Hey everyone! Its been a while since ive been on here, but anyways. My car into a little accident. While it was in the garage i decided I wanted to run a water to air intercooler setup. So I ordered the DIY 350hp kit from frozenboost.com. I have always liked the idea of being able to dump ice into the IC reservior at the track in between runs!!!

Heres some pics of the old setup.


old Johhny Race Car IC



Look at all that piping!



This is all the piping for the new setup. Throttle response should be alot better+less turbo lag+lower pressure drop=WIN!



Almost all my T-clamps broke when i took them off!




The Pump! It is a livewell pump for fishing, but it should do just fine.



New Battery!!! Its about 16lbs lighter than the stocker. This should help offset any weight gain from the new ic system. The passenger airbag also magical disappeared! that was like another 15lbs lost! plus all the old ic piping and old intercooler. i didn't weigh everything, but the car should actually be lighter when im done.




Reservoir. 2.6 gallons.



inside the new W/A IC core

hmmm where to put the Reservoir tank... I KNOW!!!


This was before we had it mounted in place, but you get the idea.






who needs an airbag and glovebox anyways. lol This was actually my freinds idea, but I thought it would be cool.





Heat exchanger with fan. It's kinda small, which shouldn't be a big deal at the track, but idk about daily driving.




Heres a link to the Kit*

Here is a little video.



Hopefully gonna hit the track soon. I have some new goals with the saab setup and gmreflash. Hopefully i can make it in the 12's. and trap around 108, 109. I think thats doable.
Right now everything is on and running like a champ! I took it for a spin around the block and it felt good. I haven't drivin the car in so long tho. I cant tell how it is running compared to before.

Comments/opinions/ and Questions welcome!!!







2004 Cavalier
13.2@105........
Mods...
BFG Drag Radials
Saab Turbo kit
2.5 exhaust, w/cutout
Spec Stage 2+ Clutch

Very cool, no pun intended. LOL

Looks good, nice job with the install and the placement of the resivoire ..

interesting build but personally that seems like alot of work for a small turbo that doesn't make a ton of boost/power


im curious to see track differences







RIP JESSE GERARD.....Youll always be in my thoughts and prayers...

the Jew wrote:interesting build but personally that seems like alot of work for a small turbo that doesn't make a ton of boost/power


im curious to see track differences

agreed, seems like a lot of work for the minimal gains and losses if you daily drive it.

The only bad part I see if the liquid getting heat soaked in daily driving. It takes water awhile to heat up but it also takes a long time for it to cool down.

damn, thats pretty neat.

id want a big beefier one up front though....

wont see too much gain, esp from such a tiny turbo.
but it will work


Built&Boosted moar
04 Cavalier Turbo r.i.p my baby
2nd place 2009 GM tuner bash qwick 8--holla

Thanks for all the comments everyone! I know its not gonna give me a ton of gains, but I just wanted to do something different and neat. I was really pumped to post up this thread. You would be amazed how difficult it was to find info about the water to air ic stuff. Alot of people talk about it, but few actually make it happen... unless SC'd

If it does have any probs with heatsoak, I will look into a much bigger Heat exchanger.

next step is prob a bigger turbo... i guess. I've been puttin that off for whatever reason. I will just be happy to be drivin it again. I missed boost!!! lol. and I cant believe how many people on here are askin and goin the saab route! thats great! its a great way to go!

More vids to come. might change up the exhaust! i forgot how loud it really was... even with the resonator, turbo, and hi flow cat.

I'm excited to be modding the car again!




2004 Cavalier
13.2@105........
Mods...
BFG Drag Radials
Saab Turbo kit
2.5 exhaust, w/cutout
Spec Stage 2+ Clutch

BuiltNBoosted wrote:

the Jew wrote:interesting build but personally that seems like alot of work for a small turbo that doesn't make a ton of boost/power


im curious to see track differences

agreed, seems like a lot of work for the minimal gains and losses if you daily drive it.

I think by changing the intercooler piping alone you would have noticed an improvement and I agree with these guys a lot of work for a small turbo and minimal gains. Besides I think the location is kind of a little pimp my ride style for my liking. "When the water in the resvoir boils just add hot dogs and you got lunch on the go and.....

oh yea... i forgot to mention. the pic with me and the pumkin knife cutter was a total stupid joke. dremel got it done MUCH faster! lol

I was wondering. Are there any other people on here with a water to air ic setup on a turboed car?





2004 Cavalier
13.2@105........
Mods...
BFG Drag Radials
Saab Turbo kit
2.5 exhaust, w/cutout
Spec Stage 2+ Clutch

ECOTEC wrote:oh yea... i forgot to mention. the pic with me and the pumkin knife cutter was a total stupid joke. dremel got it done MUCH faster! lol

I was wondering. Are there any other people on here with a water to air ic setup on a turboed car?

Camron, but he is running 10.20's in the 1/4




i will give you props for the location actually. It will be well hidden for sure... as long as you are able to drain it... I just dont think you will see the gains you are expecting.


Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Wednesday, June 15, 2011 8:31 PM

So many glass half empty people on here anymore. that sucks. not the good ole jbody i remember. And to believe i was so excited to post this on here...













2004 Cavalier
13.2@105........
Mods...
BFG Drag Radials
Saab Turbo kit
2.5 exhaust, w/cutout
Spec Stage 2+ Clutch

ECOTEC wrote:So many glass half empty people on here anymore. that sucks. not the good ole jbody i remember. And to believe i was so excited to post this on here...

negative sir....im not a half empty glass, im just merely stating my opinion. i would of gone bigger turbo,better turbo manifold and charge pipe upgrades first then gone to the water to air IC setup


like i said i like the concept since alot of JBO people dont go this route but lets be real for a DD purpose i just dont see this as a super pratical idea



but please prove me wrong by all means im not afraid to admit im wrong






RIP JESSE GERARD.....Youll always be in my thoughts and prayers...

Thats a little out of the box, It's cool to see something different for a change but I think iat's will be higher in DD situations now that you ditched the fmic but you'll be better off at the track. How do you drain the water once the ice melts in the box, at the H/E in the wheel well? I didn't notice a valve or petcock. If you have a way of measuring the coolant temp in the H/E system I'd see if using just regular windsheild washer fluid makes a noticable difference over coolant or plain old water..... I never got around to testing iat's and coolant temp using those three on my setup on my M62...and might never before I get around to going turbo.

nice build. i was going to do this type of build on a prior project due to limited room for an air to air intercooler. im not sure why others have bashed it but you shouldnt have any problems. the main differences with the water/air setup vs the air/air is that it requires more maintenence and servicing and its not as efficient as the air/air setup. these setups are mainly used on applications where room is an issue or racing. as long as you keep up with it you will have no problems. fill the system with water/coolant mix and enjoy.

Saying air to water is not as efficient as air to air isnt exactly true. While the water is cold a well designed air to water beats most air to air setups efficiency wise (hell running ice water you can get better than 100. For the track if it was me I would size the system (reservoir and front h/e) so that the amount of water in the system was equal to about 60 seconds worth, but that's because I auto-x and that wont happen. I'd guess you flow 5-8 gallons per minute and thats too much. For the drag strip when you only need cold water for 12 seconds it works great.


1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by: Kronos Performance

WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer

Thanks for all the feedback ! I might try to put a temp gauge in thier somewhere in the near future. As for draining the water I found and electric valve on ebay. That would be cool, to be able to drain it with the push of a button. but for now i stopped at Lowe's and grabbed a simple 1/2 in/out valve.

I kinda figured for DDing once the IAT's got up there that it would be hard to take the heat back out. I was on some random forum and a guy with a WRX had a similiar setup and he had to upgrade to a pretty big H/E to get the heat back out after a little spirited driving.

I also heard that after one run it will go thru pretty much all the ice you can dump in. I guess we'll see at the track.

just wanted to do something different.





2004 Cavalier
13.2@105........
Mods...
BFG Drag Radials
Saab Turbo kit
2.5 exhaust, w/cutout
Spec Stage 2+ Clutch

Nice work! I can tell you put a lot of thought into planning this.


Sig'less since '02!

Leafy wrote:Saying air to water is not as efficient as air to air isnt exactly true. While the water is cold a well designed air to water beats most air to air setups efficiency wise (hell running ice water you can get better than 100. For the track if it was me I would size the system (reservoir and front h/e) so that the amount of water in the system was equal to about 60 seconds worth, but that's because I auto-x and that wont happen. I'd guess you flow 5-8 gallons per minute and thats too much. For the drag strip when you only need cold water for 12 seconds it works great.

air to air is more efficient. air to water setups use a remote radiator to cool the liquid which takes a longer time to cool. the liquid travels a longer distance. air to air setup the cooling effect happens instantly at the intercooler. while you can get the efficiency up by adding an ice box it is still temperary. mainly used on track vehicles.

Honestly to the OP.... you would have been better and more efficient with an IC sprayer or a CryO2 kit spray bar on the FMIC and do it that way...

Remember guys, the idea here was to minimize charge pipe length/volume.


1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by: Kronos Performance

WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer

JOE L wrote:

Leafy wrote:Saying air to water is not as efficient as air to air isnt exactly true. While the water is cold a well designed air to water beats most air to air setups efficiency wise (hell running ice water you can get better than 100. For the track if it was me I would size the system (reservoir and front h/e) so that the amount of water in the system was equal to about 60 seconds worth, but that's because I auto-x and that wont happen. I'd guess you flow 5-8 gallons per minute and thats too much. For the drag strip when you only need cold water for 12 seconds it works great.

air to air is more efficient. air to water setups use a remote radiator to cool the liquid which takes a longer time to cool. the liquid travels a longer distance. air to air setup the cooling effect happens instantly at the intercooler. while you can get the efficiency up by adding an ice box it is still temperary. mainly used on track vehicles.

Me thinks you no understand how convection work.

It has nothing to do with how far a fluid travels. The problem is that a "water to air" IC is in fact an "air to water to air" IC. Water itself has the benefit of having a significantly higher heat capacity than air (i.e. it requires more energy to raise water by 1deg C than it does air). If you ever look at 2 proper gaming PCs, one with air cooling and another with liquid cooling, you'll see that an air cooled heatsink needs to be some huge monstrosity with heat pipes coming out everywhere. If you look at the H2O PC, you'll see a tiny little copper heatsink which transfer the energy off the die into the water much faster. The downside of that is you still need a way to get the energy out of the water, and so you use an external radiator. When you look at a water to air intercooler, the principles of heat transfer are the same. The difference, however, is that an FMIC has the benefit where its efficiency increases drastically with vehicle speed, while the water to air's efficiency doesn't. Instead, it depends heavily on the higher heat capacity of water to cool the intake charge, and so, an FMIC in general is more desirable. A couple of the benefits have already been stated for water to air, but another big one is the low pressure delta across the heat exchanger at higher boost (30+ psi)...something an FMIC simply can't compete with.

For anything other than a drag car, sure it's not ideal, but kudos for trying something different.




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