air- versus coolant-cooled charge coolers

dark_knight

dark_knight

Member +
anyone got experience between the two: air- vs. coolant-cooled intercoolers. our EPs come with air-to-air coolers but a friend told me he swapped his front-mounted air-to-air for a coolant-to-air cooler and he says the difference is quite good, so long as you are in motion. he was/is using it on a subaru legacy platform pushing 1.2bar on a vf34 (i think). all that aside, the concept should be the same, right..?

now, my question is, has anyone ever attempted to run the coolant-cooled charge cooler on the EP platform and what are the complexities..? is it worth it..? i'm guessing most of you will suggest just going with a larger more efficient FMIC.. :)
 
dark_knight

dark_knight

Member +
coolant efficacy

yes omikron, i'm guessing you are right if you are thinking about plumbing in the charge-cooler into the engine's coolant circuit. if you were to plug in a dedicated cooling circuit, then perhaps the difference might be beneficial..
 
Y

yaristurbo

Member +
Coolant is about 90 degrees far to high to cool charge temp, you will need another waterpump electronic, rad and water lines, space consuming and extra weight. Air is free :)
 
dark_knight

dark_knight

Member +
options

i concur yaristurbo, i'm guessing when you are in cooler climate it is an automatic choice to use air-to-air cooling.. but for us in the tropics, looking at any (other) way to cool intake temps is always an option.. :)
 
davehart

davehart

Member +
My GT4's chargecooled. It runs on a separate system from the engine coolant for optimum temperature and to ensure it's a cool as it can be lagging the cooler is a good idea.

I've never seen an EP with a chargecooler though.
 
Y

yaristurbo

Member +
Looking at it from your point of view then yeh theyre the way to go, water can stored and move alot more thermal energy
 
A

AdamB

Member +
Charge coolers are much more affective at cooling, when using water because water has the highest specific heat capacity out of any liquid on the planet, which is why we use it in our radiators. And some engines even use the coolant to flow through the cylinders themself (ie, those with sleeves). Saying that using a charge cooler does have its complexities as mentioned above.
 
dark_knight

dark_knight

Member +
water versus coolant

talking of which, does coolant have that much of a reduced thermal capacity than water..? i know water is the best for cooling but it comes with its rust issues.. :(
 
dark_knight

dark_knight

Member +
AdamB, are you saying distilled water won't cause rusting issues in the cooling circuit..? all factors held constant..? my understanding behind using distilled water is that it will work to help keep your cores unclogged, not to control rust.. right..?
 
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AdamB

Member +
Oxygen is the major cause of rust, essentially there should be no air in the cooling circuit, reducing the risk of oxidization. We all know that it is practically impossible to remove all the air in the cooling circuit. I'm not sure about where you are from but here we have high contents of chalk in our water, chalk carries oxygen inside it. Using distilled water removes the chalk element, leaving cleaner water.
 
T

turboloon

Member +
i used to run a charge cooler on a escort rs turbo many moons ago, for me a good front mount intercooler wins hands down!!! that's why you don't see many charge coolers now off days as a good fmic is more efficent(as long as you are moving!!!)
 
X

xtech

Fresh Recruit
I recently got a charge cooler from a Legacy as pictured below. I also got some relevant parts from the Turbo Diesel Nissan Caravan E24 which has a small OEM chargecooler....from it I took the electric water pump an the companion radiator with its fan to cool the water. Using it on my 5E with a TD04.

Some times i fill it up with ICE cold water lol.

The 150kW turbo Subaru Liberty (Legacy) RS uses this factory-fitted water/air exchanger that has a 4kW capacity. This heat exchanger also works quite effectively when power is increased to about 210kW.

This guy used it on a highly modified WRX using the same Legacy RS cooler

Image5.jpg


theo_engine3.jpg
 
ramses974

ramses974

Member +
there are some additive for cooling the system ,perhaps with a methanol/water combination you will get good results and less lagg
 
dark_knight

dark_knight

Member +
water/meth for engine cooling?

now that you mentioned it ramses974, anyone on here who has run a water/meth mix in their radiator..? any demerits to that..?
 
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