Water/Air vs Front Mount Intercooler Discussion

[RobST162]

Hey Guys,

I've been doing some reading and research, here on Toymods as well as on the big wide web, and since we don't seem to have a thread on this and I'm trying to figure out what to do I thought I'd post up.

Am wanting to take the water-air setup off the GT-Four in my ongoing effort to remove weight and clutter from the engine bay and hopefully gain a little more power.

Of course I'm contemplating a nice tasty front mount.

However, the reading I've been doing seems to indicate the gains will be neligible and I'll have to deal with a boost drop much greater than I have now (of course), so my little turbs will have to work a bit harder, I'll have more lag. Of course, there's a greater heat soak component too in theory, though right out the front shouldn't be too bad.

Here are some of the articles I've been reading.

http://www.frozenboost.com/stpg.php?...d=water_to_air

http://www.strikeengine.com/intercoolers.html

http://autospeed.com/cms/A_2469/article.html

Love to hear your thoughts!

[JustenGT8]

OMG what a can of worms you have opened up here. In short, the 'best' option is so application specific as to make this type of comparison meaningless. Unless you are doing a single purpose with a known consistent ambient condition there are too many variable and you end up comparing apples with oranges.

Go the FMIC, save the weight and complexity. For a GT4, concentrate on optimising the flow path and minimising the heat soak

OR

Optimise the A/W with all the heat shielding, extra coolant capacity, water wetter etc etc.

For anything up to 250kw at the wheels i doubt you'll pick a difference.

For either IC option, add WI and you have only improved things.

Someone pls lock this thread now

[RobST162]

ok no desire to open a can of worms, was speaking from a typical average street car user

if it's can of worms then that tells me there's no huge performance difference between a standard w/a and decent fmic in day to day street use with only mild mods

[StuC]

Rob - slap on T28 upgrade9(or ct20 for sale on here for 1k!), wind up boost and put water sprayer on the front of your exchanger. Do the constant run IC mod and stay with the WA

My opinion only. As Justin said above, no difference at the levels of power you are running atm - and keep lag free

[RobST162]

yeah it's funny but I'm actually super keen on clearing out the engine bay hey too