[TDIwyse]

Well, was wanting a little margin on the turbo compressor map at the top end. Reducing pressure drop across the intercooler seemed like a good place to start. Wanted something that would get ride of the OEM connections due to the small diameter/necked down and ridged shape. This ruled out the Wagner 335d specific direct fit IC. But it does take more fussing around to get things to fit when eliminating the oem connectors.

So I decided to give this IC a try. Like the smooth cast end caps and better flowing connectors. The OEM intercooler weights ~ 7 lbs, this unit was ~16 lbs. The makers said the newer 5 inch stepped IC has lower pressure drop than the predecessor 5 inch non-stepped version, and also less pressure drop than their 7 inch version. I'm not concerned about the 7 inchers better cooling capability due to the use of water/methanol. But I couldn't find any flow testing on it.

To see if there would be less drop, I made a redneck pressure drop test setup with what I had available ... a 170 mph 5.25hp shop vac creates the flow (not anything close to what the car pulls, but it was a way to verify reduced pressure drop ...) and some tubing and a 1/8 npt adapter taped into the shop vac hose end.

Well, this crude setup shows what looks like a significant reduction at the very low flow the shop vac could produce.

Haven't test driven things yet as the post office didn't come through with a delivery item I need (their "tracking" still shows expected delivery on this past Friday...). Everything is hooked up and ready except the intake side which needs this one item to give me just a bit more length. Hopefully the USPS can get it delivered sometime this week...

This will probably be the last mod ...

Edit: JR now has a package put together utilizing this intercooler option.
http://chiptuning.ca/#http://chiptun...log/2/54/55/53

[iaknown]

Looks pretty...

[GottaBeKD]

Very cool. Now add some red scoops for the intake if the post office doesn't come through.

[Puerto Rican 335d]

Why not the Wagner Intercooler it the most easy plug and play made specifically for our cars. And yeah the red scoops will help flow better air in the oem air intake

[2deerwhistlers]

Here we go with that last mod crap again.. I'm thinking big single turbo..

[Sgop335]

Kudos to op, something like what i would do. But i may just use a digital pressure gage.

We talk about this intercooler crap all the time so interesting info. Reserve making a call for now.

Doesnt the leaf blower put out like 200 cfm?, which is not that low.

Nevermind its a shop vac. Results with a leaf blower could work.

[BB_cuda]

Trying to understand the redneck setup. I follow 2 of 3 labels. The lowest one that is in blue. Is this just the shop vac blowing directly into atmospheric pressure air i.e. open duct?

[TDIwyse]

Originally Posted by BB_cuda

Trying to understand the redneck setup. I follow 2 of 3 labels. The lowest one that is in blue. Is this just the shop vac blowing directly into atmospheric pressure air i.e. open duct?

The lower one the tape measure is using as the "reference" is the vacuum point when sucking tube is not connected to anything ... so it's in open air ... but due to the amount of air rushing into the tube it still shows a vacuum.

Regarding using the shop vac versus leaf blower... I wasn't sure how much pressure drop the test was going to have, and I had limited time, and I didn't know if the leaf blower would start since it was -10F the morning when I was doing this test. However, I found this interesting:

http://www.flowperformance.com/faq.html#bookmark28

What shop vac should I use for a Flow Performance Basic Electronic Flow Bench
A 5 HP or higher shop vac is recommended, but not required. Much lower HP vacs will work just as well for smaller jobs. You will want a shop vac that uses 2" hose, and if you will be doing exhaust port testing, a blower port. A blower port is used to connect your 2" hose to the shop vac to use as a leaf blower, and is useful to use for exhaust port testing. Not all shop vacs have a blower port. You will find some shop vacs offer very high velocities on their blower ports. These higher velocity blower port models will probably give you the highest test pressures and flow volumes for flow testing. Recommended Shop Vacs

Can I use a leaf blower or dust collection blower for an air source
Shop vacs will give you the best all around performance for cylinder head flow testing. But if you are only interested in very high flow rates at low test pressures (large carbs, intercoolers or intercooler plumbing, air filter testing or exhaust manifolds for instance), a blower may give you a bit more flow volume, but only at low test pressures. Upgrading the FE2.0 to a FE2.5 or FE3.0 may be recommended too. For instance, a blower may give you 250cfm @ 6"wc, but only 8"wc @ 50cfm, while a shop vac may produce 35"wc or more at 50cfm. A shop vac will work better than a blower for low valve lifts on cylinder heads. A leaf or dust collector blower may only be able to produce a maximum pressure of 8"wc or less. An industrial blower will give you the test pressures you need and the flow volume, but these blowers are very expensive and require large amounts of power.

Rican, I wasn't going to fuss with upgrading an intercooler that kept the sub optimum oem connections. They, themselves, are a significant restriction. For example, look at Wagner's own test data and see that their higher flowing IC's get rid of the OEM connections and have less pressure drop.

[DWR]

Originally Posted by TDIwyse

Well, this crude setup shows what looks like a significant reduction at the very low flow the shop vac could produce.

Looks like the pressure dropped @ 30%. That's about a 20% increase in flow. Hmm, sounds like a little more air at top end ...

Originally Posted by TDIwyse

This will probably be the last mod ...

Man, I hope not. After this it can only get crazy.
Can nitrous be far behind? haha

[iaknown]

Make sure you do the candle test on the outlet to get accurate measurements.....

[Built4Sin]

I just here to watch TDIwyse live out my modding fantasies!

[Puerto Rican 335d]

TDI just messing w u as usual but frankly speaking I do understand what your saying. But I've suggested those guys that live in Nothern states really dont need and IC even so if the have the Meth kit the OEM is better but you on the contrary I do understand you want more power as i did. Hope this works well for you amigo please keep us informed i want to see break the 11 second barrier so I can talk smack to the gassers down here ok

[Puerto Rican 335d]

Jess did you do what you told me you were going to do, call me

[TDIwyse]

Originally Posted by TDIwyse

Haven't test driven things yet as the post office didn't come through with a delivery item I need (their "tracking" still shows expected delivery on this past Friday...). Everything is hooked up and ready except the intake side which needs this one item to give me just a bit more length. Hopefully the USPS can get it delivered sometime this week...

Well, this sucks. USPS Finally updated their tracking and it's just now left NY. It shipped out of AZ last Tuesday ... teach me not to trust the government run mail service.

[Hoooper]

Interested to see what you are going to do with the connectors at the turbo and the outlet side

[Ajs_435d]

Originally Posted by TDIwyse

Well, was wanting a little margin on the turbo compressor map at the top end. Reducing pressure drop across the intercooler seemed like a good place to start. Wanted something that would get ride of the OEM connections due to the small diameter/necked down and ridged shape. This ruled out the Wagner 335d specific direct fit IC. But it does take more fussing around to get things to fit when eliminating the oem connectors.

So I decided to give this IC a try. Like the smooth cast end caps and better flowing connectors. The OEM intercooler weights ~ 7 lbs, this unit was ~16 lbs. The makers said the newer 5 inch stepped IC has lower pressure drop than the predecessor 5 inch non-stepped version, and also less pressure drop than their 7 inch version. I'm not concerned about the 7 inchers better cooling capability due to the use of water/methanol. But I couldn't find any flow testing on it.

To see if there would be less drop, I made a redneck pressure drop test setup with what I had available ... a 170 mph 5.25hp shop vac creates the flow (not anything close to what the car pulls, but it was a way to verify reduced pressure drop ...) and some tubing and a 1/8 npt adapter taped into the shop vac hose end.

Well, this crude setup shows what looks like a significant reduction at the very low flow the shop vac could produce.

Haven't test driven things yet as the post office didn't come through with a delivery item I need (their "tracking" still shows expected delivery on this past Friday...). Everything is hooked up and ready except the intake side which needs this one item to give me just a bit more length. Hopefully the USPS can get it delivered sometime this week...

This will probably be the last mod ...

Good effort always like reading your modification threads and how you back up claims/findings.

Thanks

[TDIwyse]

Thanks for those kind words ajs.

Hooper, for the hot side, and because the extra pieces I ordered hadn't shown up and was getting impatient ... I improvised a solution with the "kit" parts. The vrsf kit was for a 335i and had some clamps, some silicone adapters, and a nice 2.5" aluminum 90 degree tube.

I kept the stock connection to the hot side (that's a little tricky getting the plastic piece off that goes over the metal band), as there was no "lip" on the turbo output... and I kind of liked the metal interface due to the heat in that location. I noticed that the aluminum tube flared end should fit nicely in the "groove" of the oem red boost tube and would allow for a secure clamp attachment... so I cut off the end, keeping a few groves in place to allow some movement, and then cut some of the aluminum tubing to fit inside that. The other end of that goes to the intake of the IC and uses the kit 2.75 to 2.5 straight adapter to joint the path. The attached pic might help explain the connection better (none of the clamps are on in this pic ... just doing a test fit).

The pieces I'm waiting on are ~ 2 inch long 2.25" and 2.5" diameter aluminum flared pieces and a longer 2.75 to 2.25 90 deg reducer ... the 2.5" inch double flared piece wouldn't worked well here on the hot side. The cut piece I have in there now is not flared on the end going to the IC, but there's more than an inch of length inside the silicone coupler and there's not a lot of room for movement ... hoping it won't pop out. If it does I'll replace it with the 2.5" double end flared piece - assuming USPS eventually delivers it.

The 90 deg coupler on the intake side just isn't tall enough on the "up" side. I'm about 1 inch short there. I need the longer 90 deg reducer and/or the 2.25" short double flared adapter, but again, wasn't delivered...

[BB_cuda]

Originally Posted by TDIwyse

Well, this sucks. USPS Finally updated their tracking and it's just now left NY. It shipped out of AZ last Tuesday ... teach me not to trust the government run mail service.

I'm always disappointed when I pay for shipping and later find out it is USPS. The tracking really bites. I've had the same experience of its supposed to be here Thursday and it arrives the following Monday. This held up my EGR cooler bypass this last summer. Neither the rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor dark of night ..... perhaps blame it on the weather but you shouldn't have to.
I will give them credit that I saw postal vehicles running 7 days a week during Christmas time and as late as 7:30 at night.

[Hoooper]

Originally Posted by TDIwyse

I kept the stock connection to the hot side (that's a little tricky getting the plastic piece off that goes over the metal band), as there was no "lip" on the turbo output... and I kind of liked the metal interface due to the heat in that location. I noticed that the aluminum tube flared end should fit nicely in the "groove" of the oem red boost tube and would allow for a secure clamp attachment... so I cut off the end, keeping a few groves in place to allow some movement, and then cut some of the aluminum tubing to fit inside that. The other end of that goes to the intake of the IC and uses the kit 2.75 to 2.5 straight adapter to joint the path. The attached pic might help explain the connection better (none of the clamps are on in this pic ... just doing a test fit).

So you left the OEM connection at the turbo outlet? Then you cut the red hose, clamped it to the black aluminum pipe in the picture, and used a silicon reducer to adapt that aluminum tube to the intercooler inlet?

Originally Posted by TDIwyse

The 90 deg coupler on the intake side just isn't tall enough on the "up" side. I'm about 1 inch short there. I need the longer 90 deg reducer and/or the 2.25" short double flared adapter, but again, wasn't delivered...

On the IC outlet youre just planning to remove the elbow from the OEM tube and connect the longer elbow/reducer to the tube?

Always tough to try and interpret a word description. Im sure you will take some pictures of the connections once its all buttoned up like you always do so Im not to worried about it yet.

[TDIwyse]

Originally Posted by Hoooper

So you left the OEM connection at the turbo outlet? Then you cut the red hose, clamped it to the black aluminum pipe in the picture, and used a silicon reducer to adapt that aluminum tube to the intercooler inlet?

Correct.

Originally Posted by Hoooper

On the IC outlet youre just planning to remove the elbow from the OEM tube and connect the longer elbow/reducer to the tube?

Correct. Was careful when cutting the band so as not to cut through the OEM hose underneath. It's a 2.25" diameter connection. So need to adapt from 2.75 to 2.25. The kit came with a 2.75 to 2.5. Was able to make that work with a spare piece of 2.25 silicone hose cut off to increase the diameter to 2.5 and it clamped down nice and tight and solid ... But the provided kit 90 degree reducer is just a little too short in the up direction.

Originally Posted by Hoooper

Always tough to try and interpret a word description. Im sure you will take some pictures of the connections once its all buttoned up like you always do so Im not to worried about it yet.

Yes, I'm planning on doing that. "When", I do not know. I bought another 90 deg reducer this morning with overnight shipping ... the california shipped 90 deg reducer that was ordered 2 Saturday's ago, picked up by USPS last Tuesday, just left California this morning. They're blaming weather for the delay. Hooper, was there bad weather in California this past week?

[Hoooper]

Great thanks for the clarification

Originally Posted by TDIwyse

They're blaming weather for the delay. Hooper, was there bad weather in California this past week?

Heck no, at least not around here. It lightly rained a couple weeks ago, and has been sunny ever since. I was wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts last weekend

[Sgop335]

Yea, leaf blowers cant handle much pressure. But 1.5 psi or so is ok. The flow drops rapidly beyond that. I would love to try a lb on an ic. I did it once on a cp. If you have a p-q curve for the lb will be cool, but thats a mfr thing.