so i want a air/water intercooler but i definately can't afford $600+ for say a pwr (or over $1K for the kit!). i can source water pumps, resevoirs, lines, heat exchangers and everything else cept for the actual ic. so ive decided to make my own air/water ic. my question is does anybody know what junkyard i/c would make a good core and reasons why/why not. like a dsm or starion or something?

please keep in mind this is a junkyard setup so the cheaper the better. if someone is selling a nice spearco, pwr, vortec, or any other nice air/water intercooler that would work for my setup at the right price then i would definately do that instead. but i still would like to know what a good intercooler would be for this project. thanks!!

 

dsm sidemount. thats what mines is made from.

 

so it looks like you have the intake charge going in the same way that you would if it were air/air. but dont you want it the other way around for air/water? (charge going where the atmosphere would be normally) hopefully not cuz your design is waaay easier than the one i was thinking of.

also, where i live it dips below freezing sometimes during the winter. what kind of fluid would i put in the water to prevent freezing that wouldnt screw any of the seals or anything?

 

Vortech's a->w T's into the radiator reservoir piping so I'd imagine over time they get mixed pretty well with each other. Following that thought, I'd vote for using the same mixture you'd use on your radiator, minus the silicate additives which cause aluminum to corrode (so I've read). You could even try a few drops of dish detergent and see how that works out for you. You also need to look into a good heat exchanger and a nice sized reservoir for the water pump. The cap ontop of my plastic vortech reservoir is rusted so I'm going to need to replace it.

 

i got a celica alltracs air/water intercooler

look for one of those on ebay, could be cheaper than making one.

 

i heard the alltrac i/c's arent that great. but i havent dont a whole lot of research on them. im planning on running a t3 .60/.63 at about 7psi on a b16a3, so i dont know if the alltrac one would be good enough or not.

 

anybody else made there own air/water ic's?

 

Look for the intercooler off of the GMC Syclone or Typhoon. It's a big *** Garrett core.

Sonny