I posted a thread a little bit ago about getting more power, and I have came up with getting an air to air cooler, but i was thinking that it would be easier and cheaper (truck junkyard down the road that has buses)to do a water to air cooler. Some things i didnt know is would I still be able to use the grid heater, and are they very effective. The ones i have see didnt have a grid heater, from the looks of them i think i could make one work but i dont know.
Does anyone know anything about water to air coolers? I am open to ANY suggestions, right now it is just a little thought that goes through my crazy little head .

 

Where would this water-to-air cooler be located when mounted??

 

A lot of older over the road trucks used to have aftercoolers on them and are effective at lowering intake air temps but not as well as intercooler do .as far as the grid heaters go I have seen lots of industrial 5.9s with aftercoolers but not one with a grid heater on it .not saying thay dont install them I just never seen one on a aftercooled engine. or maybe thay use a diff type

 

I would not spend much time or money on the air to water after cooler. you are only bringing your fresh air to water temp..It will cool the air but not like an air to air unit. In midsummer you might have 450 degree air going through a 250 degree unit. A good air to air unit can drop up to 300 degrees F

The after cooler unit that uses water is bolted to the intake manifold. The best that it can do is cool to coolant temp. on a hot day it wont get better than 275 degrees intake temp.

On a summer day you may have 500 degrees of turbo air. At freeway speed it can be cut down to less than 200.
In the winter, with an air to water unit you may have 50 degree air going in the air intake and 200 degree air going into the cylinder.
Or you may have 50 degree air going in and 30 degree air going into the cylinder.
Winter can be really good

 

By all means if you can get your hands on an aftercooler and the matching VE injection lines, pick it up. New aftercooler ~$325, lines ~$350. Figure price from there. I just picked up a aftercooler and lines, both in excellent shape for $200, I'd say tops of $250 would be a decent deal, anything less would be a good deal.

For one, plumbing one into the coolant system, would be better than no cooling. Two, plumb one the way KTA did, and you can make 600+rwhp.

 

Could not the after-cooler be fed by an isolated water source, independant of the engines heat??

Something on the order of a remote mounted water tank with an electric re-circulating water-pump with the possibility of adding ice,if desired, should be much cooler than engine coolant.

Has this been tried??

 

thats what I wasthinking. You can use a junkyard ricer radiator and mount it up front. Then just use a small watter pump to push the water through the system. It may work better than air to air.

 

Yes sir, thats what I'm talking about. KTA-Cummins has his setup this way. Even with just plain jane water running throughout it, along with an inline tranny cooler would be better than engine coolant. Then ice it down at the track or dyno event. PARTSMAN on tdr has pics of this setup in his gallery on tdr.

 

For a setup like this what kind of pump should I use?

 

I'm not exactly sure, but I think its just a simple 12V pump. Nothing expensive or special. The tranny cooler is not necessary, just an extra cooling option .

 

I was thinking this setup would be great. Because I could add the pump on a seperate switch to only run it when I am pulling trailers, sleds, or just playing.

 

A small junkyard radiator from a 4cyl. would be alot better and cheaper. They usualy run $20-25 and an electric fan is usualy $5. I have a buddy with a water/air cooler on his truck with a junkyard radiator and with over 1000rwhp, his turbo 408 LS1 only hits 140* IAT's in the 1/4. This is with a white hot glowing header ang exhaust housing. I'll try ang post a link to his pics.

 

Also be sure its an industrial type water pump. It needs to withstand at least 250* liquid so it doesnt fail.

 

Any one ever seen a grid heater with a water to air cooler?

 

No grid heater when using an air to water aftercooler. If needed you'll have to give it a puff of ether.