Home Made Water to Air Intercooler
 

Ok, so I got my hands on a dsm SMIC and since I can tig weld, I was wondering how hard it would be to make yourself a water to air intercooler. I was thinking along the lines of encloseing the dsm intercooler in an aluminum case and running water through it. Would this be effective? Would it be better to have the water running through the fins, and the air passed over the outside of them?? Thanks alot for any infomation.




Sean

Re:Home Made Water to Air Intercooler
 

You are always best to have convection, the water/air moving over surfaces. Use the FAQ. I think there is a thread about making your own. Otherwise use google, I know you can find something there.

Re:Home Made Water to Air Intercooler
 

you might want to search blacksi's old posts, he made an air-water out of the dsm sidemount earlier.

Re:Home Made Water to Air Intercooler
 

I'm pretty sure thats what beau did, and it sounds like the best option to me, although power capabilities are limited i'd think.

Re:Home Made Water to Air Intercooler
 

BLACKSI used 2 of those cores and did exactly what your talking about and I guess it worked pretty good cause it got him in the 11's with it

Re:Home Made Water to Air Intercooler
 

Well I searched on here, and I didn't find anything.... I also spent a couple days searching on google and yahoo and I didn't find anything there either aside from 5.0 water to air intercoolers, but they wern't technical articles just selling stuff. I appreciate all the info. I'm not looking to push big numbers, only around 150-200 hp. But thats alot for a 1750lb car. (1g crx hf) I was thinking about doing dual cores, I saw somewhere someone had that setup. I'm pritty cramped for space, and I'd really like it if the i/c basically sat about where the battery is and looked like a stockish air filter box so that rules dual cores out. I want to pop the hood and it look like a stock motor. ;D Thanks again for all the info... HomeMadeTurbo your great guys!!!!




Sean

Re:Home Made Water to Air Intercooler
 

might be a dumb question, i dunno, but what do u use for the water source for the air/water ic? i don't guess u could t off an existing coolant line, since it seems like the coolant would still be hotter than your charge temps. do u just use a separate resevoir and water pump, maybe a heater core off an old chevy or something to use as a radiator?

Re:Home Made Water to Air Intercooler
 

for that power level, you dont need the hassle of a water to air (btw you should use a seperate source). as for whether to have water in the core or air, i have no idea

Re:Home Made Water to Air Intercooler
 

water to air Ics kick ass at the track with a bag of ice !! You get really get your intake temps to below the temps of the outside air !! ( Like its 90 degrees outside, but your intake temps are 80degrees ). That's the advantage.

The disadvantage is that after you drive the car, the water heats up, and your IC isn't that effective, unless your willing to stop every 5 mintues and put Ice in it..

Its not worth the trouble to make 200hp...

Benz's new 605hp, 735LBS of torque twin turbo V-12 uses a water to air IC, so it can't be too bad, just a lot of work to build one, when its really not needed...

Re:Home Made Water to Air Intercooler
 

I did exactly the same thing and it turned out pretty good, Just watch it and make sure you don't burn through or its fucked good luck