Hello fellow Bimmerboost members,
A few of you may know me from "the other forum" and it has been some time since I've been on this one here as well. As I'm not much in favour of the policy (the word comes from "police" I guess...) of E90post and more precisely at its way of handling conflicts (mostly by inflicting bans on members who have posted lots of useful information), I have also decided some time ago to join Bimmerboost.
Some of you may know the reviews I've written so far, and I would like to make them available to Bimmerboost as well - together with some new ones and updates to the existing reviews. The present article is therefor one among several threads that I will be posting individually (to make them easier to find without having to wade through many posts in one thread).
Almost all of these are performance oriented, and I will therefor post most of them in the N54 sub-section. @Sticky : If you think one or the other is better placed elsewhere, just move it there please.
But enough of the preamble, here we go.
---
Intercooler: Code3 Performance aka Spearco
Why?
Even before I bought the car, I already had the intention to provide it with a more performing intercooler. The function of any intercooler is to reduce the intake temperatures of the air the turbos are sucking in; cooler air means denser air equals more oxygen for the engine to mix with fuel, thus enabling it to achieve the same power with less effort (i.e. boost). The problem with the stock intercooler is that it's basically undersized, in particular if you're running a tune that spins the turbos higher and automatically produces more heat. As a consequence, you get "heatsoak" rather quickly, i.e. the engine's motor management cuts down power due to the thermal stress after some spirited runs, in particular in the upper rpms. That can be avoided or at least improved by fixing a bigger and more efficient intercooler as a replacement of the stock unit.
This is how the engine looks like with the stock intercooler:
![Click here to enlarge]()
The air management of the N54 engine is very well illustrated on this diagram::
![Click here to enlarge]()
The air is being sucked in from the outside (no. 6) and filtered in the airbox (no. 4), then sent by way of the inlet tubes (no. 8 front and no. 13 rear) to the turbos (no. 11+12), there the air gets compressed and is sent by way of the manifold (no. 10) to the intercooler (no. 9). From there the compressed and cooled air goes to the charge pipe (no. 7).
How?
At the time I did my research, there was substantially less choice than today and I basically had to choose between the Helix, RPi and the Code3 Performance intercoolers. One of the moderators at E90post as well as another good friend of mine had the Code3 on his car, and as I also read a number of additional positive feedbacks and numbers (see link with more infos about the intercooler) I decided to go with this model by way of a group buy organized on that forum.
Here's a photo of the Code3 Performance intercooler:
![Click here to enlarge]()
Here are two more photos of the intercooler after it was removed from my car:
![Click here to enlarge]()
![Click here to enlarge]()
http://hpautowerks.com/]HP Autowerks[/URL] shipped the intercooler to me without any incident, and it looked (to my layman's eye) very well made and solid, and after seeing the stock intercooler also a good size bigger than the latter. As stated before I'm not really technically inclined, so I entrusted the install of the intercooler to my garage, Daum Motorsport. From what I was told the install was rather straightforward, but the plastic shroud around the intercooler had to be cut back somewhat in order to accommodate the Code3's increased bulk. That was not visible however, except if one starts to crawl under the car and looking for it very closely. Install time was around 3 hours, all in all.
Here's a photo after the installation:
![Click here to enlarge]()
Improvements?
Unfortunately I can't provide any before/after comparisons on a dyno, also because the car was remapped after the install of the intercooler. However, on the dyno runs I did after flashing the car, the intake air temperatures (IAT) were not high and even quite low compared to another car with stock intercooler that was dynoed at the same time. I would therefore assume that the intercooler is doing its job. Here's a photo after the install (even if I will the first to admit it's not that illustrative - I'll try to get a better one once I'll have the car on the ramp again):
![Click here to enlarge]()
Problems / disadvantages?
The Code3 Performance is one of the more expensive intercoolers, retailing for around 1300 USD. It's well made though and performs equally well (as far as I can say), so I would say it's worth its price.
Another disadvantage is that you have to trim the plastic shroud. But although a number of vendors claim that their product does not require trimming, the majority of people said differently, from what I've read. And as it's not visible from the outside, I don't mind that in any case.
Still up to date?
No!
I've recently (middle of 2012) switched to a Helix intercooler, due to the fact that with the upgraded RB turbos my IATs were getting high very quickly when doing 2-3 accelerations in 3rd and 4th gear. However, I continue to believe that the Code3 Performance is a very good upgrade compared to the stock intercooler and is more than sufficient for cars with stock turbos.
Alpina_B3_Lux
A few of you may know me from "the other forum" and it has been some time since I've been on this one here as well. As I'm not much in favour of the policy (the word comes from "police" I guess...) of E90post and more precisely at its way of handling conflicts (mostly by inflicting bans on members who have posted lots of useful information), I have also decided some time ago to join Bimmerboost.
Some of you may know the reviews I've written so far, and I would like to make them available to Bimmerboost as well - together with some new ones and updates to the existing reviews. The present article is therefor one among several threads that I will be posting individually (to make them easier to find without having to wade through many posts in one thread).
Almost all of these are performance oriented, and I will therefor post most of them in the N54 sub-section. @Sticky : If you think one or the other is better placed elsewhere, just move it there please.
But enough of the preamble, here we go.
---
Intercooler: Code3 Performance aka Spearco
Why?
Even before I bought the car, I already had the intention to provide it with a more performing intercooler. The function of any intercooler is to reduce the intake temperatures of the air the turbos are sucking in; cooler air means denser air equals more oxygen for the engine to mix with fuel, thus enabling it to achieve the same power with less effort (i.e. boost). The problem with the stock intercooler is that it's basically undersized, in particular if you're running a tune that spins the turbos higher and automatically produces more heat. As a consequence, you get "heatsoak" rather quickly, i.e. the engine's motor management cuts down power due to the thermal stress after some spirited runs, in particular in the upper rpms. That can be avoided or at least improved by fixing a bigger and more efficient intercooler as a replacement of the stock unit.
This is how the engine looks like with the stock intercooler:
The air management of the N54 engine is very well illustrated on this diagram::
The air is being sucked in from the outside (no. 6) and filtered in the airbox (no. 4), then sent by way of the inlet tubes (no. 8 front and no. 13 rear) to the turbos (no. 11+12), there the air gets compressed and is sent by way of the manifold (no. 10) to the intercooler (no. 9). From there the compressed and cooled air goes to the charge pipe (no. 7).
How?
At the time I did my research, there was substantially less choice than today and I basically had to choose between the Helix, RPi and the Code3 Performance intercoolers. One of the moderators at E90post as well as another good friend of mine had the Code3 on his car, and as I also read a number of additional positive feedbacks and numbers (see link with more infos about the intercooler) I decided to go with this model by way of a group buy organized on that forum.
Here's a photo of the Code3 Performance intercooler:
Here are two more photos of the intercooler after it was removed from my car:
http://hpautowerks.com/]HP Autowerks[/URL] shipped the intercooler to me without any incident, and it looked (to my layman's eye) very well made and solid, and after seeing the stock intercooler also a good size bigger than the latter. As stated before I'm not really technically inclined, so I entrusted the install of the intercooler to my garage, Daum Motorsport. From what I was told the install was rather straightforward, but the plastic shroud around the intercooler had to be cut back somewhat in order to accommodate the Code3's increased bulk. That was not visible however, except if one starts to crawl under the car and looking for it very closely. Install time was around 3 hours, all in all.
Here's a photo after the installation:
Improvements?
Unfortunately I can't provide any before/after comparisons on a dyno, also because the car was remapped after the install of the intercooler. However, on the dyno runs I did after flashing the car, the intake air temperatures (IAT) were not high and even quite low compared to another car with stock intercooler that was dynoed at the same time. I would therefore assume that the intercooler is doing its job. Here's a photo after the install (even if I will the first to admit it's not that illustrative - I'll try to get a better one once I'll have the car on the ramp again):
Problems / disadvantages?
The Code3 Performance is one of the more expensive intercoolers, retailing for around 1300 USD. It's well made though and performs equally well (as far as I can say), so I would say it's worth its price.
Another disadvantage is that you have to trim the plastic shroud. But although a number of vendors claim that their product does not require trimming, the majority of people said differently, from what I've read. And as it's not visible from the outside, I don't mind that in any case.
Still up to date?
No!
I've recently (middle of 2012) switched to a Helix intercooler, due to the fact that with the upgraded RB turbos my IATs were getting high very quickly when doing 2-3 accelerations in 3rd and 4th gear. However, I continue to believe that the Code3 Performance is a very good upgrade compared to the stock intercooler and is more than sufficient for cars with stock turbos.
Alpina_B3_Lux