Water Intercooler Vs Air Intercooler

On the other hand air to water intercooler systems use a complex arrangement of intercooler cores hoses fittings a coolant pump electrical connections and yes a secondary air to air heat exchanger.

Water intercooler vs air intercooler. There are many benefits of using a water to air intercooler setup. The down side of this is unless you have a constant supply of fresh cold water like the cooler systems you may see on speed boats you will heat up your supply of water very quickly. Air to air is better for long periods of boost racing as you can make the actual intercooler core larger and there will be a constant airflow over it. The water to air intercooler is the one where trading of warmth happens amongst water and the air.

The liquid to air intercooler is more complex than its air to air counterpart. Pressure drop on a standard water to air intercooler core is only 05 psi. In this design the air and coolant do not make direct contact as they are directed through different passages. As the name suggests the liquid to air intercooler uses engine coolant to transfer heat from the air passing through it.

One of the major benefits of water to air cooling is that water being a lot more dense than air is an ideal medium to displace heat. The water is pumped through intercooler with the goal that the warmth of the charge funnels is exchanged to water. This sort of set up could be mounted anyplace and simply needs water plumbed to the cooler. This sort of set up could be mounted anyplace and simply needs water plumbed to the cooler.

Water to air means incredibly low pressure drop. Water is pumped through the intercooler so that the heat from your charge pipes is transferred to the water. This type of set up can be mounted anywhere and just needs to have water plumbed to it. A water to air intercooler is one where the exchange of heat occurs between water and air.

Procharger intercoolers typically feature best in class effectiveness of 70 80. Basically a water to air is better for cramped engine bays and street use short bursts on boost as the water gives it more heat sinking ability. Moving to the air to water system fenske continues air to water intercoolers in production applications reduce the volume of space between the compressor and the intake valves because the air to water charge cooler can be mounted anywhere under the hood and not have to be routed up front into the airstream this reduces the distance the compressed charge has to travel.