Gearhead Intercooler Review

SM105K · February 18, 2019, 08:37:23 AM

Quote from: StealBlueSho on February 18, 2019, 08:31:55 AM
Quote from: sm105k on February 18, 2019, 08:28:04 AM
I am seeing roughly the same number drops across the board as SBS said. In 65 degree weather heat soaked full pull stock IC I was seeing 135-145 IAt2's. With the new GH IC, the temps dipped to 89 degrees......

The new GH IC is in and it is WORTH EVERY DAMN PENNY! It dropped my IAT2's in the same weather 45 to 50 degrees. It lowered my boost pressure, and the car was crab walking in the 1st to 2nd gear shift. If you are on the fence, jump off and get on the GH IC intercooler train. Brad and I working on a tune for it, and hopefully I can get it back on the dyno later this week.

Couple of things. The GH Intercooler tabs were bigger then the slots on the radiator. Also remove your oil dip stick and put a piece of tape over the hole. I broke mine off, and now I am going to have to extract it. If you have a PP, you will have to remove the PTU coolant hose from the radiator, along with dropping the trans cooler off the brackets as well. Also I would go to Ford and buy at least 10 of the push tabs because you are going to destroy them all.

Congrats on the install. It is an awesome upgrade! Did you break the tabs on the radiator? One of mine snapped although I blame my neighbor since he just slammed his side down... but it is a snug fit for sure...

I reloaded the LMS tune just to try it with the new IC, it was still hitting desired boost without an issue.. WGDC was higher but still held boost fine.

Thank you sir. It broke the passenger tab when I forced it in. It is bolted to the radiator so no big deal. All in all the install is straight forward, and the damn thing flat out works.

ClearwaterSHO · February 18, 2019, 05:24:36 PM

My GH IC will be here tomorrow!! I'm ready. I go to the track a lot. A few of my 360 videos have been found on AWD Army and the SHO pages on FB. I can't wait to make some more.

SHOdded · February 18, 2019, 07:35:25 PM

the SHO group is a closed group so we will not be able to see those. is the AWD army a public group?

ClearwaterSHO · February 18, 2019, 08:40:16 PM

Quote from: SHOdded on February 18, 2019, 07:35:25 PM
the SHO group is a closed group so we will not be able to see those. is the AWD army a public group?

Yes I think anyone can join it. I could upload them to Youtube and keep the 360 feature. They're huge files, so it might take a bit. I'll stop hijacking this thread.

SM105K · February 19, 2019, 09:42:10 AM

Brad and I have been working on a HG IC E30 tune for my car. He actually had to pull the some out of the car because the damn GH IC is too efficient lol. Here are a couple of pics from my drive this morning.

34 degrees ambient air temps this morning.

First pic is realtime at 75 mph on my LiveWire.....

Second pic is rolling into the throttle in drive.....

As you can see the high and low values on my LiveWire for the 26 mile drive was no higher then 66 degrees AT THE MANIFOLD! The temps actually dropped 6 degrees while at WOT with 14.5 psi. With the stock IC I never saw temps under 100 degrees at the manifold....EVER.

I am going to schedule more dyno time this week and we will see what she does. Like SBS says, you can definitely feel a difference and the proof is in the data.

StealBlueSho · February 19, 2019, 09:45:54 AM

Quote from: sm105k on February 19, 2019, 09:42:10 AM
Brad and I have been working on a HG IC E30 tune for my car. He actually had to pull the some out of the car because the damn GH IC is too efficient lol. Here are a couple of pics from my drive this morning.

34 degrees ambient air temps this morning.

First pic is realtime at 75 mph on my LiveWire.....

Second pic is rolling into the throttle in drive.....

As you can see the high and low values on my LiveWire for the 26 mile drive was no higher then 66 degrees AT THE MANIFOLD! The temps actually dropped 6 degrees while at WOT with 14.5 psi. With the stock IC I never saw temps under 100 degrees at the manifold....EVER.

I am going to schedule more dyno time this week and we will see what she does. Like SBS says, you can definitely feel a difference and the proof is in the data.

Fantastic Data Points! I need a dyno... unfortunately there are no mechanically linked DynoJets (or any dynometer) within a several hour drive of my house... sucks.. my only recourse until one pops up is track times..

SM105K · February 19, 2019, 09:56:08 AM

Quote from: StealBlueSho on February 19, 2019, 09:45:54 AM
Quote from: sm105k on February 19, 2019, 09:42:10 AM
Brad and I have been working on a HG IC E30 tune for my car. He actually had to pull the some out of the car because the damn GH IC is too efficient lol. Here are a couple of pics from my drive this morning.

34 degrees ambient air temps this morning.

First pic is realtime at 75 mph on my LiveWire.....

Second pic is rolling into the throttle in drive.....

As you can see the high and low values on my LiveWire for the 26 mile drive was no higher then 66 degrees AT THE MANIFOLD! The temps actually dropped 6 degrees while at WOT with 14.5 psi. With the stock IC I never saw temps under 100 degrees at the manifold....EVER.

I am going to schedule more dyno time this week and we will see what she does. Like SBS says, you can definitely feel a difference and the proof is in the data.

Fantastic Data Points! I need a dyno... unfortunately there are no mechanically linked DynoJets (or any dynometer) within a several hour drive of my house... sucks.. my only recourse until one pops up is track times..

Honestly SBS, with the numbers I will put down later this week, (I am hoping for 420/500), I would be confident to say yours makes more because you have the better supporting mods. Next up for me are new o2 sensors (maybe today actually) and the PPE catless DP's with the 3rd cat removal.

ClearwaterSHO · February 19, 2019, 10:11:58 AM

I'll post time slips post IC install. There is Street Wars Domestic vs Imports this weekend, but I'm not sure Brad and I will be dialed in before then. IC should be here today! It's on the truck. I'll post my review here once it is installed and I've had time to play with it.

SM105K · February 19, 2019, 10:14:46 AM

Quote from: ClearwaterSHO on February 19, 2019, 10:11:58 AM
I'll post time slips post IC install. There is Street Wars Domestic vs Imports this weekend, but I'm not sure Brad and I will be dialed in before then. IC should be here today! It's on the truck. I'll post my review here once it is installed and I've had time to play with it.

It is the second best thing you can do to your SHO. Worth every penny.

StealBlueSho · February 19, 2019, 10:17:25 AM

Quote from: TopherSho on February 15, 2019, 04:58:24 PM
Quote from: StealBlueSho on February 05, 2019, 03:32:19 PM
I was finally able to get a decent datalog on the new IC.. here are two multigear pulls...one before the intercooler and one after the intercooler. Ambient outside was the same temps for both, notice that the starting temps are the same, so its about as close as you can get to similar environmental variables.

The IC itself it very stout with no plastic parts and is a very solid piece of work. Install is not horrid if you plan for a few hours and take your time. Not gonna go over it as it has been video taped (yea I know... ) and documented...

With the stock intercooler driving in traffic I would normally see 140F at the intake manifold while sitting in stop and go. Once it heatsoaked it would take a long time of constant driving to get the temps to stay down, otherwise it would creep up to 140+F.. nothing new here, we have all experienced this..

With the new intercooler I took my car to work today, and when you live in NoVA, its a hellish commute. I have to say, the highest I saw the intake temps were 131F during my drive to work and home from work. This included sitting in traffic(a lot). When I was able to get up to the speed limit the intercooler was able to keep the air under 100F and I was unable to get it to heat soak as it recovers extremely fast. Additionally I have not noticed any lag in the turbos with the extra volume, and part throttle is just as stout if not more so than before.

On my way home I was able to get a datalog on the highway during a stretch of open road, and it just pulls hard, temps dropped and stayed low. The temps were still dropping when I pulled out of it, which is a huge change! Usually during a pull the temps drop a bit but then start to sky rocket. The datalogs I posted show this. This is also typical at the track as well which kills your times as you pull spark (and boost with GH) when the temperatures climb. Looking at my datalogs from today, due to the temperatures staying below 100F I was hitting full load up to redline which was 1.78! The butt dyno for sure is telling me that there is significant gains with this new addition.

Sunday night after the installation I took the car out and hammered on it for awhile just to see if I can get the IC to heat soak and test recovery. After hammering on it, I parked it for 30-34 minutes, then started it back up. IATs were in the 140+F range as you would expect. Normally with the stock intercooler it takes FOREVER to get those temps to drop, and then you hammer it, and your right back to heat soaked. A slow drive around the block, hit up the highway, blast it, and temps were back under 80F. I proceeded to hammer on it some more but with how well this IC recovers, I was unable to heat soak it while driving.

Being as my 2010 had meth, I was considering adding meth to my 2016 to assist with keeping the temps in check. I would say with this IC upgrade, meth is not on the table for me personally. The real world data I am pulling shows a SIGNIFICANT improvement in IATs which is huge being as these cars traditionally heat soak TERRIBLY. Until now, our only recourse has been to add methanol injection. I loved me my meth, but there is maintenance overhead along with the concern of running out of meth on a drive.

Ultimately getting good data from a couple track runs will be very beneficial to post, but based on street driving, the IC is worth every penny. Excited for track season and seeing what it can do with hot lapping. If you are looking for build out your SHO, I would say this is on the list of must haves. Tune, 3BAR, upgraded HPFP, and the upgraded GH intercooler are a deadly combination.

Bravo GH!

Keep those logs handy I am VERY curious about how effective it will be in august at any drags you attend. Thats what will convince me

Just thought I would update this question... this is NOT my datalog info, however, this is a good example. This guy ran the other night in Florida with high humidity and ambient was 86F at night. One note here is that he was HOLDING 19psi in third gear on the stock turbos so the heat generated from those had to be high.. saying the gearhead intercooler performed well is quite the understatement.

SM105K · February 19, 2019, 10:21:29 AM

Damn.....it was getting after it.

SM105K · February 22, 2019, 02:36:15 PM

Just to back up the data on the GH IC. In the first picture in 78 degree ambient air the pull starts at 105 degrees and the climbs to 147 degrees at the manifold with the stock IC. First picture.

With the GH IC in 39 degree ambient the pull starts at 107 degrees and drops to 78 degrees at the manifold. Second pic.

My car is having boost issues however, it made the same power with less boost. So the GH IC works as advertised.

802SHO · February 23, 2019, 02:18:22 PM

I've been wondering if we'll see more stock turbo cars having trouble "keeping up" with the increase in volume and efficiency of the new GH IC upgrade. Stock turbos that are "seemingly good" may all of a sudden have trouble holding their old turbo psi targets that previously weren't either evident at all or hardly noticeable with the inefficiency of the stock intercooler. Maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about but perhaps this new IC is also a way to "verify" your stock turbos are healthy?

In the past, there was no solution for the inferior stock intercooler and it basically "is what it is" and people were upgrading their turbos. I think now bc there is an upgraded inyercooler and we're seeing how inefficient it was for the stock turbos, I think its interesting looking back and thinking about upgraded turbos with the stock intercooler....that intercooler was grossly inefficient at that point...like who would do that now? Just interesting to think about.

ZSHO · February 23, 2019, 04:49:22 PM

I'm hoping this can be compensated by making a Tune adjustment! Z

StealBlueSho · February 23, 2019, 04:52:28 PM

Quote from: ZSHO on February 23, 2019, 04:49:22 PM
I'm hoping this maybe can be compensated by making a Tune adjustment ! Z

Yes, this can be compensated with tuning. Gearhead has the stock turbos nailed down to work with the IC as you would expect. I have seen datalogs with the stock turbos holding 19psi almost to redline with the upgraded IC.

Is it harder on the stockers, absolutely, the WGDC is higher with the IC. Upgraded turbos will help if anything longevity of the turbos themselves.