Hey I was thinking might it be easier and neater to use a water to air cooler between the turbo and throttle placed ontop of the rocker cover. This would give a very direct piping run.

Then you have the freedom to mount the water cooler infront of the radiator with only little hoses and electric water pump.

Would look nice and perhaps not be much more expensive when you factor in the cost of custom making pipework for the normal air-air intercooler.

What size water-air units are available, custom make one?

Perhaps good for a low boost 9-12 psi setup.

Thoughts?

do it
then u can add ice to the water tank for super cold water and inlet temps

dont know who makes them, there is a kit for a commondore V8 that has the watrer to air intercooler sitting directley beneath the blower ( located ontop of the valey )

Yeah water-to-air is an attractive option.
Only reason it's less used then air-to-air is weight really.
Custom made would probably be cheaper, alot of the kit ones are pretty expensive, plus it gives you 'creative freedom'
The other thing I just thought of too, is the 'barrel' water to air's, how efficient are they?
More efficient, but a bit heavier, and with need for a larger area, would be a small air-to-air core immersed in a tank that the cooled water is exchanged through.

I don't think weight will be too much of a problem. I mean water is heavier than air but it would be less than 10 litres = 10 Kg = bugger all compared to 1600kg falcon.

Does anyone know of any suppliers of these things. They should be able to give info. Personally I am not force feeding my car any time soon I just think its a good option for turbo and SC ppl. Those cylindrical tubes would also fit in great between the S/C outlet and TB.

It'd be perfect for short bursts, 1/4 miles etc.

It'll absorb heat out of the inlet air quicker then air-to-air can, but in turn, it will take alot longer to be cooled by air from car moving, thermo fans, whatever.
Like I said, not a big issue for short use, but it wouldn't be much fun under sustained high inlet temps.

I played around with one a few years back. Used a toyota GT4 water/air cooler on a 4g63 motor, wasnt too impressed with it so I tried a RX7 s4 air/air cooler front mount... heaps better and similar sized cores so was a fairly good comparison.
But, they do work very well in some set ups. PWR make a barrell type that apparently works well. Seen one front mounted on a 240zed, dunno the result though.

I wouldnt bother mounting one over the motor, way too much heat soak. WRX and GT4 both used them and only got away with it by having the big bonnet vents... the most common ugrade for these cars is a decent sized front mount, so I spose that says alot for the water/air coolers they use.

Get one thats fairly large and mount it somewhere cool and it shoiuld work well, but there's so many negative factors to consider that it makes a big front mount very attractive