[shreedamin]

Hey guys,

I know these guys get a lot of hate on the forums but I took a chance on their new 7-inch intercooler. Here are some pictures. It has ultra-dense fin packs which I read on the forums is a must. When I hold it up to the light I can't really see through it. The welds look fine to me but I am no expert. Overall, I am excited to see what this baby can do. Let me know what you guys think?

[shreedamin]

[mweisdorfer]

Originally Posted by shreedamin

Hey guys,

I know these guys get a lot of hate on the forums but I took a chance on their new 7-inch intercooler. Here are some pictures. It has ultra-dense fin packs which I read on the forums is a must. When I hold it up to the light I can't really see through it. The welds look fine to me but I am no expert. Overall, I am excited to see what this baby can do. Let me know what you guys think?

I will be curious to see how the fan fits back into the engine bay. I have their 5" stepped FMIC on my n54. There is a small lip made by the FMIC being wider than the OEM FMIC. I have to now negotiate the fan over the 1/4" lip, in order to slide the fan into place. The fan doesn't just slide straight down anymore. It wasn't a big deal until I installed 1.75" silicone inlets. Now it's sort of a PITA, in order to reinstall the engine fan.

[Sgop335]

Wher is that pic with a ruler on the fin face?

[shreedamin]

Originally Posted by Sgop335

Wher is that pic with a ruler on the fin face?

ill upload some

[BioChemBro]

How much was it

[shreedamin]

Originally Posted by BioChemBro

How much was it

I got mine for $340ish

[shreedamin]

[MooreBoost]

Congrats! Looks pretty darn nice, especially for the money. Do you plan to do before and after logs?

[shreedamin]

Originally Posted by MooreBoost

Congrats! Looks pretty darn nice, especially for the money. Do you plan to do before and after logs?

I installed it last night. It was a huge pain in the ass to get the hoses into the couplers. I was struggling with getting the hose to go far enough into the intercooler, so I could slide the U clip over and lock the hoses in place. So that took me like 4hrs of trying different things to finally get it. Idk if it was me or a possible design flaw. The passenger side I 100% could not get to lock but I am hoping its far enough in that there is no leak and it won't pop out.

I would have totally done logs but, I sold my jb4 to help fund a dyno tune.

[Sgop335]

Looks like 15 or 16fpi - high density

[blau iii]

I've been happy with the 5" stepped ARM IC, I'm wondering if it's worth upgrading to the 7". I'm FBO with brand new OEM turbos at 95k. I also have the JB4 with MHD BEF.

[hidavi]

I just ordered this to replace the Evolution Racewerks FMIC I broke at the track being dumb. My 07 335i E92 is only making 420whp (MHD Stage 2+) so definitely not spending $1000 again for that kind of overkill. I decided to get the ARM hose upgrade too because it looks like it would make for an easier install. Paid $383 total for both which seems like a great price.

I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

[shreedamin]

Let me know about the hose kit. I need to upgrade my CP still, debating on getting the hose kit to make the CP install easier too.

[Rule1977]

I'm interested in how the ARM fmic's actually perform. Everyone I talk to says stay away from them.

[hidavi]

Originally Posted by shreedamin

Let me know about the hose kit. I need to upgrade my CP still, debating on getting the hose kit to make the CP install easier too.

Very easy install. The upgraded hose kit makes the connections easy. Just note that I have the VRSF charge pipe, so I don't know how this goes with the OEM charge pipe. The only thing I will say is that the hose on the cold side seems really close to the power steering pulley. The holes to screw to the rad support give you a lot of lateral positioning but even if you push the intercooler as far to the right as you can, there's only like an inch of space between the hose and the PS pulley. It's just a huge diameter hose. I suppose as long as nothing moves too far it's ok but I'll inspect that area closely when I go to the track in two weeks.

The T-clamps are really nice. They have a spring between the clamp and the nut saving a lot of wrenching time.

Old vs new:

[hidavi]

I just noticed that mine is different than the one in the image of the OP and the one on their product page. There are 10 bars in the one above and in the product page, but mine only has 7 bars.

What do you guys think?

I compared the dimensions roughly on my old ER intercooler vs my new ARM 7" intercooler:

ER

• 7 bars and 6 rows of fins
• bars are 10.1mm tall
• fins are 9.3mm tall
• overall depth is 153mm
• in/out tubes are 51mm diameter

ARM

• 7 bars and 8 rows of fins
• bars are 7.5mm tall
• fins are 10mm tall
• overall depth is 178mm
• in/out tubes are 76mm diameter

The end tanks look larger on the ARM 7" than on the ER one but I didn't measure them exactly.

It looks like the $340 ARM would have more air capacity than the $1000 ER one and more surface area for cooling, but I still think its weird that they changed the design and didn't mention it anywhere...

[hidavi]

FYI the ARM intercooler works fine. I'm getting better results drifting than I did with the old ER intercooler.

[mike@x-ph.com]

Originally Posted by hidavi

FYI the ARM intercooler works fine. I'm getting better results drifting than I did with the old ER intercooler.

I would love to see the datalogs you looked at to make this conclusion

[iqraceworks]

I have had great luck with ARM parts. Put a set of ARM downpipes on my car a while back, and they were top notch....great quality welds, and they fit perfectly. Plus, if you have any questions or issues....they are very easy to get ahold of via email...and respond very fast.

[hidavi]

Originally Posted by mike@x-ph.com

I would love to see the datalogs you looked at to make this conclusion

I suppose that it's possible that my skill level is up, but the car was definitely easier to slide at WOT in third gear at Englishtown NJ front track. Maybe it's just because of the much bigger tubing for the intercooler than what I was using with the ER intercooler, and not actually because the ARM intercooler is actually better itself.

It's too late to go back and take measurements because I did VRSF inlets and outlets recently and it's too much work to remove all that. Those two things definitely made a huge difference.