These are new items from Forge Motorsports. I will post pictures first of the install and then follow up with my thoughts on them.

Install pics"

 

Take a pic of Forge IC through the hood scoop with the hood closed. Looks like it blocks over half of the scoop. That's not a good thing.

 

Had to wait for the thread to appear to add the rest of the pics.

 

 

The mod list on the car is:
Alta intake
Alta 15% pulley
Atla Cat back
Forge Intercooler
MTH Tuning Ecu Flash
Forge Carbon Fiber Hood scoop
Alta 22mm sway bar


First off the intercooler:
Its a gorgeous piece. roughly 100% larger than the stock unit. That translates to over 40% volumetric increase. Heat soak after hard running is a thing of the past. We got on it hard and where the stock IC would soak out and performance would decrease the Forge unit did not suffer this problem. In fact the car feels as strong after hard running as it did right after it warms up and the ecu settles into normal driving mode. Another thing is it physically feel cooler to the touch after extended driving around. For any of you road racer/drag racer/autocross/hard driving types this is a highly worth while mod.

Now for the wierd side effect. We are running the latest software for the ecu from MINI. The one with the idle problem. Well since we installed the IC a few weeks ago it is GONE. And by gone i mean COMPLETELY GONE. Nada, zip, zilch, zero, rough idle now. I am going to talk to Sean at DT Mini in a few weeks when the next sercive is due and see his thoughts on this. IMHO it coudl be due to the vastly superior flow capabilities of the Forge IC. Notice you can actually see through it. Tru looking through the stocker It ain't gonna happen. My guess is at certain points their is not enough air into the engine for the motor to maintain a smooth idle. This causes a rich condition and a stumble. You can reproduce this effect wiht a a/f controller and richening it up. Did in on my eclipse to test that the A/F Controller was working correctly. This is a great mod and IMHO if you are running a pulley its a must have especially if its bigger than 19% where heat really starts to become an issue.

There are no dyno numbers on it at this point but the plan is to go to the dyno with the stock IC on, do 5 or so runs, swap them and do 5 or so runs wiht the Forge unit and see what the results are.

Hood scoop:

What can i say it looks bad *** and the fitament is great. We need to get a black honey comb style grill to go with it now tho.

More to come

 

It blocks of some of the inlet yes, but its impossible to upgrade the IC wiht out doing that. However, air is a fluid and it will flow around obscales placed in front of it. The only thing i want to add is a diverter to force some additional air down on the IC> I am working wiht Forge on that right now. I am also interested in adding a sprayer set up like the Alta one has.

 

Did you used to have a VW 1.8T and hang out on Vortex?

 

Unless things have changed, this was the last view I saw a few weeks back:



https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...highlight=Moss

 

Agreed, and not ALL Bigger I/C's on the market do this.....

 

Air IS a fluid, but turbulence in a fluid effectively reduces efficiency by causing vortices. This effectively reduces the size of the yet already reduced path even more. An IC is only as good as the air flow over it. After a certain point, the surface area will be too large to be effectively cooled with the given air flowing.

 

Neffarious, you're new to the board, and I don't want to pile on, but the statement quoted above is not accurate. The GRS and Alta are both significant upgrades, and neither one blocks the inlet. Some have even noted that the GRS sits below the inlet in their installs.

 

I recently picked-up a GRS IC via an accidental double order (somone needed to off-load it), and I'll be installing it this weekend. From what I can tell so far, it will not block ambient flow at all. It has been discussed that a major limiting factor in the IC's ability to cool is capturing sufficient air, and getting it directed through it. Along with a larger opening (M7 scoop), and a well-designed, larger IC, I'm expecting a nice little performance bump. I'll include photos of the hood open, and closed . I'll have some IATs to compare to stock...

 

Nope, The mini is my fiance's and i have an 05 STi and used to ahv a turbo charged 2000 eclipse

 

Check this picture out - its hte head one one. This is the second generation of the IC. It sits about 1/2 inch higher than stock. with a foam sea/diverter you can direct the air across the IC prettyeasily. And like has been mentioned previously it doens't block the plugs.

 

I'm on my second Forge IC now. The first had 1.95mm thick mounting tabs and they broke off causing the IC to sit lower (where it should?). Forge was kind enough to send me a second generation unit that has 3.0mm thick mounting tabs with beefier welding. This new unit seems to sit slightly lower than the last.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the product. I bought 1" thick weather sealing foam and made my own seal around the unit (under the bonnet). It has been 90 to 95 degrees everyday here for the past few weeks and my MINI feels just as strong as it did when it was 75 to 80 out.

 

Hey where did you put the weather stripping? I may do this this weekend as a intermediate step (or permanant one) until a diverter is made

 

My prediction is your intercooler efficiency has dropped from about 70% stock to about 50% with this Forge intercooler blocking half the airflow. I have done instrumented testing with a similar unit and got an average of 45% efficiency. Simply put, air will definitely choose another path with your scoop blocked like that. The result is worse performance than stock.

 

I followed the outline under the bonnet where the stock plastic diverter used to be.

When I spoke to Forge Motorsports I raised concern about the height of this unit and how it blocks the scoop opening. They purposefully raised the unit up off the intake manifold to get it "away from engine block heat." They did not mention any plans for a diverter.

I plan on making my own diverter or switching over to a water cooled unit eventually.

 

Well that at this point is speculation, a similar unit != this one. I have every intention on doing tests in the next few weeks i just need to find the time to do it.

 

I have a bit of an "in" with Forge We'll see what happens.

 

Here's how to test:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=23248

You may want to think about think about this statement you made earlier:

Why wouldn't you tape off half your intercooler scoop opening if this were the case? How about lodging a cardboard box in the scoop?

 

You dog!

Can you perform two sets of IATS? Stock intercooler vs. GRS and GRS with stock scoop vs. GRS with the Jimmy Durante Proboscis?

 

What's wrong wiht the statement? You either have to go up or towards the firewall. The tape/box is an assanine statement. What was the point of even making it. There is a huge difference between blocking off yoru air flow completely and putting the intercooler in the middle of it. Also there are a quite a few cars that use a SMIC with no venting and it works just fine for stock or close to stock boost levels. Perhaps you have heard of them? The supra, the 3kgt Vr4, the Mitsu eclipse 1g & 2g, just to name a few. All your comments are speculation as are your statistcis so why not wait for me to produce some real numbers instead of jumpin on the new guy like the salem witch hunters ?

 

Whoa, easy there! Welcome to NAM. No need to get all testy, I was just explaining to you the testing that I did and the results I found. Please post your results when you have them.

 

Indeed. I already did a nice 15 minute canyon run with the stock IC last week. When I left the house, the ambient temp, per the MINI's tach display was 101 F. It went up to 102 for a high, and 99 for a low during my run, pretty much an average of 100 degrees...

GRS goes on later today (or tomorrow morn), and if I see ambient temps near 100, I'll do the same run. I get the hood scoop early next week, and will do likewise.

Back to the this Forge unit... Maybe on a dyno, with the hood open, it will yield nice gains with a fan blowing down on it. But, with it's body inhibiting the cool ambient air that would otherwise go through another IC, I can't imagine it being very efficient. I was pretty intrigued intially, but when I saw how it blocks the hood scoop's inlet... it became much easier for me to rule-out as a viable contender.