Intercooler water spray

[Sharkie]

Having had a discussion with a friend on the benefits of the FMIC water spray kit he (HKS) has fitted to his 2006 STI I have been thinking about doing something similar to the GTI.

Apparently you can drop the intake temps 10-15 degrees by using this with an alcohol-water mix squirted into the airflow over the IC to cool it down even more. Also should help with reducing heat retention when the car has been standing for a while.

Does anybody have any experience with this ?

[RhysQ]

Kai did it to his Polo, ask him about it. IIRC he diverted or split the water hose for the window washer jets, then ran it to the IC. then when he flicked on the spray jets, it would spray the cooler. i suppose you could set up some sort of tap/vavle to change it from full window washer jets to full cooler spray.

for the actual spray pipe below the cooler i suppose you could just use some sort of tube (similar to the hose used for the washer jets) and just put some holes in it. i'd imagine the hose would need to be at the bottom of the cooler otherwise it would leak out. I know this may sound a bit 'captain obvious' but i could imagine some people would do it thinking its better as water spraying down would cover more area

EDIT: i see you have changed your post to add in the part about the alcohol/water mix. well, you wouldn't want to be spraying alcohol over your windows now would you.

Officer: "Don't lie to me, I can smell alcohol all over you!"

Sharkie: "No sir, it's my windows, I promise." *sprays cop with alcohol* "See!"

[VW GTI]

EDIT: i see you have changed your post to add in the part about the alcohol/water mix. well, you wouldn't want to be spraying alcohol over your windows now would you.

Officer: "Don't lie to me, I can smell alcohol all over you!"

Sharkie: "No sir, it's my windows, I promise." *sprays cop with alcohol* "See!"

Alcohol is actually a WAY better cleaner than water. Metho could work well, although you may get some odd characters licking your windscreen.

I've thought about doing this as well. I want to use that spare button on my dash - but I'd need a button.

[Spec83]

The stuffing around factor outweighs possible gains IMHO....

You would be almost better of indexing your plugs correctly...

[Grant]

Alcohol is actually a WAY better cleaner than water. Metho could work well, although you may get some odd characters licking your windscreen.

I've thought about doing this as well. I want to use that spare button on my dash - but I'd need a button.

rain-x (the washer fluid additive) contains methanol

[The_Hawk]

Would be interesting to see the power difference dyno'd in different ambient temps to see just how much difference it could make.

My question is how quickly would you run out of water? I assuming it's sort of like NOS where you only get power for xx time before having to refill? For those in the know, how much difference can it actually make?

[VW GTI]

Would be interesting to see the power difference dyno'd in different ambient temps to see just how much difference it could make.

My question is how quickly would you run out of water? I assuming it's sort of like NOS where you only get power for xx time before having to refill? For those in the know, how much difference can it actually make?

It would depend on the temp of the water. If I'm not mistaken... the WRX Type R STI has ice cold water that is sprayed onto the intercooler.

[jayjay]

i thought water/meth injection was actually injected into the cylinders to reduce actual charge temperatures rather than using the water as an external heat soak for an intercooler..?

wouldn't you need a ridiculous amount of water sprayed on your intercooled to actually drop the temp significantly?

[GTI_jim]

i thought water/meth injection was actually injected into the cylinders to reduce actual charge temperatures rather than using the water as an external heat soak for an intercooler..?

wouldn't you need a ridiculous amount of water sprayed on your intercooled to actually drop the temp significantly?

I think it works more on the fact that the air is cooled through pressurisation / evaporation(of the alcohol & water mix) onto the intercooler, thus drawing in cooler air...??? correct me if i'm wrong, just a stab.

[Sharkie]

All WRC cars currently use it in some form. MRT and APS both produce kits for it and yes stock STI's use it as well.

It works by spraying a very fine mist directly into the airflow in front of the intercooler. These very fine droplets of water then absorbs heat front the IC fins and reduce intake temps by as much as 15 degrees.

A 15 degree drop in intake temps on a hot day means 10-20% more power than a car without it.

For less than $300 10-20% extra power on a hot day is a very cheap but effective mod.

Most systems use a reservoir of sorts and do need refilling frequently whuch can be a bit of a pain. Jaycar makes an electronic controller that only activates the spray at certain IC core temps.

I will now be looking at the best (and cheapest) way to get this working.

[GTIJNR]

It will help but don't hope for miracle lol. Delete rear wiper and use the same water path for the cooler would be the cheapest option, just put less washer additive in the bottle. Another cheap alternative is fan force or optimize air flow, ie slotted inner guard... May be combine all together... please try if any 1 have spare time lol. Methanol injection is another different game.

[firdausasri]

Would there by any difference of result of this water injection on vertical vs horizontal mounted intercooler?

[Kai]

Seriously

Dont bother.

Its useless.

And the worst part is fighting gravity.

Ive done it. Its crap. Mine was actually really good mist aswell. I ended up bassicly using a aftermarket washer bottle system.

But water doesnt last long.

[Stuwey]

Agreed, Kai.

Ever seen a dyno operator do the water-spray thing?

I saw an extra 2kW on a 199fwkw pulsar.

All that effort for 1% extra grunt?

[aprr32]

We put an intercooler water spray on the 2276 turbo beetle and was running only 14 psi.When the water tank ran dry on the dyno it started to ping big time.We backed off the timing thinking the engine was just getting hot from the last run and lost about 11kw's. When we realised the water had run out and topped up the tank we wound the advance back in and all the power came back.This was in a Canberra winter so what would the benefit be in a hot summer?Check the dyno runs on our site www.cvwc.com.au.