CVF Aluminum Intercooler Hot-side + Cold-side Piping Kit Installed

[Dr3wDrop]

IMO you shouldn't need to loosen the intercooler. With the couplers in place first it gives you that give you need to slide things in. One thing I did not mention is that I used a tiny bit of olive oil on the rubber gaskets that go inside of each pipe that seal around the intercooler. I was worried those might rip or stretch if I put a weird angle of pressure on them. Probably might of not been needed but worked for me.

The intercooler does not need to be loosened. It will all fit with a little wiggle perseverance. I thought about using some grease or something to help things fit but it wasn't necessary on my install.

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[Dr3wDrop]

Gotta be good for 75 HP minimum right?

One can hope. Although, I will say even if there is no HP gain the overall improvement in the driving experience made it worth it 100%

 

[rbelar21]

This is the first good picture I have seen showing a baffle in the cold side.

I wonder if the baffle acts as a silencer, or if that hot side reducer is really whats keeping it quiet.

 

[Dr3wDrop]

This is the first good picture I have seen showing a baffle in the cold side.

I wonder if the baffle acts as a silencer, or if that hot side reducer is really whats keeping it quiet.

I think the hot side has the most restriction. I drove a couple days with just the cold side on and things felt normal. Once I added the hot side the truck drove like it had better air movement. Almost like increasing the size of the straw it was sucking through.

 

[rbelar21]

That’s really good to hear because I actually just bought the hotside by itself to test! I self tune with HP tuners and already have the truck pretty solid on 93 and a separate e30 tune as I get access to corn every now and then. I’m honestly looking for some more turbo noise, but I wouldn’t say no to some smoother flow.

Thanks for the response.

 

[Rp930]

I would love to see a dyno test showing any hp gain on this one.

 

[rbelar21]

I won’t be able to do dyno unfortunately, and the tune will only target the torque I am aiming for.

 

[rbelar21]

So I got my hot side in today. I would like to echo pretty much everything - its easy enough to install if you have done something like this before (I worked on my wrx previously). Took about 45 min to complete install then add clean up time to that. Everything seems pretty solid, few imperfections here and there but for a company of this size it's actually phenomenal.

Hot side was a great choice if you are looking for a nice noise maker with some volumetric benefits. As Dr3wdrop said above, hot side is def the restriction. The necked down portion that has the BPV attached to it is the culprate for sure.

I will be doing datalogging with my HP Tuners setup shortly to see if anything has "changed", I am doubting it has considering these ECUs are torque based. From seat of pants, however, you defintely feel a nice low end grunt that wasnt there previously - I am assuming that is the added airflow from a stand still allowing it to hit the requested torque values i have around that RPM range. Once you get going, its pretty much just a noise maker so far from how I feel and see it (honestly I was going for that, i wanted some spooly boi noise).

TLDR: I personally wasn't looking for anything other than helping hear the turbo, but i defintely can see (and feel down low) benefits from having more volume compared to stock. I'll post again once I actually can see my logs vs my log from yesterday. If you are like me - then the hotside only is really all you need.

 

[rbelar21]

I would love to see a dyno test showing any hp gain on this one.

Just as a follow up - as i suspected, no power change atleast from the computers perspective. If i had a dyno id love to test the theory that it adds anything, but it really shouldn't based off of the ECU logic. Again, it defintely feels like air delivery is smoother, and I am confidently hitting 390tq/320hp calculated to the wheels on e30.

 

[Superspirit]

Finally got around to installing the pipes and the intercooler, the intercooler was not fun! The pipes were easy. Seems to run just fine, I have the tune from torrie ready to install in the morning. Too worn out to put it in this evening.

 

[ppfd]

Wanted to bring this up and see how you all that installed the CVF pipes.
Any issues, how is your truck running?
And I’m embarrassed to ask! Turbo is the hot side? Passenger side ? ?
This aluminum plug in the kit, what is the purpose? There is a sensor that plugs into it?

My hot and cold kit should be here today.

 

[that408guy]

Wanted to bring this up and see how you all that installed the CVF pipes.
Any issues, how is your truck running?
And I’m embarrassed to ask! Turbo is the hot side? Passenger side ? ?
This aluminum plug in the kit, what is the purpose? There is a sensor that plugs into it?

My hot and cold kit should be here today.

Mine as been running like a champ. I dont recall the plug but possibly it is there incase you wanted to add a temp sensor. The cold side is what connects to the turbo.

 

[ppfd]

Thanks
You had mentioned having to sand an aluminum piece a little, I guess is what m referring to.
Is that just a plug of some sort? Or does the sensor you mentioned as well plug into this piece?

 

[that408guy]

Thanks
You had mentioned having to sand an aluminum piece a little, I guess is what m referring to.
Is that just a plug of some sort? Or does the sensor you mentioned as well plug into this piece?

Oh, that little piece houses the sensor that gets plugged into the coupler/pipe. Others said they did not have that issue. I would try to plug-it in first before any sanding. I felt like things were not budging after a lot of force and was worried I was going to break something. Could have been inexperince on my part but everythign has been solid and zero issues.

 

[ppfd]

Weathers supposed to decent and I have to work next 3 days.
Hope to get it all installed Monday
I'll post up my install for sure!

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