On Sat, 24 Dec 2005 10:47:05 +0000, Andy Dingley
wrote:

On Sat, 24 Dec 2005 10:23:45 +0000, Colin Stamp
wrote:

Name one _car_ (as opposed to a boat) that uses a water-air intercooler.
[snip]

As standard? Erm... How about the Lotus Esprit Turbo?

You see my point? Not many are there,

You only asked for one. Some people are never satisfied ;o)

and that one's mid-engined.
Presumably it's easier to deal with the extra heat capacity on the
existing radiator than to arrange ducting for an air-air intercooler.

The real reason they're so seldom used is that they're seldom needed.
They don't have many advantages over air-air intercoolers. The main
one is that the cooling airflow doesn't need to be anywhere near the
air to be cooled. That's what makes them attractive for cars like the
Esprit where there isn't much in the way of cool air available in the
engine compartment.

I'd also be surprised if the engine cooling system is used to dump the
heat. Surely that would end-up heating the charge air rather than
cooling it. At best, you'd end up with a 90C ish charge, which is
really dismal. More likely, the chargecooler[sic] would have it's own
radiator. The engine cooling system will still need to dump more heat
though because of the power increase provided by the denser charge
air.


Do I get a prize?

Leave a mince pie out and we'll see what the fat bloke can arrange.

He can sod off. The mince pies are all mine!

Cheers,

Colin.