Quote:
Originally Posted by badmatt
street driven Daily in the summer spring and fall... so air to air is a must for me...
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OEM's use air-water on a lot of their combinations and they are tested & driven under any imaginable condition... think new ZR1 for a good example. It's air/water and I don't see GM putting "special use" conditions in the owners manual concerning the intercooling setup.
What I'm saying is that an air/water will work fine daily driven in any conditions
provided you size the heat exchanger combo properly so it won't heatsoak under prolonged use.
Most air/water setups are very drag-race oriented and are only concerned about maintaining good IC temps for a few seconds, thus they're the air/water core, a tank for holding chilled water, and a pump-- that's it. Useless for the street. For longer periods of use you'll need a good pump, a properly sized heat exchanger (i.e. a radiator for the fluid in the intercooler system), a reservoir, and possibly fans depending on the location of the heat exchanger.
I helped on the design & build of a 900hp Procharged 427 SBF in a Mustang that's air-water. There was absolutely no room for a properly sized air/air core, so we had to go air/water. We used an air/water IC from Precision, an upgraded aluminum heat exchanger for a Cobra, a larger Canton reservoir, and a stock Bosch intercooler pump. The system doesn't heatsoak under extended driving conditions and works well, IAT's are usually 25F over ambient air.
Other than being a little heavier and more complex than an air/air setup there are no real disadvantages of a properly designed air/water setup. In fact, it gives you the option of adding chilled water or ice to the system if and when you go drag racing for a few more HP.