The radiator of a air to water intercooler doesn't get as hot as a air to air intercooler.

I wouldn't expect much of a difference in intake air temps. The only way to find out is to hook up the sprayers and log your intake temps with and without the h20 sprayers.

 

and then maybe try to get your hands on a little co2 and spray that on the cooler. (and you are right cooler air is more dense... so both of us are right)

 

IMO Air/Air setup are better to dissipate heat for a long stretch of abuse.

the only draw back is that it steal much more boost then a water/air setup.

water/air is better for short runs IMO

 

Air/air will never be able to have the same cooling efficiency as air/water. Two radiators of the same size and shape, one air/air and one air/water, will produce dramatically different results. The air/water system does not need to be nearly as large as the air/air system to achieve the same temperature reduction. More piping equates to a higher pressure drop. Which is why people are seeing a reduction in boost with a FMIC.

The downside is that the air/water system requires a separate cooler for the water loop, and a pump to circulate the fluid.

A short example (feel free to try it out if you like). Run around for a few minutes to get your body heat up. Need to cool down? Step into a walk-in refridgerator and you'll cool down pretty quickly. Do the same thing, yet this time jump into the ocean just north of Antarctica (Same temp as the air in the fridge). Now I don't have any empirical test data to prove it, but I will pretty much guarantee that you will cool down quicker. You could ponder this for a few minutes in the fridge...but I'd give you about 15 seconds in the water.

 

Agreed on your statement,

What i am saying here is, once the liquid in the system (water/air)heats up, its tough for the radiator to dissipate the heat to get the liquid back to cool liquid. Dont forget that the same liquid is circulating,

Does it have enough time to circulate in the rad to get back to normal temperature ?

Air/air IC has a constant fresh supply of air all the time

 

I think it may be a case of comparing apples to oranges. In both cases, the air is compressed and forced through a heat exchanger before entering the intake manifold. The air/air heat exchanger is rather simple. The air/water heat exchanger is a bit more complex. Instead of relying on an infinite volume of more or less ambient air to dissipate the heat into, it must dump its heat into a closed loop of water. This water is then circulated through its own completely separate heat exchanger.

It's true that there is always a constant fresh supply of the cooling medium (air) in the case of the air/air system. This is not the case in the air/water scenario. Yes, the water will increase in temperature, but it will not increase dramatically due to its own independent cooling loop. The temperature of the water medium will not be as low as the air medium (ambient temp), but it's cooling properties are an order of magnitude greater than that of standard air so it doesnt matter.

Conductivity of Air: 0.02563 W/m-K
Conductivity of Water: 0.6 W/m-K

Water has over 23 times the conductivity of air. Two similar heat exchangers, one air/air and the other air/water, wouldn't even compare in terms of overall efficiency.

For shits and giggles (more giggles than shits) the conductivity of mercury is 8.69 W/m-K. Now that is some serious cooling potential. Metals have extremely high conductivity.

Another thing. It takes about 1004 Joules to heat up one kg of air one degree Celsius. It takes 4182 to do the same thing to water. Water can absorb 4 times the energy of air and heat up the same amount (per mass). Food for thought. Useless thought, perhaps...

 

The other critical difference is the application. Both SC kits are low boost. The lower the boost the less cooling requirement but the length of charge path becomes critical.

The A-W set ups of the Comptech and Vortech kits cool adequately and provide a very short charge path.

 

I give up, you superseded me in this subject.

Million dollar question to you. Will a larger front mount radiator (like tech2) be more efficient to lower the water temp ?

 

I'd say that in most cases the OEM radiator is adequate and that all you'd be adding with the Tech 2 would be weight (oh, and 'look'). Perhaps Tech 2 should bundle it with a BOV.

 

A larger radiator for the aftercooler water loop or a larger radiator for the engine? The stock radiator is more than adequate for the cooling needs of the engine. A larger radiator for the aftercooler water loop would be interesting to see though. I don't know if anyone has tried that or not so I can't quote any performance gains. I imagine there is room for improvement...