Those of you who were at the Dragon know that I have one of the first DFIC handed to me by Peter himself at the M7 Club The lousy part was that my worned out intercooler boots were too short having been compressed by the Alta IC over time. I had hoped that the scout trip to Nashville during Saturday by Jonathan would be my chance but the dealer didn't have any IC boots so I had to sit being upstaged by Don's awesome white Mini

Today, I picked up a pair of boots from Chad and promptly drove home to install the DFIC.

All I can say is HOLLY MOTHER "explitivesXXXXXXXXX"

Until Matt gets his testing done, this is as real as any number in front of my eyes. These numbers are real time read outs from my Auterra OBD obtaining data stream from the Mini's own sensors...I'm still at a loss to understand all this but here you go...

Ambient Temp: 69F
Weather: Sunny

25mph suburban street driving..............................AIT=102
Driving steady at 70mph......................................AIT=86F
Accelerating under boost 5th from 70 to 80.............AIT=72F
Acceleration from 70 to 90...................................AIT=67F WTF

That's below ambient

Additionally, I have noticed that the bottom fin core on all the DFIC installs were blocked by the diverter...probably causing an area of isolated heat. I am planning on finding a suitable insulating material thick enough to move the IC up a fraction to allow this bottom fin core to be un-obstructed by airflow...that should substantially improve the already UNREAL numbers

And of course, the best part is the new grunt that came with the numbers

 

Seems like all the new DFIC owners have nothing but praises. Now, I just want to see it on a car without so many modifications into the engine.

 

Sid, I'm not far behind you! I told Peter no rush... but I'm getting pretty anxious now... Please share a photo or two when you can. Thanks.

 

Good airflow inherent from a DFIC, would be my explination for the #s. This is one of those things I can easily imagine dozens of engineers saying "why didn't I think of that".

 

One caveat...and not to downplay the DFIC's below ambient numbers during some readings as I haven't spent enough time to understand under what conditions this happens...but I do have water/methanol injection up stream from the AIT sensor. But that only comes on at 10psi boost.

That said, I have never seen this rate of temperature drop in such short time/distance with any other IC. I went out a little while ago and the heat soak had risen the AIT up to 145F. Within two miles of driving and moderate acceleration, the temperature dropped to 97F...then it rose back up a few degrees until the intercooler itself has been cooled by the ram air.

The really odd thing about this DFIC is that seems to defy the operating principles of traditional IC...ie, it gets cooler under boost Huh?:impatient

 

I'm assuming you are moving while under boost, more air pasing through the IC at a quicker rate, the air isn't getting the chance to heat up as much keeping the engine air cooler. In say the stock IC teh air used for cooling first travels over the already hot IC warming it, then is defelected downward but not really forced through so the air flow between the fins would be much slower allowing the cooling air to heat up more thus providing less of a cooling effect. The DFIC moves air through quicker with less redirection so it can provide more cooling under boost, which would conteract the higher temps associated with boost. The quicker airflow just provides the efficancy needed to cause such a drop in temps. Making this new appoach much more effective than a traditional IC. I'd be interested to see how these numbers compare to a front mount IC, I suspect they wouldn't be a whole lot different.

This is based on what I understand of IC, thermo and aero theory, I'm by no means an expert on this (esp. the IC part).

 

And now what were the results with the stock intercooler?

 

I can't remember...I haven't had a stock IC for nearly two years now...

 

What have you been using and what were the results? I'm just curious for some perspective.

 

I have been using the Alta IC with my Ram Intake and the results are similar during steady state driving...the Dramatic difference is the temperature drop during boost and fast recovery from heatsoak by the DFIC...

 

Thanks – this is a fascinating result

 

Did you have your water/methanol injection running?

Good numbers all around though.

 

Would you echo spiderx's comment that it's on par power-wise with the pulley modification?

 

Hey look...the little red thingy is baaaaack

 

I don't have the measurement equipment that Sid has but I can tell you the "Holy Crap" factor is definately in play...... this thing is pretty amazing....
I'm glad you like it Sid....adds to my credibility

 

looks like the alta sprayer.. doesnt the dfic come with a sprayer of some sort?

 

I've shown this before, but maybe it'll help a little bit here, too.

This is a temperature map of the DFIC moving at 70 MPH through air at an ambient temperature of ~69 degrees.



There is a pressure buildup in the Ram Air Scoop, which is released as the air moves through the DFIC. As we've seen, when pressure drops, so does temperature. So the air will cool as it moves through the DFIC, in this simulation which I don't expect to be 100% accurate, but a representation of the effects that should be seen, the temperature of the cooling charge drops to almost 50 degrees!

So the actual ambient temperature that the DFIC uses to cool the charge temp is much lower than the temp of the air outside the car. So 67 degrees is very believable based on this, and the large volume of air moving through the DFIC.

 

I'm happy to see that the prelim findings from my good friend Sid, mimics
what Randy and I found on our local canyon runs here in SoCal.

As for the water sprayer bar from the M7 Lab....just wait We will add some aero-dynamic devices and shapes to the system allowing even more cooling
capabillity and performance to the DFIC.

peter
Team M7
562-608-8123

 

Looking good Sid..

 

Good to see you finally got it installed, Sid. Like I said at the Dragon, I wish I knew you needed the boots, I would have brought them with me.
Great numbers!! Will this awesome m7 piece ever cease to amaze us?

 

Great to have met you Joaquin Hope I didn't butcher your name...hang with us next year...if we can handle CustomAV we can handle anyone

 

This may be silly, but is the air flowing through the DFIC from Z to X or X to Z?

For clarification.

 

ouch... that stings.... not really. I know I am a pain in the ***, a little high strung (did I say little? ok a lot!)....

oh and saying that means something. If these guys could put up with me all weekend then they are saints! or just plain nuts

way to go on finally getting that thing installed Sid.... now I see you didn't waste any time in adding the sprayer... where's mine? you better make one up for me quick so I can play with the big boys!

chris

 

It was great finally meeting you, Joel and Peter(thanks again Peter). Perfect spelling on the name. Being my first year there, I was trying to take it all in. Next year i'll know what to expect. I'll expect a rat race on the Dragon with the infamous MSFITOY.

 

D@mn it! Here goes some more money