I don't want this thread to get filled up with an argument, but I will say again that dylmrt DID get roughly 250rwkw with just a sidemount intercooler. It surprised me too, and he was probably on the limit of safety, but the fact remains that he did achieve that power, and his car ran nicely on that tune for a long time. 
purple5ive, you said that the fan wasn't working...this is very relevant on a dyno where it is very difficult to feed a good amount of cool air into the side vents for the intercooler (as I experienced myself with my water-to-air heat exchangers getting their air from the side vents too).

I'll clarify that purple5ive. Hayley made around 270rwkw with a sidemount & so did another in VIC (I call him Stifler - forget his boardname as he doesn't post often - Tony) with a GT3040 made 280rwkw. The difference is, they did ONE run @ that power, heatsoak near death, wait 30min then do another run & wait another 30min. Not ideal @ all & pretty annoying when tuning. Same thing happens even when tuning over 16psi 200rwkw on smaller turbos. Anyone that can monitor intake temps will see just how poor sidemounts are. On the road, they're certainly robbed of power via intake temps, which is why I always recommend going further than a sidemount if you can, although understand cost is often a restriction. At the very least, get an aftermarket fan & rewire it. For a bit of perspective, on the past few evenings, in about 10 C temps, after multiple back to back bursts @ 18-20psi, I never went over 38 C. When I had a sidemount, I'd already be over that after warm up & before going WOT.
 
It's not rocket science, the sheer fact that factory sidemount location is so close to the dump pipe/hotside should really speak for itself. It's the main reason why I disagreed with Rob using sidemount heat exchangers. As he's seen from his results, he was better off with a single front mounted heat exchanger. Don't want to be mean to Rob, but the whole "unique" setup was always destined to underachieve compared to a front mount H/E. The question in my mind was always by how much. If there's no real on road temp issues, might aswell just leave it as it. Otherwise will end up with as many heat exchangers as a W16 Veyron & water lines all over the place.....lol

Sorry Robk, didn't mean to start a discussion of intercoolers on your thread - I've personally done a lot of reading and research, just wanted your opinion as you would know better than me first hand, and will take suggestions on board before I upgrade.
 
Thanks for the suggestions MR2QIK, I'll definitely look into that turbo too - it'll probably a toss up between the two (got dreams of building a 2.2L engine).
 
Righto, I think we all should leave this for Robk's showroom thread - keep updating us with the any progress on your car mate.

I used aluminium front to back with hose connections to allow for car flex.
Yes there is room for a radiator upfront even if you have A/C.
Plastic panels can't go back on if you go under the fuel tank. Need custom ones.
Bosch pump is a bit weak , Johnson is better
 

Thanks guys.
Having searched the forum for everything water-to-air related, it's got me thinking about the possibility of adding a reservior too.
 
BTW this is purely just an idea at the moment, I'm not saying that I'm definitely going to do this.

i only ever heatsoak in traffic after sitting around for 40 minutes ingridlock.. but then after 5 minutes of driving again its down under 40 again

MR2QIK
I'd prefer not to rely on the ecu to fix problems. I'd rather avoid the problems altogether & allow the ecu to play a part if there's a failure Check your logs & if it's not an issue on the road, then just leave it be.

Don't get me wrong, I feel the same way, I was just making a point that it isn't a massive issue, if I choose to leave it as-is.

MR2QIK
I actually wouldn't recommend a W2A setup (esp yours) for a trackday. Not sure how you intend to run it, but it's not going to be the "optimum" cooling system. The charge air temp won't drop even lower as it passes through each heat exchanger, in fact it may be completely redundant if the last in line was one of the hotter sidemounts.
It takes W2A systems longer to recover after heatsoaking & in a track environment, you'd prefer not to cover the radiator @ all. Hence my recommended track setup will always be a nice big trunk mount A2A.

Yeah I always knew that water-to-air is not always the way to go for a track car, but my car is very much a street car, which may see tracktime a few times per year at the most.

MR2QIK
I have black hosing, but it's protected by the plastic covers (all my covers are still there). Front heat exchanger if fitted perfectly will not require removal or relocation of AC/radiator.

That's good to know, thanks.

Do you have a Bosch pump ? If so its too weak , you need a bigger one.
You need to get the water moving as fast as possible. Inch lines or even bigger are better if you can find the space.
I dont think those engine radiators will do much unless you have fans that are drawing air from outside the car , some sort of funneling.
Your in Sydney i would drop into Plazmaman and after you speak to Alex i reckon the first thing you will change is the Barrel ( btw i have one so im not biased )
 
I definitely would have the radiator up front and the bigger the better that you can fit.
IF you were to go with hose front to back i dont know as i wouldnt want them to be close to the water hoses as they probably would be as you have to twist it around so as to put the plastic bits on. Thats why i went aluminium and under the fuel tank well away from the heater hoses.
 
So the principal is to circulate as fast as you can get that water to the radiator up front.
If you have A/C you cant mount another fan, but im looking into putting another radiator a second one behind the OEM fans with fans on that radiator.