Hi motorers!

I just got a Forge Motorsport intercooler and a GIAC ECU software and I thought I might share my opinions on both...

First, the Forge intercooler... (scroll down for pics)

It's an awesome part! The quality is amazing and it fits very well. I installed it myself and it took 30 minutes or so. I went for a little ride after and I could feel a difference for sure! The car seems to pull a bit harder through the entire RPM range... There is a bit of boost lost, or pressure drop, from it, but the extra cold air compensates from it! My boost gauge was showing 15.5psi max boost before, and now I have 14-14.5psi...

The GIAC ECU software is very good too. I used to have MTH Tuner file on my car, but I was not 100% satisfied with it... There was still a small flat spot and my car would not behave the same everyday. It is kind of hard to explain... sometimes, it would run great, but other times, it would idle strangely and felt like not performing at its best... Plus, another MINI & MTH owner told me his file was made for European octane scale... So I decided to get GIAC ECU and see if it would be better... GIAC has a 30 days money back policy! I got it uploaded this morning. I noticed the difference right away. My car pulls a lot smoother and there is not more flat spot at all. The idle is smooth like butter. The rev limiter is still higher than stock, but it is a little lower than MTH... It is not a problem since I rarely go above 6k. In my opinion, GIAC has made some better tuning and research than MTH and it is obvious when you try both. GIAC is extra smooth and delivers power through the entire RPM range a lot smoother!

Here are some pics of the Forge i/c:

 

Very nice, that intercooler is huge! I went to GIAC once but they said my car fell into a weird 2004 model and they didn't have a program for it yet. BTW how much does a Forge cost?
M

 

It it 630$ from MyMINI is Florida. I installed it myself. It is very easy to install.

It's weird that GIAC doesn't have a software for you 2004 car... I am aware that 2006 are a bit harder to chip, but 2004 should not be a problem... :-(

 

It seems to be just this one part of 04, not all 04's. Strange yes, and I guess it is because my car has many 04 parts but just as many 05 ones. I have Fireballed now and I'm happy, I would be happier once I get it tuned on the dyno for my head and cam.
M

 

I agree with your satifaction of performance with your Forge ic but have you noticed a dent in your bonnet above the rear passanger corner of the ic yet?

 

The last I recall of Forge, it was not good news:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...91&postcount=8

I guess they've redesigned their IC now?

 

the forge ic that pete at myminiparts.com sells is a different ic that the forges available elsewhere. i'm not sure what the differences are, but i know that pete worked w/ forge on the development and refinement on this one.

 

the strange thing is that intercooler made a big differnce on our twin charged car. It looks like the intercooler is blocking the air flow... but it works...

I didn't test IATs but when we threw it on the dyno it definetly liked the forge intercooler. Also, you could FEEL the differnce on the street... but again this was a twin charged car

 

Isellem,
Was that before or after you broke the piston?

Bill

 

DarkminicooperS, I like mine as well. You may find that the mounting holes need to be altered slightly to move the IC foward. As Ekim suggests the IC may hit the hood.
It does not suprises me that you had that much drop in boost. I had the Forge, Alta & OE units on a Superflow, can't find the #s but the Forge had the least loss & it's almost 2x the OE. On the street ( real numbers ) I see .5 to as much as 1lb loss dependant on weather ( warm to hot ) and now with the cold dry air it is quite a bit higher. So your numbers look pretty normal. The selling point for me was the interior core design as well as the exterior fin density. I'd be interested to know how well this IC recovers from heat soak in your location since you see more than enough heat, on the street, than we have in the NE.

 

Bill,

please start working off of facts... i have never broken a piston. thanks though.

thanks for the unwarranted cut down and off topic banter. Exactly what I expect of you Mr. Bill

 

It's hard to tell heatsoak recovery because it has not been very hot in Florida for a few days now... I am looking forward to warmer temperature to test it further.

 

This car had the Forge on it durring some pretty hot days in Aug & Sept. Given the size & weight it did a pretty good job. There were not enough dry days to realy have any real world numbers so I could make an honest assement of the piece.

 

What is with that dude?(miniflop)
Whenever he shows up in a thread he doesn't bring anything constructive, just a bunch of negative comments.

 

Nice lookine piece. Any issues with spark plug accesability ?

 

Quick Note:

GIAC has files for all 2004s.

 

Yes. You need to remove the IC to get at the plugs

 

i have no idea, maybe he was breast fed too long or didn't get enough hugs as a child... at least thats what day time TV would lead you to believe.

 

 

HAHAHA, classic. . .

 

First congrats on IC - looks good. Its a beautiful unit that recieved some critisism on mounting but I know Peter worked with Forge to tweak the unit further.

ECU upgrade - you are one of the few that has first hand comparison experience. Makes me feel better about my selection . Of all the mods, ecu upgrade was the hardest for me - no comparison data and nothing to hold in your hand to compare.

lets get together soon.

 

06'? big garret fan here had his chips in my VW.

do they have it for 06' cooper's

 

I've had MTH (both the first version and Tuner) for a very long time. In fact, I was among the ver first to get it. MTH is a good ECU upgrade but it has a few cons than I did not like...

On the other hand, GIAC seems to be smoother and has worked with Eric @ Helix to fine tune it. I really like GIAC and believe it is better suited for our cars.

Don't get me wrong, both MTH and GIAC are wonderful, but GIAC feels a bit better. In my opinion, the extra $325 to change was totally worth it!

See you next week-end Bart!! Maybe I'll have the injectors and 19% pulley installed by then so that you can try it!!

 

Isellem,
Isn't this the twincharge kit you tuned?

Bill

minicoop78 vbmenu_register("postmenu_1194894", true);
4th Gear
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: phoenix
Posts: 579

Gallery
Fs twincharge kit
5000.00
Includes all pipeing injectors turbo vacuum lines etc.
Pretty much just install tune and drive.
You may want to buy pistons as well they are not included and not nessesary unless you are going for big HP.
The system has an external waistegate and the turbo is good for up too 400hp
I no longer have the time to put into this race car so that is why I am selling the kit.
The kit itself is basicly new. It has 1000k on it, which was mostly highway miles for testing.
If you want your car to be stupid fast this is for you.
Please email me as i do not get on the forum as much as I would like to.
mdcooper@gmail.com
__________________

 

Nice try...thats the twin charged kit that I built... not tuned!

again, Mr. Negativity... you continually leave the facts out... Hmm... i wonder who you are and where you get your facts from... you are an interesting enigma.

No I did not tune the car... nobody did... I (and others) tore down the car, after the crank took a walk do to the crank pulley. And then we helped source the block pistons etc to put humpty back together again...

then we Reassembled the car... What I did was build the turbo kit based off of the owners/friend ideas of how he wanted the car to perform. So we built an equal length turbo manifold, sourced the tial waste gate, built the charge pipeing, tapped the pan etc... for the turbo kit...


after we finished the car we the told the owner/friend to run only 100+ octane until we get the car to the dyno and tuned... we never saw the car again... never saw the friend/owner again until he told us that the motor blew... this has been a major dissapointment for me as we were going to use this car to chase fireball. But do to the owners budget constraints the car hasn't gone back together. I have already lost all of my time (no labor charge) and contributed about 1000 dollars to build the car...

So i was pretty upset when i heard the car had lost the motor. Especially after i offered to pay for all of the dyno time, and tune the car for free. It was worth it for me to do all of that for free to see the car run and then to run it at the track. But he never showed back up... If only he had let us go to the dyno... he wouldn't be putting in another motor, and there would be a little more action in the drag racing forum.

The owner, based off our last conversation, is sourcing pistons and is slowly putting the car back together in his own garage, and i will be tunning the car on the dyno as soon as the car gets put back together to avoid another mishap.

so there you have it... Mr. Bill...

nice try at trying to show my incompetence... why are you even on these boards????

So no... i haven't lost a motor/piston, nor did i tune the twincharged car... thats why it blew up!