I pinged Graham to visit this thread to update him on raising the IC a bit in his design.

 

Raising the back portion of it... that would be a good thing. However, without re-designing the inlet and oulet, there's only so much one can do, or should do... If the back is jacked-up to the max, the boots will flex, and the bullhorns will not be aligned as well with the IC inlet and outlet, which is not good for the flow of the charged air within...

 

I have heard back from Graham. Seems like I need to be his interface into NAM, I’m happy to do so but wanted to say that I think he should be given his own voice here. Anyway if I get slammed by the moderators so be it but here is Grahams reply to some of your questions and suggestions:

Hi Steve,

Many thanks for your updated information.

Unfortunately I can't reply on NAM, as the administrators have thrown me off the site due to me putting photo's of my intercooler on their site a year or so ago, so there is no way I can communicate, which I think is a bit harsh, however I do look on the site every day!....

Because of this I hope I can communicate through you with my answers?

My first answer in to john D. I must apologise for not answering one of his emails, due to the mass interest with my products I'm inundated with emails requesting information or orders. I do check my emails twice a day if not more, and try to answer all emails, its seems I've missed laid John's last email, which I apologise.....

TonyB. As you know I've had a few conversation with him by phone regarding his test work. I'm always keen to hear and learn from anyone who supports my work, constructive criticism is never a problem. If I can improve my products with the help of other then this is good for my business, remember its me that's designed this product and am the only person who manufactures these GRS intercoolers. I only employee one other person, and that my wife Debbie who does the paper work and packing, we both work 95 hours aweek to keep up with the demand!!!

I'm also happy to take on Tony's new improvements to a new level where possible, however your intercooler will be the only unit with these additional extras at no extra cost to you at present. Why?, I need to do some testing of my own with my MCS to witness any gains made. I spoke to Randy this week and he is seeing Tony this weekend, so I'm sure they will have an in-depth chat about Tony's excellent work....

Bahamabart has suggested lifting the front of the intercooler up, I'm concerned about this idea as that will effect the air flow through the scoop, as we know the scoops area is very limited.

John D has suggested manufacturing rear mountings . I believe that the other after market intercoolers for the mini on the market today have no mountings at all. The GRS is as you know mounted at the front, which I feels gives very good support, and feel doesn't require rear mountings, which could be difficult to manufacturing knowing space is limited. The front mounting are rubber mounted as well. I think John had one of the first intercoolers which at the time didn't have any mountings, as time moved on I added this to the design.

Kyriian, who has actually emailed me direct has asked about using a harder foam. My intercooler has been on my car for nearly 2 years now with no ill effect. If I use a harder structured foam I'm worried this may be too hard when shutting the bonnet.The softer faom helps me with any very small tolerance which my occur in the manufacturing of the intercooler, although I do work to very close guide lines!, but at times evey Mini is different too, which I'm sure you appreciate....

Yes you are getting the new designed lower diffuser, this has been out for the last 6 months all so.

I hope I haven't bored you to death with this email?....

I look forward to your reply.

Best regards
Graham
www.grsmotorsport.co.uk

 

Steve, thanks for sharing. Being a go-between can get exhausting, so be careful .

As seen in that email, Graham is very thoughtful. I will indeed see Randy, and that will be next weekend. He will of course be busy, but I'm sure he'll have a bit of time to look into my engine bay and chat for a bit...

I've gotten a PM or two where the person's GRS foam was pretty much gone. Not sure if that meant fell-off, or just withered away... The foam that came with my GRS has been fine thus far, and if it weren't, I don't think I'd want something to replace it that was harder or less compressable. If the foam were much stiffer, then it wouldn't contour as well to the shape of the surface of the IC...

Graham did share with me that he frequents NAM fairly regularly, and his reasons for not participating here. FWIW, on MINI2, Randy Webb has had difficulty at times contributing there, and Peter Horvath of M7 even more so. The reasons and explanations have been many, and only sometimes made sense... Strange.

 

SCMCS,
Thanks for relaying the messages of Graham! You're a big help!

Graham,
No sweat, it was just a suggestion. I actually came upon that idea when I was deciding whether to get the JCW injectors or the cheaper Bosch injectors for my GIAC and 19% combo. As it turns out, the Bosch injectors would be too tall and would interfere with my GRS intercooler. I was also thinking that having the IC raised at the rear would force more air through the intercooler since it would be facing the incoming air at a better angle. It would also allow air to escape under the intercooler by giving it more room to flow out.

I actually have the first few GRS intercoolers with front mounts, they are not rubber mounted though. I have actually broke off the 2 front mounts and had to have them rewelded. The tabs broke off with the aluminum sheet it was welded on, because of it being the thinner than the tabs. I also think it is partly due to the bad roads we have here!

Hope that would somehow help in the development.

**By the way, if anyone here has a pic of the rubber front mount GRS IC please post, I may have to modify mine to have the rubber mounts as well so I wouldn't keep on breaking them off. Thanks!

John

 

Here are some picts from Graham showing the mounting brackets with this note from him:

I've enclosed a couple of pictures for John D who is requesting pictures of the mounting brackets at the front of the intercoolers...







Dang they look to beautiful to install.

 

how much bigger are we talkin than stock?

 

Check out Webb Motorsports product evaluation forum for pictures of the stock and GRS IC. Here is a link to the GRS IC write up that has comparison pictures:

http://store.webbmotorsports.com/for...opic.php?t=643

 

I have one of these on the way from Randy. I hope I get one of the newer design ones. I will probaly mod it as the originator of this thread did to help it be all it can be

 

SCMCS,
Thanks for posting the pics!! I do have the front mounts on my GRS IC. Although I do not have what appears to be rubber bushings inserted in them. That would definetely save my mounts from breaking off again as it would be able to flex a little. I might email Graham to send me a couple. :smile: If you could, please ask Graham if he raised the front mounts a few millimeters to compensate for the thickness of the bushings. What would be the height of the mounts from the bottom of the IC? Thanks a lot for the help!!

John

 

Dude just send him an email he’ll get back to you very quickly. Here is his email address:

graham@grsmotorsport.co.uk

Let us know what he says.

 

It took me just over an hour to get the IC in and it sure is something

Now all I see in my scoop is IC

 

You should think about getting one of dem big scoops now to take advantage of some increased air flow. I hear that they really help lower the IC temps. I'm waiting to see the finished product that Sid is making for his MISFITOY. Just can't get use to the M7 scoop but I might need to over look this for the from follows function theory. I wish that the BBM scoop made production, saw one this weekend at the pulley party and it looked great.

 

It's somewhere here, but the larger M7 scoop lowered IATs from 8-10 degrees F...

With that said, after Dr Obnxs did some molecular density testing for me on the GRS IC (before my mods) and the larger M7 scoop. The gains were there, and seen on multiple runs, but were only at 2.6%. On a 200 bhp engine (about 176 whp), that's a little over 5 bhp; and most of that attributable to the scoop.

I feel reasonably confident that I have improved upon those gains with these GRS additions. How much, I don't know... I hope to make some time to do some subsequent testing... If the changes made were to make for a 5% increase for this combo, that would be 10 hp.

My valve cover has been remarkably clean since putting-on that back lip... Mabye this is another indicator that the seal is working as I had hoped. I haven't had to wipe-down the valve cover yet, and I normally would do so every weekend when I inspected the engine bay... I do have more build-up of dust and debris on the foam and that new back lip...

With the holidays upon us, and a new position at work, making the time might be difficult, but I will try to so some follow-up testing. AND, if there is an improvement (in IATs), it will be notable becasue I've added some extra heat into the equation (2% crank pulley)...

 

SCMCS,
I already have the BBR hood scoop extension, I actually want to take it off as of this moment but I am suckering up the looks over the gains! I'll be sending Graham an email soon. Thanks again!

John

 

I already had the M7 scoop before I added the GRS IC. I must say...after a very spirited drive after install the car seems to pull harder in the lower RPMS But my butt dyno might need recalibrating

 

The air dirverter that came with my IC had a seperate plastic peice to install. Is this part of the normal design or the new one?

 

Let me clarify - raising the front as much as possible without affecting the scoop feed and then raise the back as much as possible - yes allowing the hood to close. I had experimented using washers to push it up (stock ic) but as pointed out there are limits do to the rubber connectors. I was able to push the front up 1/8 inch and the back 1/4 inch (all aproximately). If I just raised the back, I had difficulty lining up the threads of the screws, hence I jacked the front a bit.

Just titling the back without addressing the screws/threads will leave a bolt down problem.

Your IC might be taller than the stock one and therefore the hieght difference would have to be factored into what I am saying.

 

does anyone have pics with the hood closed? How high does this sit up ?

 

*** SOLD ***

I had a few ask me from this thread... and true to my promise:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...60#post1097860

If interested, let me know!