I'm looking at creating an advanced charger cooler setup for my car, can I use an intercooler as a charge cooler radiator? Or do radiators need some special coating on the inside of them?
It's a Toyota MR2, so I was going to use my greddy side mount intercooler as well as a front mount radiator to cool the coolant.
Dobey has already told you why you shouldn't use an intercooler as a CC radiator. But let me add something more: a charge cooler does the same job as an intercooler. So instead of using a charge cooler fed by an intercooler, why not just use the intercooler to cool your air? It's what it was designed to do. If you're really worried about the air temperature, get a bigger intercooler or install water jets that will cool down your intercooler (I think the Nissan Skyline GTR had a system like this).
I don't know exactly what you're trying to do, but bear in mind that you can achieve the same power levels at lower boost if you have better airflow through your turbo. If you don't want to spend money on a new turbo, it could still be reasonably affordable to have someone install a higher flow compressor wheel in your current turbo. This could mean that you'll get the same amount of air at 24 PSI rather than 30, or something.
I like this approach because it means that you're not running your stock turbo outside of its efficient range, meaning it will last longer. If your turbo was designed to run at e.g. 15 PSI (1 Bar), it is highly unlikely that it will be able to tolerate much more than 20% more than that for long. By changing the compressor wheel, you allow more air to flow at lower turbo RPM and boost, keeping it within safe limits, while still making lots of extra power. Lower boost means lower intake manifold temperatures which in turn means you don't need extra charge cooling.
No, you cannot use an air/air intercooler as a air/water heat exchanger. It's not necessarily that you will see any particular corrosion from filling an aluminum air/air intercooler with 50/50 antifreeze/distilled water mix, but that it will just be horribly inefficient.
An air/air versus air/water system have different designs and materials. The diameters of the inlet/outlet are different. Stepping up a 1.5" radiator hose to a 4" air inlet, and then back down when going back into the coolant system, would create a very inefficient flow.
