[Panoz]

Its been late October that Iseriously put myself into an "intercooler upgrade research" and the truth is that this forum was my "biggest advisor". This is because there are so many people using so many different IC products that I could certainly compare and decide what is best for my car.

The problem was that everyone in this forum claims that his intercooler is the best around...so I could only check and compare specs and technical analysis (whenever existed).

I concluded to HELIX as I believe this is the best product around for the given price conditions. Even though I was determined to go on Helix the long production time as well the fact its a US product (which means custom taxes & high shipping costs) was a serious drawback for me.

So searching for an alternative solution I found out that Forge was releasing their 335i/135i Intercooler by mid-November. Everyone knows Forge and how serious they are when developing a product. Their intercoolers are famous (possobly the best) amongst the GroupVag car-owners. So without a second thought I decided to move into this direction




As seen on the pics , the product quality is amazing. This intercooler could be also sold into a jewlery shop. The welds were pretty well-made.

The OEM IC looks like a piece of garbage beside Forge Intercooler IRL



The Installation is not difficult but its not a plug n' play procedure either.
No trimming required for both 135i/335i but as you need to replace the OEM mounting collars with the Forge silicon hoses , it certainly makes the installation more time-consuming.

I didn't drive the car immediately after installation as I needed to leave it to the dealership for another 2-3 days for some other upgrades.But I had a quick run (after proper warm-up) to check if everything was right.

Despite the biggest IC size there is "zero" lag/hesitation. I was very happy about this as I initialy thought that a bigger intercooler would had this sideffect. The second thing I noticed is that the boost gauge has been hoovering to the same levels as before the installation (maybe -0.2~-0.3).
(Using Procede V3, Stage 2,Catless Dps,Hartge exhaust,etc etc etc etc)

The car felt more "spirited" on high revs...but then again...I was not sure.

When I got my car back I charged my laptop's battery and got out to check temp differences between pre-Forge runs Vs post-Forge runs.

-Pre-Forge (OEM FMIC):
Date: 2nd-Nov-09
Abient Temp: 9 deg Celcius/ 48deg F
Conditions: The second from a total of 6 pulls 3rd-4rth-5th gear to 139mph



-With Forge Intercooler:
Date: 4th-Dec-09
Abient Temp: 12 deg Celcius/ 55deg F
Conditions : 2nd pull out of 4 total pulls of 4th-5th-6th to 157mph



Unfortunately the logs are taken in Celcius (for the AIT) but translating these numbers into "F" it has been revieled that under similar circumstances (the conditions of the 2nd graph were less favorable than the first one by all means) the Forge intercooler managed to reduce the temps from 131degF (55degC) to 103deg F (40degC).

Watching on the rest of the logs (not showing here) I noticed than on further pulls with the OEM FMIC, the temps were kept increasing (5th pull reached 145.5degF) while the Forge IC at the same rate never exceeded the 100-105degF. I've noticed that at some points the temp difference was close to 22degC (48degF)!!!

Unfortunately (again) I was using different gears on every pull and as it would be unfair to compare completely different runs, I found that the 2nd run from each different graph (the one you see the above) was the most close one and fair one to communicate you here.

Please also note that the Forge IC runs, has been made with a little bit increased ,in pressure, maps (stage3).

I hope that you will find this post informative. If any questions , let me know.

[bulldog_yyc]

great review!

[Imran@Evolve]

Its nice to see a good independant review on the Forge FMIC.

We have never had a product sell out so quickly!

[ianthegreat]

good review, glad you like it!

[MuchMoore]

I'm very interested in this, thanks for the information!

[Asclepius]

WHat was the cost on this system? Any front view pics?

[Imran@Evolve]

There are more details including dyno graphs and pictures here Forge FMIC

[ToadHollow]

Great review! Thanks

[import36]

nice review bud!

[Craig@SupremePower]

nice review..

[Panoz]

Thanks for your kind comments guys. I'm really happy you found this useful.

I'm happy to see that the promises of Forge Motorsport where true.Whatever they promised me before buying the IC has been confirmed from the logs. The local distributor & FM theirselves were very helpful.

[burberry]

price on this thing?

[Imran@Evolve]

We currently have them on an introductory forum offer for $1050 shipped the US. More details are in the Sponsor Classified section.

[Mr. 5]

It's nice to see that more and more products are coming out.
The better the options then better the products tend to be.

[Panoz]

Originally Posted by Mr. 5

It's nice to see that more and more products are coming out.
The better the options then better the products tend to be.

Yes of course...competition always benefits the end-consumer.
Forge Motorsport is a big name on tunning market...I'm happy that their IC worked out so well for me.

[vladster]

I got one of these babys at home. It is not yet mounted, but it looks sweet and it is professionaly made. Welds are perfect, instructions are well made. Just waiting for spring to come

[jale france]

how did you do to have the temperature in degrees Celsius on the log ?

[Panoz]

I will pm you how to do it later in the day ,when i get access to my laptop.
Its easy.

Still trying to find a way to adjust the oil/coolant temp to Celsius though.

[jale france]

Originally Posted by Panoz

I will pm you how to do it later in the day ,when i get access to my laptop.
Its easy.

Still trying to find a way to adjust the oil/coolant temp to Celsius though.

Ok thanks, for "the oil/coolant temp to celsius" or "road speed in km / h" I'm interested too

[jale france]

up

[Catahecassa]

have my Forge installed and did some longer VMax runs in german autobahn. Oil temp never got over 120 Celsius at 18 Celsius degrees. A week before same road, a bit lower temperature, oil temp got up to 132 Celsius. So for me it a quick win for oil temperature and power up

[jale france]

Nice ! Post the log