[bryce]

i haven't seen any air/water intercoolers for the n54. coming from honda's, they were pretty popular and had great results, often better than fmic air/air units. any thoughts?

[Bimmer This]

I agree. I just don't think we have the room for a water tank and plumbing. It's a great idea with good results but you'll hardly see them on street cars. I think Vortech Superchargers use air/water coolers for their setup for daily driven cars.

[itsbrokeagain]

I will be running an air to water intercooler in the E28 once the project commences. We don't have any kind of room to run an intercooler in the front due to body design, but we do have enough room in the front to slip a heat exchanger in there.

Plus I have an OEM BBS lower valence from 1985, which is one of like 4 in the country at this time. Don't want to hack it up!

[GreenPlease]

I've always thought a liquid to air intercooler was a good idea. We can't use the space excuse because our M3 brethren are running them on a V8. We can't use complexity/cost as an excuse because...c'mon guys they're used on Hondas.

The only major drawback I see is the risk of hydrolocking the engine in the event of a failure. That's not a trivial drawback mind you.

One of the positives is that we could have shorter charge pipes which should help with throttle response. IIRC, Cummins recently started using Liquid to air intercoolers and the result was that the shorter charge pipes brought peak torque on 200rpms quicker and the colder AITs allowed for a 7% bump in power.

[itsbrokeagain]

Originally Posted by GreenPlease

I've always thought a liquid to air intercooler was a good idea. We can't use the space excuse because our M3 brethren are running them on a V8. We can't use complexity/cost as an excuse because...c'mon guys they're used on Hondas.

The funny part is that air to water setups can sometimes cost more than a standard air to air setup. Intercoolers are usually more expensive, plus the heat exchanger, the electric pump (Meziere pumps are nice but expensive), the lines to run the water, and the intercooler plumbing.

I've never seen a case where the aluminum corroded to the point where it actually leaked into the engine, but maybe it could happen if you had a shitty eBay special core (i've seen them actually leak on air to air units due to poor welding).

But all said and done, a liquid to air setup can run you over $1k, plus fabrication costs to mock everything up. Suddenly that AMS intercooler doesn't look so expensive!

In my situation, I have no choice

[shifterboy45]

Originally Posted by Matt@Camber-Toe

I will be running an air to water intercooler in the E28 once the project commences. We don't have any kind of room to run an intercooler in the front due to body design, but we do have enough room in the front to slip a heat exchanger in there.

Plus I have an OEM BBS lower valence from 1985, which is one of like 4 in the country at this time. Don't want to hack it up!

E28 -- oh frikkin yeah!!!

BBS lower valance and wheel package with so hot back in the day ..

28 -- 35 -- or M5? please tell me its an M car, please

im sooooo jealous

[itsbrokeagain]

Originally Posted by shifterboy45

E28 -- oh frikkin yeah!!!

BBS lower valance and wheel package with so hot back in the day ..

28 -- 35 -- or M5? please tell me its an M car, please

im sooooo jealous

No it's a 535is lol. Someone took my front sport seats and replaced them with comfort lazy-boy sofas

Gives me a reason to put Recaros, or even find a way to bolt the BMW Performance seats in there.

Took me 8 months to find one in clean condition (red no less ), and 3 weeks into owning it some bitch backed into the rear door. Doesn't matter really as the car will be going to sleep for the rest of the year while I clean the body up and start to build the new engine for it....