A friend's given the suggestion to go W2A because I don't believe I have enough room for a front mount. I also don't want to cut up shit and make everything look awful, but I keep hearing that a W2A isn't a good idea for a street car.
Anyone have experience with W2A intercoolers on a daily?
You'll still have to cool the water.
Let me clarify. I've got an E34 that I'm building in my garage. E34's don't exactly have much area cut out for airflow in the front bumper (pic related)
Instead of cutting shit and making it look awful, or going to an ugly aftermarket bumper, it was suggested to me that I could go W2A which takes up less room. Problem is that I live in Florida, and heat soak is an issue.
I've been thinking I could run two heat-exchangers and be totally fine dailying the car.
Yeah, you might be able to split the cooling duty between two smaller rads rather than a single big one.
Or you could mount a front mount behind the bumper at an angle and add an air dam beneath it, so it scoops up air from underneath the bumper and forces it through the rad.
Yeah. Heat exchangers.
Forgot picture.
I'll still have to measure everything, but I thought about that too. Given the lack of room, I don't know if this is an option, or at least an efficient one.,
>>not good for street car
There are a couple modern turbo cars that use water to air from the factory. Nothing wrong with it, just a little more complex.
Problem is that there's a bunch of people who say it's just not a good idea because of heat soak among other things. I'm not worried about complexity, I'm just worried about efficiency and heat soak because of hot Florida summers.
That looks terrible, can you at least straighten out the "nostrils?"
Not my car. Stolen Google image.
Here's mine. Contrast lowered on bumper so you can see that I'm not joking when I say there's nothing for airflow.
my buddy's F80 (I think) M3 has a factory air-to-water intercooler.
Dunno how long its gonna last, considering the entire coolant system is a maintenance item on newer BMW's.
Just gonna bump this up again. Anyone own a car with a water to air intercooler setup in a hot climate?
99% of the time air-air is a lot better
People that tell you A2A is better are stupid.
The only thing A2A is better at is simplicity. And total size.
A2A intercoolers Require one BIG intercooler, to cool the air effectively.
W2A intercoolers are more efficient, and take up more overall space, but the components can be spaced out more.
E.g., You can have multiple Heat exchangers like said.
also if you enough room for a reservoir, you can actually have more than 100% efficiency in a W2A system, by putting ice into the reservoir. This is really good for Dragging, and top speed runs etc.
I can almost guarantee running a A2A will be easier in your situation tho. Drew a picture for a mock up. Green is the charge piping, and red is where you cut.
If you're color blind lemme know.
>VQ engine
THE ultimate sign that the driver is a douchebag. Please fuck yourself, OP
That's just a diagram explaining what an W2A is.
Stillen made it, you dumbfuck. Thanks for your contribution.
The issue is the bumper. I can't cut it without destroying it or making it look awful. What people normally do is put the intercooler just before the radiator, but that leaves almost no room for a fan.
No lag with a2w, if you have a reservoir you can chill it for more air density, you can add fans to the heat exchanger so it stays cool even idling.
Its not that fucking hard FFS, I'd rather do an a2w kit on my turbo diesel than running big intercooler pipes all over. Two small hoses is a lot easier to run and I don't have to cut into the rad support or nearby
Only downfall I see is you have to have a pump. No pump is the same as no IC after the coolant is heated up. It's not hard to rig a pump up to be on when ignition is on.
Stop worrying about heat soak. You're not going to be tracking the car on Florida summer's days. Worst case scenario on the street your system will heat soak to a temperature just above ambient air temp. This will still be significantly cooler than your charge temp pre-IC and if you get a large enough intercooler it will cool your charge just fine.
Heat soak will only be an issue if you are continuously in boost (such as at a track day) and have insufficient heat rejection. You're probably going to wind up with the latter, but it won't be a problem unless you are also satisfying the former.
also ceramic coat ALL the exhause from manifold to downpipe at least. You'll reduce underhood temps and boost faster and harder becasue you are driving more exhaust heat through the turbo.
I did my manifolds, up n down pipes, and hot side on the turbo itself. I can run up the road hauling ass then pull over and touch the manifolds and not get burned. Try that on yours and you'll burn some shit
Sounds good. Might as well give it a try if it works.
So just do what everyone does?
If it's tight, it's just tight. Doesn't mean it doesn't work. No point in trying to reinvent the wheel
No, like... I can't run a fan. It would be that tight.
Run something like this. e34's did come with a diesel option. And this is the intercooler system they ran. Its very similar to
Ehhhh, I do believe that thing is fucking tiny, but I'll look into it. Never thought of that.
And here's the reason you can't run a front mount.
Nothing covering it, and it looks like shit.