educate me on water to air intercoolers

[jansen]

Looking to go water to air intercooled on my new set up but I really don't know that much about the subject and I value all you forced induction veterans opinions so please help shed a little light on the subject . first off, how exactly does it work? I'm assuming you have an intercooler, tank full of ice water, and a pump to circulate it. What are you guys doing to keep the tank full of ice water from condensating and dripping water all over the track? Is it possible to mount the tank under the hood?is there a big differencein IAT's vs air to air where can I find a pump to circulate the coolant? Who makes some quality w2a intercoolers that can support 800+ HP? Planning on going twins so would a dual 2.5 inlets and 3" outlet be enough to support 800+? I know its a bunch of questions but I just want to get everything right this go round and not just throw something together. Thanks guys!

[kerrige]

For the street it will work about the same as an air to air cooler, however, for the track you can dump ice into the tank and see a major drop in iats. Trick makes a great setup exactly along the lines of what you are wanting. The majority of setups I have seen have all been in the cab.

[we_fly_high]

I don't know much about it, but like kerrige said, Trick has A nice setup. If you haven't seen it yet, it replaces the intake manifold like a roots blower intercooler would. He has pics around here somewhere, ill look for the link.

[we_fly_high]

http://www.ls1truck.com/forums/showt...8&goto=newpost try this

[jansen]

Not really interested in that cooler/ intake . kinda got this piece on my mind

[we_fly_high]

Very nice

[o2camaross]

IMO, if it is mainly a street truck I would stick A/A. An A/W uses the intercooler, a water/ice tank, a pump, and a heat exchanger mounted in the front to dissipate heat. There is no doubt for a track setup A/W is superior by far, water cools much better than air and you have very little pressure drop through the intercooler. Bad thing is for a street setup I don't see it being any better than an A/A intercooler. Plus it's more moving parts that can break.

[zebra]

one thing i never quite understood (hence why i never have put ice in mine yet):
how long does the ice typically take to melt in, say, a 1/2 gal tank?
what do you do after all the ice melts? do you then do a coolant flush after so many ice baths due to the resultant diluted antifreeze mix?

[jansen]

Truck will mainly be used on the track with the occasional 10 mile trip to town. I figured I would just dump the tank and refill with ice water as needed.

[George C]

Once it goes ice you keep using ice....aka race setup