Water to Air Intercooler on 4AGZE

[Bazooka]

Just curious to know if anyone has successfully added a water to air intercooler to replace the top mount intercooler on the 4AGZE?
I can get my hands on a Subaru heat exchanger fairly easily, the ST205 is much harder to come accross. I think by looking at it the Subaru item could be modified to work.
If anyone has done so what sort of benefit will it give?

[The Last Streetfighter]

Yes. Do a search. Was it Poojou who did it?

[Mr Revhead]

i have done it in an aw11
VAST improvment
much much better than a front mount in a FWD too

[deviant]

My AW11 MR2 has got a W2A intercooler.

Vast improvement over the stock top mount. I believe intake temps get as high as 120c with the top mount, a W2A will see you down to just above ambient temperature.

If your in a front engined application you can put the intercooler a lot closer to the engine to reduce hose lengths.

Lots of AW11 owners fit them.

[Bazooka]

Nice anyone got any pics?
Warwick, ill pick your brains about it next time i call to annoy you

[Mr Revhead]

see, this is why i hate forum names... i got no idea who you are

some pics here
http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y82/Mr-Revhead/aw11/

[Bazooka]

see, this is why i hate forum names... i got no idea who you are

some pics here
http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y82/Mr-Revhead/aw11/

LOL, well if I said my Blacktop 20V gasket kit, TRD head gasket and 4AGZE pistons arrived from you today will that ring any bells?

[TERRA Operative]

Where can I source a decent aftermarket w2a intercooler as a topmount replacement?
Is it feasable to weld panels to the stock 4AGZE intercooler to box it in and run water through it instead of air?

[Bazooka]

Where can I source a decent aftermarket w2a intercooler as a topmount replacement?
Is it feasable to weld panels to the stock 4AGZE intercooler to box it in and run water through it instead of air?

Aftermarket systems are expensive but of course probably easier to plumb in a custom setup. PWR do a range of liquid to air intercooler kits. http://www.pwr.com.au/images/intercoolers/4x6_kit.jpg
I believe these start at over $1000.
Modifyiing a stock air to air intercooler as you say can be done if your handy enough. Something like an RX7 intercooler would probably be a better candidate than the 4AGZE one. You need to find something with metal end tanks to be able to enclose the core.
The Subaru heat exchanger is probably the most common to find and obviously the cheapest method. The biggest problem is the inlet from the turbo that tucks in under the body of the unit. In my case I am looking at cutting this off and welding my own intake to suit. The other system would be from the ST205 GT4 but these are extremely rare and demand a much higher price. Although they would proabably fit better without modification as the Subaru does their not really worth chasing in most cases.

[Drew]

have done the subi liberty w2a in a gze sierra.
worked a treat, much better than the standard interwarmer in low range

[Bazooka]

Forgot about you Drew. Have to see this Zook one day

[feral4mr2]

i've had the st205 w2a i/c in the feral's 4agte for years, it has worked very well with my flogging it around and across Oz! at first i had a a/c condensor as my heat exchanger, but then modified a vn crummydore radiator, MUCH better. the bigger the HE the better in a w2a set-up IMO.



not best pic, but you get the idea of the size of it.


i've recently pulled the st205 core from the feral am i am going to put it on the lil feral's TC. i've bought another w2a core for the feral.

gunmetal another aw11 owner has a st205 core mounted very neatly ontop of the engine in a simular set-up to the 3sgte gt4. there be pics of it in the aw11 thread somewhere.

[feral4mr2]

just found these in one of my aw11 folders, stock a2a unit turned into a w2a. a few fellow owners in the states have done this and rekon it is heaps better than stock a2a.



i do have more pics of different ones here somewhere, but beleive me you dont want to go through all my aw11 folders/pics, will take all night!

[kender]

I highly recommend fitting a w2a intercooler. I've fitted the Subaru EJ20's w2a i/c, i/c pump and front heat exchanger to my AW11, and I consider it to be one the best mods I've ever done to it.
On the race track I'd see intake temps around 180F with the old a2a intercooler (I'd positioned it above the gearbox and had fans above it to suck air through it). With the w2a, my intake temp won't even register on the guage which starts at 100F (and that's even after 8 laps of a 3.33km circuit).
And I picked up the whole Subaru setup for only $50 off Trademe.
The whole thing was very simple to install.

[normality78]

hm... i've been toying about this idea for long but worry about the keeping the temp consistancy. FYI, im having ae111 turbo with fmic now. I would like to know

1. Will w2a intercooler give me lower air temp compare to my FMIC at night? Coz i do most of the running at night. It seems like all the feedback was frm mr2 owner.

2. How big does the w2a intercooler neede only to sufficient x rated horsepower? Woth 200whp, does Subaru w2a i/c sufficient enough?

[Mr Revhead]

a FMIC works very well when moving through cool air.

the w2a set up is more temp stable and will not suffer from heatsoak unless your coolant capacity is too low.
the reason a w2a is so popular in an MR2 is its very hard to install a decent a2a system in one, its a lot easier in a fround engined car.

what do you use your car for?

[normality78]

Well its my daily ride. Its my only car. Occasionally do have some friendly 300m drag with my friends.

my main objective is to have a constant low intake temp. as fmic do have longer pipping route vs top mount, i do believe engine bay heat does affect the intercooler pipping to become hot hence the air that travel thru does get heated up slightly even its after intercooler. This is also one of the area im looking to improve it. Well of course, by doing so i will improve my respond too.

That's makes me looking into w2a solution but as i mentioned earlier 2 point is my concern. So far i do noted mr2 and nsx benefit the most frm w2a solution due to thier engine chasis location

[motormad]

I have a Subaru Legacy water to air setup here, it should be more than enough for 200bhp as the Legacy was 280bhp twin turbo. The heat exchanger is a good size and the pump was designed to run at 40% capacity constantly and switch to 100% under boost.

[witte reus]

Well its my daily ride. Its my only car. Occasionally do have some friendly 300m drag with my friends.

my main objective is to have a constant low intake temp. as fmic do have longer pipping route vs top mount, i do believe engine bay heat does affect the intercooler pipping to become hot hence the air that travel thru does get heated up slightly even its after intercooler. This is also one of the area im looking to improve it. Well of course, by doing so i will improve my respond too.

That's makes me looking into w2a solution but as i mentioned earlier 2 point is my concern. So far i do noted mr2 and nsx benefit the most frm w2a solution due to thier engine chasis location

What do you think happens with the water in your W2A when you stand stil? It heats up And when you start driving again all those liters of water have to be colled down again .
With an A2A you only have to cool down that little piece of tube from the IC to the engine.

An W2A is only better then an A2A in those cases when you don't have enough roome for an A2A
Or if you want to cool down ALOT of air (in dragster cars)

[feral4mr2]

^^^ never heard of delayed pump cycles and fanned heat exchangers eh?......

plus the water in the core of a w2a unit gets cooled by the air being drawn through it at idle and off boost.