Originally from: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...oler-ever.html

OK . . . Here goes!

Thanks to all the folks who PM'd and emailed me about the Water-to-Air Intercooler unit this week.

Introductory retail pricing for the first 10 DoS R55, R56, R57 Turbo/'S' W2A units will be $1450.00. After the first 10 are sold, the price will go up to $1630.00.

'Irmiger' on NAM owns the car shown in these pics has been supremely impressed by how quickly this system is able to recover from high load situations. This is because the base system we're introducing has an appropriately designed W2A intercooler architecture in the barrel, holds a gallon of coolant, and has a high flow pump matched to a heat exchanger that removes heat extremely well.

It takes about 3-to-5 hours to remove the old A2A intercooler plumbing and install the new W2A unit. However, it's a great use of a Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon to kill turbo lag and gain cooler charge air temps.

Also, for those who have a BSH catch can, we'll be collaborating with them to create a new location for mounting your OCC and will have instructions released no later than May 2010 (hopefully much earlier).

DoS will make a formal announcement in the Vendor Announcements Section in 2 weeks. This will give us enough time to assemble complete kits and have them ready to ship.

If you want to pre-order a W2A IC or have any other questions, drop me a PM or an email at the address in my signature.

Thanks for reading.

-Clint

 

Wow.

 

Very nice job guys. Now get to work on that new R53 kit you talked about.
R56 kit seems to have a great price!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

by the way . . .

If they actually allow installs during Minis in the Mountains at Winter Park this August, DoS will be installing these on the premises -- we'll start early, and we'll have you out and driving by noon.

 

wow that looks crazy.... can some one tell me what it does.....lol

 

Clint: so THAT'S whatchoo been waiting to announce ...

 

 

you checking your email? or pm

 

For???

I got nothing.

Mark

 

So is this intercooler practical for street use? Or is this more of a track type of thing?

 

We've found that the R55, R56, R57 Turbo/'S' W2A does not heat soak easily and recovers MUCH faster if allowed to soak than the R53 W2A IC's that we developed a few years back.

Even at 30-40mph tight canyon carving speeds the latest design recovers from heat soak --parked and soaking engine bay heat for an hour or so -- in no more than 1 minute & 30 seconds (on average). We also have our very quiet coolant pump wired in a manner so that it runs for 5-to-8 minutes after shutting off the ignition.

Recovery time from soak is what makes a W2A system streetable. Our R53 system has good recovery, but the one you see above is excellent in this (and many other) respects.

 

Cool! Thanks for the details

 

Hey Clint,

Could you clear something up for me? I am from a hotrod background. All of this turbo and intercooler stuff is pretty new to me.

1. What is included with the IC kit?

2. What will the install involve?

3. What are the advantages of going with the W2A IC over the traditional Forge, Helix, etc.?

I know there has to be more people asking the same thing. I think a detailed description would help you as much as it would help me

 

now all we need to do is relocate that stupid coolant tank and put the intake there for the large turbos by the fresh air and run that turbo outlet back along where the old intake tube and maf was.

sweet work guys

 

From "Maximum Boost" by Corky Bell, page 71
". . . An intercooler is a heat exchanger (radiator) placed on the turbo compressor outlet. Its purpose is to reduce the temperature of the compressed air coming out of the turbo, increasing its air density and allowing higher boost pressures."

The Turbo/'S' Water-to-Air (W2A) Intercooler includes:
A)W2A Intercooler Unit with mounting bracket -- mounts at factory airbox location
B)Coolant Hose, hose fittings, and Hose Clamps
C)Charge Air Hoses, hose fittings, and Hose Clamps
D)12v Coolant Pump (1.5 amp draw) w/wiring and 3 amp inline fuse holder
E)Aluminum Filler Neck
F)Clamp-On Intercooler Adapters -- to convert the stock A2A IC to a heat exchanger for coolant
G) Special Charge Air Hose Joiner for Pressure/Temp Sensor Relocation

Other stuff:
--An illustrated instruction manual can be emailed to each prospective buyer showing the basic installation.
--A fully illustrated & very complete instruction manual is sent to each person who buys the W2A system IC via email with their shipping confirmation info. We took a lot of pictures and have step by step instructions to make installation as clear as possible. (I'll be finishing this up next week).
--The system is completely reversible. We already asked you to cut a hole in a plastic bulkhead panel to mount the CAI, but there are no other holes to drill or parts to cut in order to mount this W2A Intercooler.

DoS W2A IC Install Notes:

1) You will need to remove ALL of the factory charge air plumbing (not a supremely time intensive task). You will leave the rubber hose elbow that attaches to the intake manifold and the factory intercooler* in place. The rest goes into the parts bin.

2) *If you upgraded to an aftermarket intercooler, you will need to put your stock/factory MINI Air-to-Air (A2A) heat exchanger back on the car.

3) You fit-up the special hose joiner with the pressure/temp sensor bung to its new location.

4) You fit the W2A intercooler on top of the intake Manifold

5) You install the water pump in its location and wire it to the proper wire in the bottom of the fuse box per the instructions.

6) You install the coolant plumbing.

7) You install the new charge air plumbing

8) You fill the system with coolant and bleed the air from the system. -- The system is pretty much self bleeding, but you'll need to top it off a few days after installation.


I noted the advantages of the DoS W2A IC system over A2A ICs in my posts above, but here are some more details.

A) 5+ feet of charge air plumbing goes bye bye
-- This means that the turbo has 5 less feet of 2.25" ID tubing to fill, resulting in less turbo lag at launch and snappy accelerations from low speed.

B) Water is 14X more efficient than air at transferring charge air heat from aluminum heat exchanger cores. This allows for better heat transfer under load.

C) Lower Intake Air Temps (IATs).
--Irmiger and I took the long way home from AMVIV to play some more with the datalogger and see what our charge air temps would look like in 86+ degree weather in the Mojave and small towns in SoCal. Under load, IATs spiked to 17-20 degrees above ambient temperature, but then promptly recovered to 10 degrees above ambient within seconds. When not under boost, IAT's hovered between 5-to-8 degrees above ambient.

D) Fast recovery time.
--Many W2A IC's cannot offer this because of not enough coolant capacity, poor placement in the engine bay, an inadequate heat exchanger, a pump with not enough flow,
and a host of other factors. As I mentioned above, the Turbo/'S' W2A has the most impressive recovery time of of any system that DoS has developed thus far, making it a truly street and trackworthy W2A IC.

Hopefully this wasn't too 'sales brochure-like' for most of you folks that read this. I just want to get some more info out to those who have any questions.

Have a good night.

-Clint

 

I don't have much of an axe to grind with that coolant tank yet. However, I'm sure that folks will do some creative installs of this W2A in the drag and track focused crowds on NAM and the greater MINI community.

 

great thread

 

Thanks for that Clint. I was wondering if there would be any more cutting involved. I could see from the pics that the heat exchanger would be in the front (hose running to front of engine bay), good idea using the factory IC.

I want one of these in the worst way. Unfortunately, I just can't swing it right now. I'm getting a tune tomorrow from Jan in Philly with a flash tool. I'm going to have to go the traditional FMIC route for now. After that NO MORE MODS!!! ...for a while. In really mean it this time

Great job with it though. Looks like you came up with a really solid product. People also have to take into consideration, when looking at the price of the DoS setup, that they will no longer have to cough up the money for hard tubes. That's at least $400 right there.

Not to mention the "What the hell is THAT?" factor!

If I could, I'd get one in a heart beat.

 

Clint, I think you forgot about me :(
Did you test the pipe fitting yet? Shoot me a pm if you can.

 

Hi Andy. I shot you a PM about fitting that JCW inlet tube on a non-JCW R56 MCS. This part was on backorder with my distributor and shipped out last Friday. It was frustrating.

I'll confirm fitment next week. (OK, mental note -- no more hijacking my own thread . . . )

 

(OK, mental note -- no more hijacking my own thread . . . )[/QUOTE]

You got it

 

No rubbing or hood clearance issues?!! Too bad there just isn't a little more room on the driver's side to get both the CAI and this new piece stuffed in there. Engine bay is just too small..............

Very impressive though.

 

Nope, no rubbing or hood clearance issues. We envisioned the CAI & W2A-IC setup when the R56 was first released in the US but held-off on releasing the W2A-IC until we could develop a system at a more affordable price point.

Yup, the engine bay is small, but if it were much bigger, we would not be able to call our cars MINIs.

 

DoS CAI - ~$310

DoS W2A IC - ~$1500

The look on the face of your average motoring advisor when he pops the bonnet - priceless.

 

ok so im still lost it it going to increase the hp or what?