Author Topic: water-to-air  (Read 3232 times)

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Offline pedro666

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water-to-air
« on: Dec 6, 2014, 08:32AM »
Is anyone running water to air intercooling?
the words "race car" spelled backward still spell "race car"? 




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Offline noss

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Re: water-to-air
« Reply #1 on: Dec 9, 2014, 02:02PM »
yes. i'm running a laminova core w2a intercooler on the mini.




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Offline pedro666

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Re: water-to-air
« Reply #2 on: Dec 10, 2014, 07:33PM »
That is a lot different to the set up I was considering, your reservoir is top left under windscreen? what size is it. First time seeing it since it went in. How do you compare to previous set up?
« Last Edit: Dec 10, 2014, 07:35PM by pedro666 »
the words "race car" spelled backward still spell "race car"? 




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Offline noss

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Re: water-to-air
« Reply #3 on: Dec 11, 2014, 08:09AM »
yep as you point out reservoir is up top left of the photo (drivers side), it's probably a little too small, but the only way i can get a bigger reservoir is custom or remote mount maybe but i'm not keen on that.

the intercooler has two laminova cores in it, they run the length of the cooler.. flow characteristics wise, i don't agree with the way it has been setup because as per the picture below, the air is to cross across the fins



so what actually happens is that the air diverts around a plate to the outside of the cooler, across the fins and then out the centre of the other end, but adam assures me that there wouldn't be a whole lot of pressure loss based on the pics i've sent him (below). i guess also it's a road car.. soo.. you know. doesn't matter that much.



i'm running two heat exchangers in series, the pissy litttle 4-row one that it was originally sold with, plus another 8-row that the guy in the usa sold me as well as per the pics below



there are other things i need to improve a well, mostly with heat shielding. for example after the motor is rebuilt i'm going to install some heat shielding under the cooler to block heat from the motor, i have a larger bonnet scoop to install and i'm looking into options to shield heat from the supercharger as well.

there are a lot of opinions on the net about heat exchanger and reservoir sizing. mostly they run along the lines of for drag racing you want a massive reservoir with little to no heat exchanger, on the street you want a big heat exchanger without paying much attention to the reservoir.. my opinion, living in brisbane in summer you want as much water as you can fit. i'll be the first to admit i don't think i have enough because my reservoir is only as big as a can of softdrink. if you can fit 1 or 2 litres of reservoir, do it and get the biggest heat exchanger you can fit. after running pretty hard my water always runs at around 40 degrees. i run my pump runs full speed all the time.


my comments on the whole shebang would be:

- seat of the pants the car felt more responsive with the w2a installed
- obd reading showed cooler running IATs
- as everyone rightly points out, recovery is quick but heat soak is worse.. try shield your water loop from heat. maximise your water if you can.
- it's a bitch to install
- more water to check is annoying


i'm one of only 2 people in australia with the laminova kit in my mini though and it's not sold anymore so..

« Last Edit: Dec 11, 2014, 08:12AM by noss »

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Offline pedro666

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Re: water-to-air
« Reply #4 on: Dec 11, 2014, 05:00PM »
I was thinking transmission cooler or oil cooler, whichever is cheaper. I have a 1 ltr stainless reservoir I was going to use for my wipers 4 years ago that is still in the garage and just those tube style exchanger to slide in the intake. This is my project after the intake manifold and the Q45 throttlebody goes in in Feb. However if I can't find any were to mount the cooler It may not happen, as I had trouble finding a spot for the oil cooler. :(

Could you put you reservoir in your guard?
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Offline noss

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Re: water-to-air
« Reply #5 on: Dec 12, 2014, 07:47AM »
ah like the frozen boost or pwr cooler?

http://www.frozenboost.com/air_water-ic/barrel-water-to-air-intercoolers-p-226.html

so that would mount inline in your intake pipework somewhere post turbo.. which bit are you having trouble figuring out where to mount? you already have a front mount intercooler, why not put it down there? then you don't have to completely rework your intake. say if your intercooler is 600mm wide, then get a 600mm long tube or run 2 in series if you need to.

i guess that then clashes with the heat exchanger mounting location, but you're right, the heat exchanger is basically an oil / transmission cooler.

you'll need a pump as well, when my kit arrived the pump was dead, so i bought a davies craig ebp which is actually a bosch pump but they have other models as well, that's just the one that i chose.


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