I pulled the trigger on the G-Plus Intercooler last week.
Will prob install next week.

Too cheap to resist and not try! Right now I’m 20 degrees above ambient cruising on freeway.

Has to be better regardless. We shall see!
Plus I run meth so it will help with cooling on top of Intercooler.

 

I thought about one of the cheap ones... briefly. Didn't want to be the guinea pig. And didn't want to go through all the work involved to put in something less than awesome.

Yeah also seeing about +20 degrees F while cruising. Here's graphs I made from logs. Nice and warmed up, then a 3rd gear pull getting on the freeway. Besides those pulls, also noticed a big rise in temp while sitting at a stop light- climbed steadily to +40 degrees.

My car is a S with RPM stage 1. Some results on stock IC.

First graph shows about 10 degrees rise in temp by a couple seconds after getting on boost.





This one shows a jump of 70 degrees, but then it drops for a moment- there's some fluke in here. Noticing that there are a ton of options for which values to log, not sure if there is a better one to use... hm, might need to test that out.

 

The new improved B48 offers all you need and fits 1:1 and is good for 310hp

 

Will the new JCW stuff fit on the S with standard front bumper? If so, I find this highly interesting.

 

The JCW intercooler will not work on the S as the JCW runs bigger pipes. But what you can do is but pipes for a JCW then it would work. The turbo side of the pipe and the intake manifold are the same diameter as the S it is just the intercooler connectors that are larger.

 

Awesome, that's great to hear it fits underneath the bumper. Just to confirm, the difference between the S and 3-door JCW starts with the line after the turbo, to the intercooler and includes the charge air line to the intake manifold.
It looks like the charge lines and intercooler are different on the new JCW Clubman parts but physically mount to the S and JCW parts regardless. So different part numbers for those 3 parts, but would also mount in. Good to know.

 

The mounts should be the same but do not quote me on that and as far as space goes also not positive. I am just saying if you switched to the JCW pipes they would bolt up to the turbo and intake manifold and would allow you to use a JCW intercooler.

 

Its not only the charge tubes, I stated all the parts which are needed, and which are not interchangable from S or JCW, otherwise you have to buy these kind of "Forge" tubes, new manifold, and find a Bosch throttle .

It should be obivious that a improved radiator is needed - we build ourselves 3 years ago :

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...l#&gid=1&pid=1

 

The change of the mentioned parts only consider Plug & Play on a JCW. The JCW setup has the necessary radiator cooling and radiator height to mount the bigger intercooler. The remote(s) you dont need if you place a central core like me. easy to connect with the JCW radiator, you save meters of tubing. The new GP3 will have a pack of 4 heatexchangers should it have AC, otherwise the condenser will be replaced by the added oilcooler for transmission.

With regards to the outside, you can use any F56 frontend part in exchange, including the bumper, black band, M-Piston 9.5, depends on your wallet, but it fits great.

 

Okay, after looking over your other comments, I would say I finally understand this.

1. All intercoolers fit underneath all front aprons, so no worries there.
2. The JCW intercooler will not mount to the Cooper S, not because it will not fit, but because the radiator design on the Cooper S is bigger than the JCW, the JCW radiator may or may not have higher cooling capacity than the S.
   1. However, the JCW's total cooling capacity is higher than the Cooper S due to the auxiliary radiator.
   2. For a street car not pushing 300 hp, it may not be necessary to install an auxiliary radiator.
3. The upgraded (302 hp) JCW uses completely different parts starting at the turbo to intercooler pipe and running all the way around to the intake manifold (if it can still be called that)
   1. All the parts on the upgraded JCW will mount into the prior JCWs, and can be installed in an S if the JCW radiator is installed.

It also seems to be that moving to the JCW intercooler+radiator setup is the best bang for buck, unless you are planning on pushing into the 300 hp range and in situations where you will be pushing the car hard.

 

Airtec:

 

Wow, that Airtec is really interesting. I’ve seen pics of it on vendor’s sites, but thought they were wrong because it’s so different from all the other designs, and even Airtec’s JCW version. This is the only IC for F56 I’ve seen with a single tall core, rather than a stepped core that’s thicker on the bottom.

Any insights you can share? Data logs, boost or temp readings? How was the install?

Thanks!

 

The airtec looks very nice, however the effective area contains, 13 tubes, as the JCW, and the upgraded GP3 eve......

What is the weight ?

 

I have no technical data. Install was a *****. I'll upload the install document later.

 

Very heavy. I did not weigh it before install.

 

Airtec installation document:

 

Update after installing a Wagner on my 2014 S! Other mods are RPM stage 1 tune, and JCW Pro exhaust.

Originally I purchased a Forge unit, based on good reviews on this thread and elsewhere. When I received it and took a close look... I decided to send it back. The design of the end tanks looks a bit... unsophisticated. Note this is the S model I'm talking about. On their JCW IC, the tanks appear to be nicely tapered from pipe to core, but not so on the S, which of course would be an older design. As if they found a better design to use on the JCW.... which looks a lot like what Wagner did from the beginning on their IC for the S. Airtec as well... their S design differs significantly from their JCW, which again, looks pretty much like the Wagner. Makes me feel like Wagner got it right in the first place on the S.

Next decision point... Forge claims a pressure drop under 1 PSI. Wagner doesn't say in such useful terms as PSI, but they say "far less pressure drop" than stock, and have some kind of flow chart that I don't know how to read. I take it all with a grain of salt, but it does seem like Wagner is prioritizing boost pressure- hey, I like that. Loss of throttle response was my biggest fear- even if I make more power, I don't want to sacrifice driving fun. Although I didn't install the Forge to compare, indeed I'm seeing maybe 1-2 PSI increase in boost with the Wagner vs stock. Throttle response is a little better, and yeah, my clutch slips now, yippie.

Another design difference between the two is the Forge bar-and-plate core, vs Wagner's tube tube-and-fin. As I understand it, the bar-and-plate is basically thicker aluminum. Advantage being it can absorb more heat- IC takes longer to heat-soak. But, as it seems to me- the disadvantage also being it can absorb more heat- IC takes longer to shed heat once vehicle is moving. No? I don't know which is better here. I can say that I'm not really seeing lower temps in daily driving. Around 20-30 degrees F over ambient most of the time, unless I'm waiting at a signal and it soaks. Similar to stock.

I did weigh them though, and the difference in aluminum thickness is clear:
stock 7.2 lbs
Wagner 22.4 lbs
Forge 27.4 lbs

So, in the end, I still think the Wagner unit was probably my best choice, but I don't know that it was very necessary. Good thing my mechanic gave me a great deal on install cost. But I could probably live without an IC upgrade on my next car.

 

Interesting, for my 2018 S the quality seemed top notch.

 

To clarify- I think the build quality of both Forge and Wagner is excellent. My concern with Forge is the end-tank design. And hey, maybe it's great, but I haven't seen anyone post actual data of temp or pressure. So since we're all just eyeballing it, I went with the Wagner.

 

Gotcha