I did my forge intercooler install and killed a couple bottles of stella in 30-40 minutes. it is so easy i would bet my 5 y.o. daughter could do it .

 

Yes, its very easy. Some of those damn pop it tabs can be a ***** though! I ended up just shearing some off cuz I got annoyed.

 

will the forge cooler fit behind the front bumper of a JCW aerokit without any other mods?

 

YES

 

thx...

 

I really don't think most of you guys are in need of a larger intercooler. Doing a few pulls on the hwy is not nearly enough to heatsoak the factory intercooler. Unless the car is often hot lapped I wouldn't waste the cash. The UK guys are running the factory i/c with a fair share of mods for a reason.

 

I dont know, there was a definite and noticeable gain when I put mine on.

 

Uk has inspection for insurance and mods raise rates. a aftermarket intercooler is easier to spot than a remap.

 

My stealth is almost impossible to see.

 

and ?

 

I was just saying you might want to try the stealth front mount intercooler if you do ever get one. They are very hard to spot

 

The inspectors in the uk will find it.

 

Right. The IAT's that I've seen on all the factory cars is well within range. You guys are dropping a TON of cash on a 10-15 degree drop in stationary conditions. The problem is that most of you guys haven't ever built a true race car and therefore one guy spouts of misinformation and everyone runs with it. While it's not a bad idea to upgrade, it's definitely not worth replacing until the factory i/c is heatsoaked from your style of driving and/or mods.

The thing is that on a dyno if the operators don't provide enough fans the car will easily become heatsoaked after 2-3 pulls. It's no wonder these guys are posting big gains from replacing the intercooler while all their testing is done on a dyno. On the street those gains would diminish immediately because the car has more than sufficient ducting and would be able to avoid getting heatsoaked like it would on a dyno.

After having my MINI for 5 months and getting to put it through the paces I can easily say the factory i/c is plenty sufficient for the bolt-ons currently offered to the community. I realize I may have zero credibility here at the moment but our cars speak for themselves.

Here's my brothers...
http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothrea...postid=2744640
Here's mine!
http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/k...rts/My%20240sx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIIYmdzMUes

 

I agree with your science, Im not sure where you live but in southern California it gets very hot. It may not help a lot but I have seen my temps go down as read by my scangauge.

 

So wait.. you're running meth injection on the factory turbo at factory boost and have upgraded your intercooler as well? I need more info on why this was necessary.. How much did they decrease and with what type of driving? The only gain would come if the factory i/c was heatsoaked and this doesn't occur easily on the road. A short and I mean short cool down would have the same effect if you've been doing some aggressive driving. In Arkansas I have HWY 7 which is an absolute blast and goes on for a good 30 miles and for those miles it might as well be the Nurburgring because with all the turns and switchbacks I drive the MINI as it was intended and still maintain IAT's well within a healthy range.

 

There was no need yet the tune was next, so thats why I got the water\meth. I was making more money before. I had to put it on hold for a while.

I cant give you the exact figures so its not worth trying to. I did notice that it now runs about 2 to 6 deg above ambient. before on average it was closer to 10 to 15 above. But again I am not trying to do anything more than give my observations.

 

And I really do appreciate it because finding solid numbers on this forum is brutal. When you're saying just a few degrees above ambient that is nothing at all which is a great selling point... However 10-15 above really is peanuts until we exceed ~130-140f+. At that point the intercooler is showing its inefficiencies due to either driving style and/or mods. This will still eventually occur even with an aftermarket upgrade after enough pulls. I can't anticipate seeing any sort of gain until the IAT's get to 125f.

 

For the cost of the intercooler I'd rather pay someone like borg warner to put on a larger compressor wheel from a k04 and place it back in the factory housing to avoid warranty issues. The additional lag with a 2-4mm larger wheel would be anywhere from 200-500 rpm higher which I would greatly appreciate because it would be a little easier to keep out of boost and therefore get better gas mileage. These cars fall so flat on their face after 5000 which blows so i'd rather have a lot more up top then a turbo making boost at 1500rpms.

 

just to let you know, some people on this forum have a wealth of information.The r53 has much more hard data because many of the r56 parts are still being tested. there are a few of us that have put together many true race cars. im sorry but a s14 with a rb and a kat are not race cars. The truth of the intercoolers on the r56 is they are not efficient, I have personally experienced this in daily driving situations. In heavy traffic that is stop and go the intercooler heat soaks very quickly. The heat here in florida makes it heat soak really fast. Also at the local drag strip if you dont have a private test and tune its impossible to get a good pass out of the stock front mount. The helix intercooler was worth every penny in my opinion. Its not for everyone but there is a significant difference that can be felt every day. my slow mini went from being a 15.3 at 92 to a 14.5 at 98. if thats not a difference i dont know what is.

 

My car keeps going all the way up to redline, it actually feels like it wants to go farther but Im not into that. maybe its the water/meth? our summer gas sucks here in CA and that extra octane may be helping.

 

Ok.. Well if a 9 sec (810whp) and 10 sec car (530whp) don't do it for ya I don't know what will. So your best pull ever with the factory i/c is 15.3 and the best with the helix is 14.5? SO you're telling me that replacing the factory i/c will net nearly a full second gain?!! Driver mod maybe but an intercooler doing that much with the tiny factory snail and not hot lapping the car is not happening.

 

Also, how does the intercooler prevent you from having a good lap? Are you saying that it's hard because you're running lap after lap after lap and not having an adequate cool down time? If so, then I believe you but the first 2-3 pulls will be the same no matter what intercooler you use because the factory unit isn't heatsoaked yet. That is an inherent problem of drag strips as opposed to driving. Again a short cool down time will fix make things new again. Maybe this tip will blow your mind.. spray a nitrous bottle on it if its so damn hot at the track. That will make it better than ambient temps and save you a lot of money. Stop and go yes but why do you need to drive like a maniac in traffic anyways?? That makes no sense how the factory unit is a problem because the IAT's are higher in traffic. Your coolant temps are also higher in traffic.. does that mean we should all replace our radiators as well??

 

its not hot lapping the car, if that was the case it would do alot better, the fact of the matter is waiting in line with the factory intercooler means i lose .8 in the quarter and im not spraying my intercooler with nitrous before a 15 sec pass....lmao same driver with over 100 passes at 15.3 then the intercooler was bolted on last friday and i went 14.5 all night. the 2 cars you showed us were both shop/show cars not race cars.

 

My car is far from a show car. lol i take it as a compliment but that car was daily driven for 4 yrs through college and is still on the same bottom end that i built 6 yrs ago. I think I've got enough experience to talk about a 160-200whp MINI cooper. The principles are the same.

You can maybe sell the 8/10 sec gain to someone who doesn't know better but that is MASSIVE cut in time and would not occur with a 15whp jump which is the most you'd get under the worst of conditions. Sitting in line doesn't cause your intercooler to heat soak. Continuous boost which creates heat that is significantly above the ambient temp and without enough airflow through the i/c to help with cooling will cause an issue. This is however not occuring under the conditions you described. The car was ran for a total of 15.3 seconds and then sat in line for several minutes before it was called upon again for another run?? And its now heatsoaked after 15.3 seconds. That's comical at best. Do you see the issue here. I also question your definition of heatsoaked. While you may think 90 degrees is hot that doesn't mean your intercooler is now heatsoaked and inefficient. The reason I asked if you were hot lapping is because that actually makes sense. Waiting in line and letting the intercooler dissipate the heat will fix the problem, not make it worse. After the finish line drop it to neutral and slowly get back to the starting line without getting into boost and I'll bet that alone will cause the IAT's to get back into optimal range by the time you make your next pass. You just want to get airflow over the intercooler after you let off so they can cool back down. Like I said before under extreme heat go and buy a small nitrous bottle and attach a line to hold and spray down the intercooler. This will do far more good than anything else and save you some cash as well.

On second thought. Meth injection is incredible in this situation and would allow you to not only run more boost and timing but it also would allow you to maintain the factory intercooler. It does a much better job at cooling the air then any FMIC could ever dream to do. And you can run A LOT more boost and timing!

 

this isnt the case at all, there is no airflow over the intercooler and the car is running in line for up to an hour. you car isnt called upon its like a mcdonalds drive-threw at my local track. you have to wait in line inching your car forward for up to an hour. those are the times and the intercooler was the only change. speculate as much as you want but those are my facts, thats what the car ran under the same ambient temperature +-2 deg.
the car does heat soak and its evident, you have a serious loss of power and its not just 15 whp trust me.

my point on the show car topic is that your car is not a race car. It is not purpose built for racing.