tpod

Hello, i noticed the charge pipe on my m45 miata was getting extremely hot, my car still runs ac, which im keeping, so i was wondering(before i go all out and fab fmic by moving ac lines around or getting a civic sized rad with intercooler by its side) if anyone was running an air to water intercooler on their supercharged miata. i have searched but was unable to come up with any good examples, so please post if you are running one. Im including couple pics of new motor and set up just for fun





thanks
-Taras

deliverator

iTrader: (14)

My 2 cents....

What do you use the car for?

AWICs have definite advantages, like being super efficient. Until/unless sustained boost heat soaks the liquid, in which case it becomes useless.

There are downsides to AWICs.... Added complexity and increased risk of failure (hose leaks, pump breaks, etc). And if you've got enough water in the system to not heat soak the fluid with sustained boost you're running either a monster reservoir or beefy IC. Or both. Regardless, you're carrying more weight than you'd need for an air/air IC.

I'd say an AWIC would be best suited for drag racing or tearing *** from stop light to stop light. But for sustained spirited driving (like track days) I can't imagine choosing an awic.

If you want to deal with the hassle of pumping liquid for charge cooling, I'd choose water and/or meth injection over an AWIC.

But in case you have your heart set on an AWIC setup, get over to modularfords.com and snag yourself a used heat exchanger for a supercharged cobra. Cheap, and will do the job. And consider a pump from a lightning or cobra.

tpod

the car is used mostly for track day, and some weekend driving, i have meth injection, however that does not seem to be enough, well thanks for the input i think im one step closer to going air to air intercooler, however, anyone with air to water please post...im curious

patsmx5

iTrader: (16)

Use more water injection since you have it. Up the jetting or nozzle size.

richyvrlimited

iTrader: (1)

I have a PWR Barell cooler, kills intake temps from 110+deg C to around 65 at full chat

the key with an A/W IC is to get as powerful a waterpump as you can, the old Mezier I had, (and killed through running it dry :() was awesome and you can knock 10DegC off the above figure with that! Unfortunately I needed a new pump fast or I'd have ordered a new one to replace it.

The advantage of the PWR is it keeps the throttled volume the same as with a crossover tube, (as opposed to the Pace system which slightly increases the throttled volume iirc).

still with twin throttle bodies that point is rendered moot

RedMiata

I had a PWR also with a MP62 and it would heat soak it in no time at all. I would go Air to Air. But with a M45 it is not worth getting a intercooler look at water injection.
MP62 it is definitely worth it.
Mark

Miatamaniac92

A/W sucks, IMHO. Heat soaks in traffic from what I've seen in other people's cars and heat soaks on the track quicker.

Go A/A and be done with it. www.trackdogracing.com has the best A/A's if you are going to buy a kit. Especially if you track it. Give Gary a call, he tried out many combinations of A/W before settling on the A/A's.

Chris

y8s

iTrader: (8)

I had the 4x10 PWR cooler. huge pain in the ***. so many parts and pumps and hoses and points of possible failure. You *still* need a radiator that will block something.

What's more, the inside of the cooler looks like a brick wall with a few holes in it. Not so ideal for flow.

steelrat

I would suggest a/a if you wanna run it on the track.... Any of the guys I've seen with the a/w have issues when heat soaking. There's a M45, that's running silly boost 12psi IIRC, with an a/w and he even soaks on back to back autox runs....

Get the TDR, it's the least impact for the throttled vol. Of course there were some guys on m.net that were doing the TB in the stock location + BOV (recirc)... and it was stupid quick. I know that Phil (UK Performance5) had something on his site with dual TBs... one on the stock, and one the BBK. Might also be worth investigation, if you are really concerned about it.

Non-IC'd my car is OK, on the track, but I'm constantly looking for signs of heatsoak/ping etc... and that's with only 7.5psi on my 62.

Dave,

944obscene

A well thought out A2W can be just fine. That's the route I want to look at, but I'm just quirky (and I might have a problem with over-complicating things). A nice HE would be a small rad. I wouldn't waste time with smaller HE's. They just can't relieve heat. Also, make sure you get a single pass IC. Double pass units are a waste. To be honest, the PWR looks cool and all, but in order to have usable surface area or cooling ability, I'd expect a slightly larger unit.

I've seen quite successful A2W units on MR2's. The thing to keep in mind is capacity. You can't expect to have an efficient system without a reservoir. And it'll need to be big enough to do the job, like all the other parts. Otherwise, heatsoak is imminent as mentioned before. A good pump keeps things moving at a good rate. You want flow. The less time the water spends in the IC, the less time it has to get hot. It will still cool the charge (due to the volume), but you won't have issues with heatsoak as much. After looking at different systems, I've found that the correlation between performance and price is tight. A2A is looking mighty tempting, but I'm stubborn. I would try my darnedest to make it work

richyvrlimited

iTrader: (1)

Works really well, I've DIY'd it on my car, it's like OEM now, (whereas prior I still had a tad of idle droop and a slight hesitation when blipping the throttle off idle.

prog_rawk

used PWR A/W kits come on to the miata.net classifieds from time to time. i considered it but went with the TDR A/A since i get some track time.

steelrat

Hey Richard, I'd love to see some details on how that thing is plumbed. I haven't seen anything in detail on Phil's site. But that does sound like an wicked upgrade. <G>

Dave,

richyvrlimited

iTrader: (1)

Car is currently at the body shop due to a numpty lorry driver. Hopefully I'll get it back by this weekend, I'll take a bunch of pics when I do.

Phil doesn't post details cos then no-one would buy his kit can't say I balme him really :lol:

steelrat

When you get a chance, post up the pics, or PM me, and I can give you my email address.... and you can pass them that way. <G>

I'm curious to see how this is plumbed.....

Dave,

richyvrlimited

iTrader: (1)

apologies, car wasn't right 1st time and I had to send it back, then I forgot!

Just been outside and took some pics in the dark, hopefully it'll help? Let me know if you've any questions etc.

it's relatively tricky to set them up 1st time when you don't know how they should be setup but once you realise the charger throttle needs to be cracked open whilst the stock TB is shut it's pretty simple

Stock TB with a JDM SuperHI pully overlayed I filed out the slot to slightly 'cam' the secondary pully as it's range of movement isn't as great as the stock one.


2nd 'stock' throttle cable bracket. I used a small piece of ally to hold it in place.


Throttle cable route, your setup would differ here as our throttle cables are really short due to being right hand drive, and we need really long throttle cables when fitting superchargers.


second TB


Adaptor place for the throttle cable's firewall bracket. Again a small piece of Alui with a rectangular hole in the middle

fahrvergnugen

All you folks with A-W intercoolers; what fluid do you use for cooling?

richyvrlimited

iTrader: (1)

water and pink coolant/antifreeze

CRYPTiC

Very cool! Any changes to vacuum lines/etc?

richyvrlimited

iTrader: (1)

you need the bypass actuator to see vac properly, so I blanked off the nozzle on the charger outlet and moved the line to the back of the intake manifold.