Barrel Type Intercoolers V's Fmic's

[oxford1327]

would like to know if any one on here has used a barrel(water to air)type intercooler on a series2 and if so what are the benifits/drawbacks as opposed to using the standard type FMIC where you have to butcher the front bar etc to fit it?

as i would like to fit a cooler but also want to keep it as discreet as possible.

i am a newbie at this whole turbo car thing so please feel free to pass on any knowledge in these matters.

oxford

[Konrad]

yeah i've thought about this- might escape quite a few defects, dont think alot of cops would spot what they were (although a big polished round thing would still look like a modified part lol). Im interested to know the same.

[timmmay]

i'd be interested to know too...they seem pretty exy so i'd like to be able to justify the price compared to performance over a fmic!

[Terminal]

they're a little less efficient than air to air intercoolers, becasue you're transferring energy from air to water, then from water to air. regular intercoolers don't have that middle step. i looked into it for a while, they're comparatively priced, but there's still that efficiency drawback

[R324DR]

room is also an issue. the canasters that are capable of a 200-400kw flow are quite large so placement gets tricky.

[sr20det510]

From what ive read

Water is actually a far superior medium in comparison to air for transfering temperature, a good example is placing a warm beer in the fridge and a warm beer in a bucket of water with ice...

Needless to say the beer in the ice water chills dastically quicker than the one in the fridge..

The problem is ambient air is usually below 40 degrees consistantly, no cooling required however the water temp in a water to air system can get above this if your system does not have enough water or the radiator to cool the water is under sized.

Thats why Air to air coolers are generally so much larger as they require a greater surface area to transfer the heat.

up side is usually less piping so less lag

down side is that they are more complicated to set up, they need there own water supply, pump and radiator.

Sitting at traffic lights without a thermo fan a water to air system will probably suffer greater heat soak than an equiveliant air to air system

Hope this helps

[AlexCim]

Once you think of the weight of the water, the losses of effciency (water is a great insulator,therefore that extra step really hurts it) its not really worth it.

air-air is just so much easier too. If you want to improve the air-air, just spray something on it that sucks a LOT of heat out like alchohol or metho or something that evaporates REALLY quick (more then water that it)

[oxford1327]

these are all good comments thanks guys but i still would like to know if any one has fitted a fmic to a series 2 and if so was it an easy fit? what model car do they closely match for piping etc if any? and how much of the reinforcing in front bar do ya need to remove to fit it in etc? deepending on the dimensions of the cooler to get etc if buying a generic off the shelf item? all these questions are/will be important to know before i go ahead so any help would be much appreciated.

cheers .

oxford

[CruiseLiner]

heres some pics of the bumper as stock (number plate area is solid plastic), and some of the cooler without bumper on (gtr cooler) and some with the bumper on once i chopped it.

its hardly noticable with the front bumper on and standing up unless u really look for it.

i also chopped the front bumper support bar to allow more air to the cooler.

cheers

Brad

[Mr_RS4]

Take a look at brad's setup. If you painted it black then you wouldn't even notice it at all. Even how it is in the pics with the bar on you can't even see the silicon hose joiners. I would go this way. There was a thread on here where people posted up info on fmic they fitted. You can purchase a lot of kits where the drivers side tank faces back toward the passenger side so you can easily join the pipes back up to the factory pipes.

[Terminal]

...water is a great insulator...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Water is actually a conductor, which is why they use it in cars to transfer heat from the engine out of the radiator

[AlexCim]

Oops, I ment air actually, as air is a good insulator.

But on another note, lets get into some physics.

The specific heat capacity of air is 1005 J/Kg K and of water is 4184 J/Kg K. So that means that for each gram of water, compared to a gram of air, you need MORE energy to change its temperature. Doesnt that mean that mean that water is an even better insulator then air?

I would think they use it in cooling systems because its readily available, plus for a given mass of water compared to most other things can hold a LOT of energy.

Also, metals have SHC's around 900 and below. All the way down to 200 for mercury.

[Terminal]

I think you've gotten confused, you should be using thermal conductivity, not specific heat capacity.

the thermal conductivity of water is 0.56W/m.K, where as that of air is 0.0025W/m.K

Just noting that it's a rate, not a quantity

[oxford1327]

Take a look at brad's setup. If you painted it black then you wouldn't even notice it at all. Even how it is in the pics with the bar on you can't even see the silicon hose joiners. I would go this way. There was a thread on here where people posted up info on fmic they fitted. You can purchase a lot of kits where the drivers side tank faces back toward the passenger side so you can easily join the pipes back up to the factory pipes.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

thanks mr rs4.

i spose this would look ok in black cos i wanna try and keep it as neat/discreet as i can, the car already gets a lot of attention cos it is the only one in my area, and i have never seen another one on the road yet either, when it comes to hooking up to the std piping how well does it flow? and are the fronts of series 2 the same as series one? seems that all you guys have series one cars is all?

[Ska]

Some very good techie info on barrel type here:

http://autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/A_0090/a...?popularArticle

[oxford1327]

awesome job thanks for the link ska gonna look at it right now