Just wondering, which is more efficient?

 

THis will likely be highly debated by some. But an air/air intercooler is much more efficient for everyday driving and a track car. Now for drag racing, a water/air is better only as long as you have a large capacity coolant fluid tank that you can put ice in. The ice doesn't have to last very long, only a quarter mile to be exact.

The only problem with an air/air intercooler with a supercharger, you will lose some boost because there is much more volume that has to be pressurized. With the water/air, the piping is very short and compact.

For all that say that water/air is more efficient, I'll pose a question to you. Why would the older F1 cars use air/air if air water is more efficient? Because water/air is only good for drag racing. Period.

If you decide to go with air/air, I'd have a custom pulley made to have the boost increase faster than the stock pulley that the SC kits come with.

 

We make a radiator for the comptech and vortech aftercooler which is 5x bigger made by spearco which just bolts to your car without any mods. From the outside it looks like a front mount intercooler. We sell the $400. It helps ensure that your aftercooler is producing the coldest air possible. If you are interested in one call me at 80059tech2
Drew

 

Edit

 

Actually it was because it is lighter and due to the design of the F1 cars, no problem placing the intercooler in good airflow with minimal piping.

Air-air is the better design in general, but on an S2000 with a low boost SC Air-Water is the better design. That's my conclusion, and apparently it's Vortech's and Comptech's as well.

 

i have always read and heard air to air is better if you can raise the boost on the system. i.e. larger pulley.

 

Don't believe everything you hear. Firstly, you up boost by using a smaller pulley on the SC.

Secondly, because of the way the boost pressure ramps up any amount of mid-range boost that would make up for the incredible plumbing length would be way too high up top. And then you need some engine management, and bigger injectors, and some boost control. By this stage you're not really talking about the Comptech or Vortech kits anymore. It's a custom job.

Don't swallow the spider to catch the fly.

 

Air/water will be more efficient, up to the point where the water temp has hit saturation. Once that break-even point has been reached, anything above it makes air/air more efficient.

 

So if the heat exchanger and radiator is big enough, and there is adequate air flow then the water temp will never reach saturation right? So assuming Vortech and Comptech have done their math then the Air-Water is more efficient.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by AusS2000