Those ICs can be cleaned when removed (pretty thoroughly) in soaked in a solution, I forget what is used, but I remember it being super strong. I also grabbed a new JCW air diverter plate while still available, it’s about the only Gen1 JCW gel logo available, and like OB, we’ll both be tucking one of those RMW ICs underneath, for the money shot 👍

 

Aluminum has fantastic thermal conductivity - raw aluminum, that is. Not saying that aluminum is the absolutely best material for a heatsink. but it is a damn good one. Coating it with something may lessen its thermal abilities. Dunno. I would want to see data on the thermal conductivity of the coating...

 

We're drifting (4-wheels fun style) further from the original topic, however I have both OEM IC plus cover plate in cart from the mentioned BMW dealer as well as RMW's OEM IC with heat dispersant coating likewise in cart there. I'm conflicted with my W-2-A IC being essentially in new condition plus uniqueness vs total costs of replacement with an A-2-A IC. Shipping cost from that dealer is (IMO) excessively high ($76+) and cost for RMW's IC isn't cheap. Each checkout cart provides an option to enter promo discount coupon but none found. Haven't reached for my CC and unsure I will. R&R time to swap injectors (for me) is likely a 1-time only task, so no sense replacing simply for that aspect. Also noting, the W-2-A IC is it's own closed system which isn't likely to heat soak during "normal" driving conditions. Good reading and considerations here, regardless...

 

No doubt that it has the *pop!* and looks kewl.

When I first got my car I noticed that I had a good bit of oil/residue built up in my i/c and used straight acetone to clean it --- I just sloshed it around in it though, since then I've read that soaking it overnight is the way to go?

The most super strong harsh chemical I've ever used was aircraft stripper and man did it do the trick! Thing is tho that I was young and dumb and using it indoors at my 1bdrm hipster beatnik apartment LOL I was hallucinating by the end of it, but damn did those wheels turn out great! A set of old ratty Saab Shelby minilites that needed serious resto, stripping the original paint and getting a good surface for refinishing gave them a lifespan longevity. I ran them for about a decade and they still looked great after all that time. As they always say "good prep is the key" and it ain't no lie.

That aircraft stripper tho, the smell dense in the air, slightly stinging my eyes, getting wobbly-headed, an experience I'll never forget haha


Realistically, from my reading on the subject, I'm expecting a 2 or 3 degree drop in IAT --- anything beyond that is super bonus.

I'm really curious to see if it makes a noticeable impact in the feels too, like how much it may help with heat soak --- I've touched my i/c after some spirited runs and had to quickly draw back my hand because it was so hot, so along with the Scangauge that'll be another dumb cro-mag 'test' that I'll be doing! LOL

It'd sure be great to have solid empirical data, but testing in an accurate manner is quite difficult.

Always neat to see such stuff tho,
like this thread testing 5 different i/c's...

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ing-tests.html

"I have to say that it was really fun doing this. It was very cool watching the temps and seeing how differently the intercoolers were. One thing came very clear to us early on. Testing is far from easy... so many variables to consider. We tried to make everything as consistent and repeatable as possible.

Anyway, I hope this info is able to help more than hinder. Looking at the graphs and numbers you'll be able to see the intercoolers that actually cooled the air. Pretty cool stuff. I want to thank Peter from M7 for lending me his testing equipment. I also want to thank those of you that let me use your intercoolers! Thanks everyone"

Chart for the GRS i/c from that thread:




Yeah, it can be a difficult process mentally, weighing all the different options to try and come to a final conclusion, I can offer no advice except to say do whatever makes you happy!

I had sorta the same dilemma when choosing mid-range coilovers because there are so many choices and it wore on me in a frustrating manner, because yeah I can do research and read opinions, but that was also the germ of this thread --- reading popular opinion convinced me that a non-res exhaust wouldn't be too much volume for me, but it actually was and I only learned that through direct experience, so it's difficult when dealing with such a wide range of subjective perception to pare it all down in accordance to what you think will be in alignment with your own interpretations.

Coilover opinions are all over the place even moreso than exhaust opinions, plus I'm a total noob, so clueless because I've never owned a car with them installed since I drove a mid 80's Saab from 1991-2018 that used regular old A-arms, springs, and shocks. But I wanted adjustability --- if asked what my favorite mod so far has been then I'd say the IE fixed plates because they gave me such visceral good feels seat-o-the-pants blast, and ultimately decided that I might need a bit more on that front so went all-in to splurge on coilovers with adj. top plates.

 

Would even a 20 or 30 degree drop in IAT's have much of an effect on power generated?

I think about the difference between an early spring or winter rip and a summer one. I am sure the engine is producing more power because of temperature-gas-density differences in the air charge between cold and hot days. Can I feel that difference? I don't think so.... now if you're talking about track type stuff - I don't know enough about that to weigh in.

 

Now I'm in a mood of waxing philosophically and for whatever reason the concept of "value" cycling through my mind this morning has reminded me of a book that I read long ago.

Think I'm gonna dig it out and give it a good re-read as the topic is resonating with me. One of the main characters is a BMW product so then that's there which wasn't the last time I read it in my younger days, also curious to determine if I gauge it to be "profound" like I did back then, or if I see it as "psychobabble nonsense" in light of my hard-earned wisdom from having more years under my belt.

Another topic in line with my own interests in that book since I am primarily a B-road bomber,
is the twisty bits...

:

"Secondary roads are preferred. Paved county roads are the best, state highways are next. Freeways are the worst. We want to make good time, but for us now this is measured with emphasis on "good" rather than "time" and when you make that shift in emphasis the whole approach changes. Twisting hilly roads are long in terms of seconds but are much more enjoyable on a cycle where you bank into turns and don't get swung from side to side in any compartment. Roads with little traffic are more enjoyable, as well as safer. Roads free of drive-ins and billboards are better, roads where groves and meadows and orchards and lawns come almost to the shoulder, where kids wave to you when you ride by, where people look from their porches to see who it is, where when you stop to ask directions or information the answer tends to be longer than you want rather than short, where people ask where you're from and how long you've been riding.It was some years ago that my wife and I and our friends first began to catch on to these roads. We took them once in a while for variety or for a shortcut to another main highway, and each time the scenery was grand and we left the road with a feeling of relaxation and enjoyment. We did this time after time before realizing what should have been obvious: these roads are truly different from the main ones. The whole pace of life and personality of the people who live along them are different. They're not going anywhere."

:

My copy of that book is an old battered paperback which looks like this:

 

For me personally,
the feels outweigh the hard data.

One is felt seat-o-pants, the other is an abstract concept, yes it is in actuality the most realistic approach toward achieving the most efficient answer which can be pointed to as concrete evidence, but in the real world how many of us are equipped with a barrage of scientific instruments to measure all the various variants in order to determine which is best suited for our individual usage?

For example,
in the linked i/c test above,
the tester wrote:

:

"Just some observations for each intercooler.

-Stock- It cools just fine, as you can see it gets hot fast but it cools of just as fast. We saw temps dip below ambient when cruising

-GRS- Did fantastic across the board, cooled well and recovered well

-Alta- This thing got hot and stayed hot. I think there are design flaws that hinder the cooling capability. The front of the intercooler sits so close to the hood scoop there is no direct path for it to flow thru the bottom part of the IC (I have pictures of the fitment on my camera at home I'll post later)

-Forge- This intercooler cooled well. The weird thing about it was temps at the manifold stayed high between 130-140 even on the freeway.

-M7- Does not cool as well as stock but seemed to recover well. The cars response felt snappier than the others"

:

If it was me,
sans testing data and just driving each example, I'd no doubt choose the M7 because it simply "felt snappier" and then if confronted with black&white numbers that indicated it wasn't actually very efficient, then damn them because I don't really care! LOL

Like,
have a look at the numerous 200tw tire tests --- say one makes a 0.5 second faster lap, but the other has better feedback --- a hardcore racer in search of microseconds would likely choose the faster rubber and sacrifice feedback qualities in order to stay competitive, but in a normal real world daily driving environment the rubber with more feedback would be more valuable in my opinion.

Okay, now I'm really rambling and will terminate this trajectory before poetry versus prose becomes a topic of discussion!

 

In other news,
the Scorpion has successfully landed ashore!

How 'bout some vintage proggy rocksong in celebration...


...but it ain't Charon who'll be filling my sails,
Aeolus instead will be puffing the goodstuff!



Hopefully though, I will have good fortune
and the Gods will favor me!

 

So many great posts! Love that you brought up ZATAOMM! One of my favorite books as an angsty teenager; became the intro for my love of beatniks and my own 'journey of a man in search of himself.'

On the IC; I remember reading the tests back when they did them and my take away then was to basically leave your stock one in the car and if you had the cash, go GP. There was a large contingent of M7 fanboys that would literally buy every part by them and were rabid supporters of their strangely designed intercooler, which ended up not cooling as well as all the marketing said it would and it became a flame fest. Then they sold this gel thing that sat underneath the intercooler to potentially stop all the heat from heat soaking the intercooler. Was it the AGS? I always remember them having the best names and subsequent abbreviations for all their parts.

Whineorwalnuts i think was his name took two stock intercoolers and basically cut them up to resemble the GP intercooler. I think he used JB weld, so am unsure if it was 100% leak proof, but if you could locate a bunch of used oem intercoolers, find a good welder, you could make a bunch of reproductions of the GP for cheap! That's always been my thought if my GP intercooler ever sprung a leak.

 

Did you replace your shifter cables too? Any change to the shifter mechanism on the transmission?
Reason I ask is i've basically rebuilt the entire transmission linkage from the shifter to the transmission in my GP, and I still have a little side to side play with my shifter - I too put in a cravenspeed short shifter. Did the plastic retainer improve or decrease the play side to side? I've worked out that basically the issue is in the play of the shifter box; the hardest and most expensive idea is to just replace the entire shifter box, but if I can just do the craven shifter collar; it would be great.

 

Yes, brand new cables installed.

No changes to the mechanism except using a brand new weight + bushings,
did however consider deleting that part altogether tho,
made a thread on the topic,
but you've already seen it and
added a helpful comment there:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...elete-mod.html

:

The CravenSpeed retainer is adjustable via those set-screws and varying degrees of torque to them does affect the modulation, did not specifically look out for changes in side-to-side play although I did distinctly notice that the overall feel was much more "tight n' right".

Re: "shifter box" --- the little black square bushing can make a big difference if you're talking about the shifter weight mechanism.

https://www.detroittuned.com/mini-co...guide-bushing/

I compared my old one to the new one and it was definitely worn with a fairly severe groove.




Duh.

Oh wait,
I just comprehended that you're talking about the shifter box itself, I misinterpreted what you were referencing and went off on another tangent LOL --- but yeah, if that's worn or cracked, reckon it'd get a sloppy feel.

This thread happened recently regards to the little arm bush that's hard-to-get nowadays...

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...shing-r53.html

If not that small bush,
then perhaps the larger one holding the pivot ball...



Unsure if there any other components involved with the shifter box assembly that would cause excessive play?

 

Spotted this video on a closing BaT auction this afternoon, which is a very interesting method of removing baked-on grease and grime:

 

Yeah,
those dry ice blasters are rad to the max!

Makes quick work of a tedious job.

Very expensive to buy, cheapest one I found on quick search was at Amazon for $3,400.

But they do rent them out...

https://www.sunbeltrentals.com/equip...ce-blaster-40/

...recently did a dirty deep clean when I changed my clutch and had everything tore apart with easy access, did it old school with degreaser and brake cleaner and scrubbing and polishing etc etc

Having a dry ice blaster would have made the process much more pleasant, like magic!

 

Reading a magazine in my leisure time as I often do, took note of this bloke who had cut an access hole in his Airtec ---



...it's something that crossed my mind too when I was contemplating getting one.

I really like that 'ramp' on front, but how much fun would it be to bleed coolant? Or change your T-map?

In my case I might be able to fit a slim long-reach wrench in there because early on I was disgusted with the messy method that BMW engineered and swapped my cap out for a proper bleeder. A very small mod, but one that makes a big difference for me when doing coolant, attach a clear hose to it and let it bleed bubbles, no more splish-splash bath!



Also in that picture, struck me curious as I've seen it done a good few times, are those holes drilled in top of the rad support --- what is the purpose there?

Are they access holes too?

 

:

A future reader who clicks here hoping they've found the ultimate trick to enhance supercharger whine:

:

 

Just browsing FB this morning as I have my cuppa joe...

...always gotta check out the cars for sale ads even if they're overseas just because I like seeing what little touches people may have added.

Saw this one and thought @MCS4FUN might enjoy a peep since it's BEP,
so saved the pix ~






I like how the owner had custom gel sill strips made up,
indicating its nickname as 'The Grape'.

 

Another FB post

RE:
notoriously poor design of BMW coolant systems

BMW is indeed notorious for having not only badly designed coolant systems, but also their use of sub-par quality parts which are guaranteed to fail at some point much earlier than is usual with other manufacturers, at some juncture in BMW's timeline it seems like the beancounters gained top priority over the engineers?

Coming from long-term Saab ownership where I was very appreciative of the Swedes' thoughtful engineering, the Germans seem to do some things quite crudely.

Given though, the example here looks to be more a case of owner neglect,
and perhaps even using an incorrect coolant?

It appears it may have been yellow/orange?

When I first got my car it had the regular green stuff in it, which yes I know it's all okay hunky dory to use it, but I myself much prefer to keep it "factory correct" and use the blue Zerex G48.





:

:

:

:

Source of all that accumulated build-up?

Water pump weep hole!

 

Proof that FB is a blackhole time bandit,
I'm still browsing there.

Saw this though and the color-match to the above coolant leak post prompted me to include the images here.

 

Looks like a very nice example in BEP/PH. First one I've seen with matching dash panels and gotta love those Euro-only Recaros!

That orange coolant is likely premix noting that's what BRP specs (same color) vs 50/50 for Can-Am ATVs/UTVs like mine with Austrian Rotax engines.

 

Looks like dexcool residue lol

 

8 day delivery time on this big bulky item all the way across the pond, pretty damn quick!

Will install it either today or tomorrow, most likely tomorrow as I have various errands going on at the moment.

As promised, will also weigh each 3 systems.

Also,
here's a pic of the STW slash cut tip -




- I was never a big fan of the rolled-edge Monaco tips that Scorp also offers (but I've never seen them in person either) and when looking for pics of the STW tips I couldn't find many examples out there that weren't just factory promo commercial images, but from 'real life' --- must say that they're great and I'm totally stoked on the way they look.

 

Ended up doing it today.

Got the Milltek off and about to put the Scorpion on.

Before that though, I had to pause for weighing.

The JCW was unwieldly and difficult to weigh due to big long mid-pipe being welded instead of clamped.

Regardless,
here's the weights that I measured:

JCW - 44.3 lbs.

Scorpion - 34.1 lbs.

Milltek - 30.5 lbs.

notes:
1 lb. of the Scorpion's weight was in the clamps of which 6 are required
JCW and Scorp both resonated, Milltek non-resonated

 

Couple more minor notes.

Although I don't live in the rustbelt, I always like to use nickel anti-seize on slip-joints and bolts,
just makes it so much easier if ever in need of removal.



These gaskets seem to be pretty awesome, but won't have total faith until time-tested as this is the first that I've used them, initially with the Milltek which required 2, and now with the Scorp which only needs 1 --- in the short miles that I drove with the Milltek they made a great seal and if they keep that seal over the years then I'll become a true believer.

 

Yet another note.

Top on top.

Milltek vs. Scorpion

Back boxes on the Scorp are a good bit larger than the Milltek,
closer in size to JCW but not quite that big.

A happy medium?
I do hope so!



Pic below:

left: Scorpion

right: Milltek





:

90mm STW tips are larger than Milltek which seem to be 76mm,
hopefully they will fit well with no fettling,
I'm about to find out!