Drag racing: Intercooler: air/air or air/water?

DZL JIM

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Who has done what when drag racing?
I have read, and talked with, many sled pull guys that go to air/water coolers because of lack of air flow through the air/air cooler out front.

Any drag racing guys use air/water vs air/air?
Benefit of the water cooler over air cooler going 140 mph?
 

PsdPullerJr

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I picked up 90 horse with an air to water running a small pump, garden hose for lines, and water right from the well. They definitely make a difference.
 

Cutting-Edge Diesel

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Ice water to air is going to make more power because of its ability to cool the air lower than ambient. But there is more weight on air to water and hauling ice to the track every time gets really really old. It takes a ton of ice. We would take over 100lbs of ice to every event with the ranger.

All that being said. I would still in air to water in a drag set up. But also depends on what it's going in.
 

DZL JIM

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It's going in this:

16-6-4-32_resize.jpg


But it has twin turbos now, and still not much room at all for fancy systems.

I thought about an ice can in place of the fuel cell and move the cell to the rear. I figured straight water won't help once it heats up. Unless I keep a tank of water at the track and change it out after every run. Still sounds like a pain.

Would there be any benefit to running the water/coolant from radiator though the air/water set-up? Thinking the radiator will help pull heat from the coolant and the coolant will still pull heat from the charge air (at 500+ degrees.)
Or at that point it's probably just better to go with air/air set-up.

Just trying to get some ideas down and which way to go.
 

DZL JIM

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I pass probably 5 places that sell bags of ice, every day.
I don't even have a clue where to get dry ice, much less at the last minute when I'm headed to the track.
 

NyCowboy87

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Jim, look into high pressure water injection. Not the off the shelf water meth kits, but a pump capable of 12-1500psi. Be simple to run off the hpop drive gear bolt with a simple adapter that could be machined. In the end it would be lighter, more compact and probably yield better results than an air to air or air to water.


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DZL JIM

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Jacob,
To do a set-up like that, would there need to be a bunch of nozzles lined up in the motor intakes?
Or do you think just a couple nozzles in the pipe leading from the high pressure charger to the motor?
Any idea who has done something like that, or where to get parts that I can research?
 

NyCowboy87

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You want the nozzles as close to the intake runner as possible, but being a heui engine still that's about impossible. Next best thing is maybe one on the outlet of the charger and one or two on each side of the y pipe. If you know anyone with a super stock tractor they can hook you up for sure. I know Max Simpson is kind of the best in the business for this kind of stuff and might be worth a call to him. Hypermax also does a bunch with water injection too and they know 7.3's very well.


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Powerstroker7.3

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Brian Jelich is running water injection like that on his now too. I'm sure you can talk to him about what you need and where to get it. He has a diesel shop now called jeli built performance


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Lavon Miller Runs a similar setup of High pressure water. Might be worth a call and talk with him! I picked up 80hp in my sled truck on a dyno with water to air. I now have it in my race truck but have yet to really run it at the track yet so not sure how i will like it. I LOVED it sled pulling and would go through 60lb of ice per pass.
 

lincolnlocker

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Lavon Miller Runs a similar setup of High pressure water. Might be worth a call and talk with him! I picked up 80hp in my sled truck on a dyno with water to air. I now have it in my race truck but have yet to really run it at the track yet so not sure how i will like it. I LOVED it sled pulling and would go through 60lb of ice per pass.
Sweat avitar! Lol

live life full throttle
 

Dave_Nevada

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I pass probably 5 places that sell bags of ice, every day.
I don't even have a clue where to get dry ice, much less at the last minute when I'm headed to the track.


Most grocery stores sell dry ice. And dry ice would work way the hell better than regular ice. Just handle it with gloves unless you want your hide torn off. It's that cold. As far as running it in water, I dunno. But it definitely cools like nothing else I've tried when shrinking parts for transmission rebuilds. Just don't smack anything that's been cooled with it, you MAY shatter it.
 
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