Gearhead Intercooler Review

[AJP turbo]

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.

Yes increased boost can be made with a tuning adjustment as long as the turbos are capable. Stock turbos can run much more than 20 psi if you want them to. But if your turbos are making 14 psi and the wastegate duty cycle is near 100% good luck trying to make more boost.

I've actually have seen now the turbos running less wastegate duty cycle  because it takes less boost to make the same load. The beauty of the speed density formula is temperature is also part of the equation. So your car can make less boost but load is still the same.

A nice thing about the boost logic ford uses is it allows for some terrible tuning to achieve decent results. The correction and PID controller for the boost control takes up a lot of slop. The more difficult thing can be setting boost targets. So in a log look at your desired TIP..If your desired TIP is where you want it but the turbos are making less boost AND your wastegate duty cycle is high then your turbos are in trouble.

[lamrith]

You clowns are not helping me be fiscally responsible!

Specially you BJSHO!  Seeing these IAT graphs really speaks to me.  I daily drive my car year round, I know I notice a significant change in the buttdyno when the temps change and the IAT's start staying under 100*, specially down under 85* IAT2.  The car just really wakes up versus the normal 120-150* temps it sees.  Seeing mid 70* IAT's and staying down when running WOT, just WOW.  I look forward to seeing follow up reports once summer temps hit.

I have planned to not mod the SHO anymore as I have a hotrod project now, but you guys are killin me!

Congrats to Matt on what looks like a very good product, I know many scoffed at him when he was starting on this project. 

[SHOdded]

We scoff at everyone, nothing personal

[lamrith]

We scoff at everyone, nothing personal

That was pointed more at the FB groups, some of them got pretty snotty.  This place is always pretty good, no worries there SHOdded!

[creepmuzik]

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.

Hey that pic looks awfully familiar, lol!  See I have been here in spirit, now in person! 

[StealBlueSho]

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.

Hey that pic looks awfully familiar, lol!  See I have been here in spirit, now in person! 

I said only good things and left it anonymous :-)

[mrhighcaliber]

We scoff at everyone, nothing personal

Is proper forum etiquette at this point.

Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

[avidmotion]

Quick question, when putting in the GH IC I plan to change the coolant. 2013+PP is Ford Orange still the go to coolant or is there "better". And how much will I need to fully replace/flush the system?

[SHOdded]

Motorcraft Orange is still current.  How much you will need depends on whether you use concentrate or 50/50, whether you use a flush machine or you use the drain/fill "flush" method.

The system uses 11.4 quarts of coolant.  So if you were to do the quickest route of 50/50 fills only, assuming 50% drained each time:
4x drain/fills to get to 93% replacement
4 x 0.5 x 11.4 = 22.8 quarts of 50/50 required
So you buy either 11.4 quarts of concentrate + 11.4 quarts of distilled water, or 22.8 quarts of 50/50.
11.4 quarts = 3 gallons, 22.8 quarts = 6 gallons, approximately

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/ford,2013,taurus,3.5l+v6+turbocharged,1503823,cooling+system,coolant+/+antifreeze,11393

Be sure to use the forum discount code if buying from RockAuto.

[glock-coma]

Motorcraft Orange is still current.  How much you will need depends on whether you use concentrate or 50/50, whether you use a flush machine or you use the drain/fill "flush" method.

The system uses 11.4 quarts of coolant.  So if you were to do the quickest route of 50/50 fills only, assuming 50% drained each time:
4x drain/fills to get to 93% replacement
4 x 0.5 x 11.4 = 22.8 quarts of 50/50 required
So you buy either 11.4 quarts of concentrate + 11.4 quarts of distilled water, or 22.8 quarts of 50/50.
11.4 quarts = 3 gallons, 22.8 quarts = 6 gallons, approximately

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/ford,2013,taurus,3.5l+v6+turbocharged,1503823,cooling+system,coolant+/+antifreeze,11393

Be sure to use the forum discount code if buying from RockAuto.

[lamrith]

^^^  Yeah What Glock-coma said.

[Agentlongwood]

This makes me so damn happy that a major weakness on the platform has been corrected... and also very sad that I don't have the money for one yet, lol.  Thanks for the review, much appreciated!

I think you inquired about progress more than anyone lol! Well save your pennies and I'm sure you can pick one up soon my friend!

It's finally happening!  Just put in my order for a new intercooler.  Fun fact: It's $799 on their website, with free shipping, and I live in Florida so no tax applies either.  Straight up just $800 instead of ~$850.  I'm pretty pumped about this!

[SM105K]

This makes me happy.

[avidmotion]

....Me too....     

[jus2quik]

Just ordered mine as well ,tired of the sky high intake temps robbing my joy