HOWTO: Water Spray for Aftermarket Intercooler

Intended Audience: Anyone with an Intercooler
Technical Level: Medium / Low
Duration: 2 hours approx to complete
Effort: Medium
Result: Good

!!!Caution/Achtung/Attenzione!!!
Follow this guide at your own risk. You have been warned. We are not responsible for any actions you take. The information contained herein is a guide and should be acted upon with consultation from your local tuner. If you are unsure or are not confident don't do it.

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This is to serve as an inplace thread for a DIY Water Spray kit.
There are several aftermarket kits and some DIY home-made ones.
Please post any sucess/failures you have had and your results.

I plan to test a DIY home made kit with a a 3rd party temperature monitoring kit. I will be monitoring ambient temp, and temp at each side of the end tanks on the intercooler. Then at a fixed speed activate the water spray system and record the temperature drop at the end tank of the intercooler core. I will not be adjusting any settings for the test and will be staying at a fixed speed(s) say 60km/h then 80km/h then 100km/h as I believe these will show the true results of the test. I expect a good 5-6-degree drop in outlet temps on the intercooler core.

Temperature datalogger:
K145 - Temperature Logger
This kit is a 4 channel temperature meter. The temperature data, in degrees C or F, is output as a continuous data stream over an RS232 serial port. The kit uses a PIC12C509 and up to 4 x DS1820 digital thermometers (only 1 supplied - more available on request). No external power is required (the kit is powered from the serial port).The output data is in simple text format. Simply capture the data to a text file and then import it into Excel to produce tables and charts of temperature readings over time. Or you can write your own BASIC programs to grab the readings.This is an ideal use for old 386 and 486 computers - continuous temperature data logging. As you can see from the photo there is not much to the hardware.

http://www.ozitronics.com/data.html (they are in sydney)

Kit is $34.50 and comes with 1 temperature sensor.
Addiotnal sensors are $12 each and it can support upto 4.
The system plugs in via a serial port and when you connect it returns the temperature of each sensor one per line each second. Perfect for datalogging. We use these kits at work to monitor server room temperature so they are reliable.

Sard Water Spray Kit:

Sard Item 29205
AU $ 310.09

Sard Cooling Spray Kit
Introducing the Sard Cooling spray unit. Can be used to spray water onto the Radiator or Intercooler. The S.C.S consists of a Manuel or Automatic Mode.


Parts included
Electronic Cooling Spray unit
Plastic Tank
Nosel & Stay
Motor & Pump

Cusco Kit
WATER SPRAY CONTROLLER

FEATURE
Keeps excessive heating down and allows continuous
driving runs, with power.
Decreases temperature for in-going air to the intercooler, enabling better combustion and increasing air intake amount for more power.
USE
There are various ways to cool your intercooler.
It can be set to spray continuously for a span from one to five seconds in one second intervals. Also the spray interval can be set at 3, 4, 5, 7 or 9 seconds. Other settings include continuous spray for a period of 15 seconds to 3 minutes maximum and ability to turn on at a pre-set rpm level. Of course the settings stop automatically when the tank is empty.
ADDITIONAL FEATURE
With the optional Nose and Hose Set fitted, the radiator will can be water sprayed as well.
FITTING
This widely available CUSCO product is made
to fit all models.

00B 732 A AU $ 147.32
AU $ 186.87
Add to Cart

Unversal Water Spray Contoller Kit


00B 732 B AU $ 47.78
AU $ 61.95
Add to Cart

Universal Water Spray Contoller Nosile Kit

http://www.nengun.com/image/catalogue/prim...-product-40.bmp
http://www.nengun.com/image/catalogue/prim...-product-38.bmp
http://www.nengun.com/image/catalogue/prim...-product-39.bmp

PIVOT
WATER SPRAY CONTROLLER

* Multi-function water spray control unit cools down intake air by spraying water onto the intercooler. This system can also be used for the radiator or the oil cooler.

* Spray pattern can be selected from "Spray at the rpm more than the set rpm", "Timer set" or "Constant spray" depending on your driving situation.

* The system stops automatically to protect the motor when the water tank becomes empty.

* For the models with factory water spray function such as Lancer Evolutions and WRX STi, etc... the system can work only with the controller kit. For the other models, the washer bottle and the motor for the rear window screen can be used. In this case, optional nozzle kit needs to be purchased as well

WSC AU $ 151.30
AU $ 190.85
Add to Cart

Water Spray Controller


WSN-1 AU $ 54.55
AU $ 68.71
Add to Cart

Water Spray NOZZLE KIT (Nozzle, One-way valve ,Hose and Holder


http://www.nengun.com/image/catalogue/prim...-product-55.bmp
http://www.nengun.com/image/catalogue/prim...-product-53.bmp
http://www.nengun.com/image/catalogue/prim...-product-54.bmp

Awesome thread! Myself and Daniel (CNBLOW) actually made our own DIY Intercooler Water Spray kits by re routing the water hoses from the rear wiper washer motor outlet to spray water on the intercooler. This was controlled automatically via the Relay output on the Apexi Rev Speed Meter, which will trigger the spray motor when a certain RPM or speed is reached. Mine was set to start spraying at 4500RPM or 120kph.

Paul, are the kits you have listed above all available from Nengun ?

yeah they're all from nengun. did you see any good results when you were testing?

I had some issues with finding appropriate nozzels to direct the water onto the intercooler with the best spray area. Didn't test for temperature drop across the end tanks so can't give feedback there as I didn't have any real noticeable difference. I believe a proper sorted water spraykit would make a difference in cooling intake temps.

My DIY job is disconnected at the moment, I'm considering to buy a proper kit since they're so inexpensive.

isnt spraying water onto the intercooler like 1/4 as effective as spraying mist/water into the actual pipes after the intercooler... ?

My sisters ex has a s14.. he uses the injection method INSTEAD of having an actual intercooler.....

a good discussiong on the those topics is at:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread...#post1552430047

I would be concerned of issues pertaining with failure / something going wrong and a large amount of water being put into the intake. With a water spray for the intercooler the worst that can happen is it dumps all the water. and it would be easier to remove the water spary vs removing water injection i would imagine. bottom line i wouldnt be comfortable trying it

Should be obvious, but remember to use distilled water for the spray as the minerals in tap water can do damage to the FMIC.

The advantage of spraying water into the intake charge was moreso to lower chances of detonation isn't it? obviously it would help with the temps - but I remember reading about it somewhere about a dude on a dyno had his car detonating its tits off, then he wound MORE boost into it and turned the sprayer on and it was all good...

yeah and it lets you up the timing to.
theres not much chance or it spraying tons of water into your pipes because the brass/metal nozzle is a set size and sprays a very very fine mist.. and as long as its installed correctly only abit of the nozzle would be sticking inside the pipe..

With most of the kits aswell they also include a little led or something to notify you when the water/methanol etc is running low..

its understandable people dont like the idea of water inside the pipes i guess, just incase it somehow did go wrong.

Tap water doing damage to your FMIC??? Gee - I'd better stop washing my car with the hose then hey...

What damage do you honestly expect tap water to do to the outside of the intercooler - except maybe leave tiny traces of minerals on the core? Do you have acid in your tap water? Aluminium does not oxidise as quickly as it's metalurgical reactivity properties would suggest.