pump to circulate things.

I have seen a few setups, but most run the usual large stock mount, front mount, or v-mount air intercoolers.

buddy of mine is running one on his na-t s5
http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/q...1/IMG_6484.jpg
http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/q...1/IMG_6483.jpg
http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/q...1/IMG_6482.jpg
having some idle issues, once that's sorted out, onto the dyno it goes.

They're great on drag setups because you can ice down the intercooler between passes. Very few turbo cars come with them from the factory though. The GMC Syclone/Typhoon is the only one I can think of.

^ Probably due to weight and added complexity, and at stock boost levels for most vehicles it would be a little overkill. Even for circuit or RR cars, If you have a reservoir and a heat exchanger at the front, I couldn't see the water heating up any more than your intake charges would be on an air-air intercooler anyways. I think they're great, although I haven't done enough testing to see yet.

On my first trip out with my larger air-water setup, I couldn't get the IAT's over ambient. That was only one drive on my setup though.

edit: I just read that Ford Racing released a new supercharger system for the new 5.0 L, and comes with an air-water intercooler. It's pretty badass, I'm not gonna lie. http://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/23/f...w-5-0-liter-v/
http://www.fordracingparts.com/parts...KeyField=12402

many many many turbocharged cars come with air to water intercooler. remember, the heat exchanger much hold the same capacity or greater of water than the intercooler does.

I think there are two advantages to air-water intercoolers, the ability to run closer to ambient due to water's greater cooling capacity. Also you can run even shorter IC piping than with a stock mount and due to the smaller size of the IC there's less of a pressure drop. As you can see on the set-up I posted above, there's only about 2 feet of piping.

Most recent picture of mine, before I finished it:

http://a.imageshack.us/img713/2236/dscf1342zj.th.jpg

Heat exchanger is 26 x 7 x 3.5 thick. As large as a good size FMIC, completely fills the hole in my FC2000 bumper! I'm looking forward to testing it. I think the real test will be extended highway use, and of course a RR course to see just how much water temps come up.

I am looking at the units sold at frozenboost.com
They have the entire kit for $600? It includes the radiator,fans and ic. I love that one pic with the short ic piping, I might have to copy that!

What bracket is he using for the alternator?

the setup on the car I posted I believe is from frozenboost actually, dunno about the alternator relocation bracket, I thought it was from pinapple, but I can't find it on their site

Hmmmm... How similar (flow wise) to a small FMIC with shortish piping would air to water IC be? What's pressure drop like?