xr6tForMe Donating Members 268 Member For: 11y 6m 10d Gender: Male Posted 27/12/14 02:33 AM Share Posted 27/12/14 02:33 AM I am wondering why water to air intercoolers are not more popular on on Barra engines? If one was mounted over the top of the engine (like the top mount intercooler on the territory), it would get rid of a whole lot of piping volume which would have to be good for response. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aiboart Member 665 Member For: 19y 11m 24d Posted 27/12/14 03:29 AM Share Posted 27/12/14 03:29 AM Cost, complexity, weight.For most road applications, front mounted air-air is more than sufficient.With water-air you need two heat exchangers (rather than one) fluid and a fluid drive.As for response... modern hi-end/hi-po road cars now feature software filters to dampen throttle response. Running shock torque loads into the contact patches, especially before weight transfer has occured, is bad for grip and chassis stability, which is fine if you are inducing instability in order to generate agility, but, not so fine if you are tooling around on the road.Turbo threshold and lag (what lag there is left these days) can be your friend in road situations where grip is marginal, such as on wet roads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xr6tForMe Donating Members 268 Member For: 11y 6m 10d Gender: Male Posted 27/12/14 04:50 AM Author Share Posted 27/12/14 04:50 AM I see people discussing which (expensive) aftermarket turbo to fit and they are often concerned about response/lag. People specifically WANT response.I would not think that cost and complexity is too much worse when people are already spending large amounts of time/money on modifying their cars.They are already rearranging batteries, air filters, replacing all piping, replacing intercoolers, cutting parts of the car to fit massive intercoolers etc, etc.One extra radiator and pump does not seem like too much more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seaton Donating Members 537 Member For: 12y 4m 13d Gender: Male Location: Sydney Posted 27/12/14 05:07 AM Share Posted 27/12/14 05:07 AM (edited) Here you go... Edited 27/12/14 05:11 AM by Seaton 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z2TT Member 714 Member For: 12y 7m 13d Posted 27/12/14 06:53 AM Share Posted 27/12/14 06:53 AM (edited) It's because they wont sell well.Most XR6T drivers are not after response but just tyre frying power and noise.It's much more complex to design and engineer a water to air intercooler kit than it is to make a battery side intake kit. The majority of XR6T owners are not going to pay thousands more for a Water to Air when air to air models exist because if any manufacturer were to make one they would barely make any decent profits for their time and effort spent developing the kit. Edited 27/12/14 06:56 AM by Z2TT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyP MattyP Cruise Control 6,317 Member For: 12y 8m 5d Gender: Male Location: Central Coast Posted 27/12/14 08:17 AM Share Posted 27/12/14 08:17 AM And in we are forgetting about one important thing here guys Heat soak If mounted on top of the engine (like most are) you get really terrible heat soak. That's why I ditched the WTA on my celica to a fmic. I didn't lose that much response either and my IAT were lower than with a WTA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenDoCo I'm getten too old for this s**t Bronze Donating Members 4,509 Member For: 11y 9m 2d Gender: Male Location: A big bridge over a river in South Australia Posted 27/12/14 09:36 AM Share Posted 27/12/14 09:36 AM Was just gunna mention Heat Soak.One of my mates in the 4wd club up here runs water/air and even on a 3litre turbo diesel it suffers badly so I would say that under the bonnet of our cars - probably wouldn't be too good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xr6tForMe Donating Members 268 Member For: 11y 6m 10d Gender: Male Posted 27/12/14 09:41 AM Author Share Posted 27/12/14 09:41 AM MattyP,Was the WTA cooler on your Celica a standard factory item?If so: Had you modified the parameters it was operating under? (more boost/heat to deal with)And: Are factory coolers ever good enough for enthusiasts? In any case, I think engine bay heat is just an issue to consider in designing the system, rather than an insurmountable problem. Some possible things to do to help with this would be-placement of the cooler to the side so it is not directly above the hot engine-insulate the cooler from the engine bay (eg exhaust wrap tape)-insulate the exhaust keep heat in and kepp the engine bay cooler (again exhaust wrap tape)-ensure enough water flow to remove heat added from the engine bay-ensure enough heat removed from the water by the radiator section of the system Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyP MattyP Cruise Control 6,317 Member For: 12y 8m 5d Gender: Male Location: Central Coast Posted 27/12/14 11:55 AM Share Posted 27/12/14 11:55 AM Yes that is correct And all those things you've listed are pretty spot on But once again time, money, effort and reward I don't think it's worth it IMOFmics cool easier, and are less complicated and usually cheaper. If you feel like tackling a WTA than go for it. Would be very interesting to see the results Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xr6tForMe Donating Members 268 Member For: 11y 6m 10d Gender: Male Posted 27/12/14 12:45 PM Author Share Posted 27/12/14 12:45 PM I will tackle the design of a WTA intercooler system as a puzzle solving exercise, but it will probably be a long time before I am in a position to actually implement it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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