[stephen335xi]

I've been in need of an intercooler and cp/bov set up for a while in order to achieve fbo and this bundle deal from Arm I couldn't pass up for the price so I figured I'd give it a shot and a review for anyone else looking at these products as well.

08 335xi AT with alpina flash
3 inch catless downpipes
5inch Stepped fmic
Cp/bov
Dci
Stage 1 fuel it e60 mix
Custom exhuast
Mhd flash only


Shipping was very fast, i received both items in 3 days. They were also packaged very well with everything you need included (one thing I did need to get was washers for the screws provided with the ic)



The ic box was the unit itself along with 2 screws
The charge pipe box had the pipe itself
-O ring for the throttle body connection
-Coupler for the chargepipe to lower charge pipe connection
-4 clamps, 2 DV caps for the inlets
-Screws with washers for the tmap connection


Intercooler installation took me 30mins max. It was very straight forward and sits right in the stock location. Fitment was great, I didn't have to use much force to "make it fit" It connected right to the stock locations and was secured using the stock c clamp connections and screws.

For the charge pipe It uses a tial 50mm flange, I tapped into my intake and used a 1/4 fitting and 1/4 hose so the bov would get the correct vacuum along with a 11psi spring and it works great. For install you have to remove your intakes or airbox, tmap sensor, as well as the stock dvs. From there it's pretty straight forward just remember to put the tmap in the new charge pipe or else your car wont boost fitment was great, one thing to note is there is very minor wiggle room at the throttle body. I checked for boost leaks afterwards and I'm still hitting target so everything works how it should. Apparently it is a common problem with the aluminum cps.

Here are a few install pictures of the ic and cp.

Remove belly tray



Remove 2 torx screws, unlock 4 plastic swivel connectors





Remove c rings from ic


Intercooler should slide out now, repeat steps in reverse but use the longer screws provided with the ic

For the charge pipe install should be self explanatory, remove intakes/airbox. Remove the charge pipe clip, diverter valves, torx screw, tmap sensor.





Lastly I have logs and 2 virtual dyno runs, these logs and dyno runs were recorded on the same exact day before/after install on the same tank of gas on mhd v7.1 e60 flash. The after logs it was a few degrees warmer outside. It was 71 degrees outside and The iats stay 10-15 degrees above ambient rather than stock which was 20-25ish above ambient just cruising.

First I have 2 3rd gear pulls from 2k~ - redline to show iats, first is stock second is arm intercooler.
Stock starts at 97 and ends at 129
Arm starts at 82 and ends at 95, lower than what stock even started at.





And here's a log of the iats of the arm intercooler of a bottom of 3rd to top of 4th gear pull, 82-106 iat



Overall Im very pleased, can't beat the bundle priced. I believe I paid $394 shipped overall.

This virtual dyno run as well, again, same day same weather same tank of gas and this was on the same strip of road, they're website says up to 25hp/27tq gains. I see gains of 25hp/14tq and I definitely feel it. The car pulls a lot harder now and stays pulling since I'm not seeing 170+ iats anymore.

[TrollToll]

Inb4 the vendors come in to tell you that the stock connections are restrictive and that you should have bought what they sell.

[bigdaddyaaron]

Originally Posted by Yournamehere90

Inb4 the vendors come in to tell you that the stock connections are restrictive and that you should have bought what they sell.

Don't forget about the China fin packs that you can see through and don't work.

[JunkyardDogg]

Nice, any pics of the intercooler? How's the build quality?

[stephen335xi]

Originally Posted by JunkyardDogg

Nice, any pics of the intercooler? How's the build quality?

Forgot to add those lol, build quality is good and fin density is what you would expect for the price.

[B.M.W.]

For a street car I'd say it's a good FMIC upgrade over stock and it's not priced rediculously

[Jeff@TopGearSolutions]

It looks decent for the money. Seems to perform decent for the money.

Not going to argue with anyone there, especially with the latest "Vendor hate" on this forum recently.

I guess some people forget who keeps these forums going but that's for a different discussion.

My only complaint with this bundle is the charge pipe and particularly the meth bung placement.

It's not ideal, too close to the throttle body and the bungs are too close to each other and not staggered.

That's all I wanted to say in case anyone planned on using them for methanol.

If it works for what you want and you're happy that's all that matters at the end of the day.

[dublin14]

For the price it seems to do the job for the street.

[bigdnno98]

Originally Posted by Jeff@TopGearSolutions

It looks decent for the money. Seems to perform decent for the money.

Not going to argue with anyone there, especially with the latest "Vendor hate" on this forum recently.

I guess some people forget who keeps these forums going but that's for a different discussion.

My only complaint with this bundle is the charge pipe and particularly the meth bung placement.

It's not ideal, too close to the throttle body and the bungs are too close to each other and not staggered.

That's all I wanted to say in case anyone planned on using them for methanol.

If it works for what you want and you're happy that's all that matters at the end of the day.

I'll agree with the meth bung placement for sure. Not ideal. Glad everything fit properly though.

[bbnks2]

There wouldn't be any need ot hate on vendors if they marketed products accurately instead of flat out bs'ing people.

I've have the ARM 5" for a while. It performs better than the VRSF 5" based on all logs I've seen and that is its most direct competitor. 7" VRSF is obviously a nice improvement over the ARM 5" for sure though!

[dublin14]

Originally Posted by bbnks2

There wouldn't be any need ot hate on vendors if they marketed products accurately instead of flat out bs'ing people.

I've have the ARM 5" for a while. It performs better than the VRSF 5" based on all logs I've seen and that is its most direct competitor. 7" VRSF is obviously a nice improvement over the ARM 5" for sure though!

Im sure its only time before ARM make a 7 inch IC.

[feuer]

Tiago@VRSF what bbnks2 is saying is true. You on the other had pure marketing. Please show us the hits from your quick search.

[Kaz26]

Sorry to bring back an older thread, but I was just considering buying an Arm intercooler just to to try for myself before installing the VRSF 7" HD I bought.
I am also curious what others think about 3" inlet/oulet for an intercooler with stock turbos. I haven't heard anyone complain about experiencing lag on the larger VRSF intercoolers, but the 3" tubing seems rather large to me.

[feuer]

Originally Posted by Tiago@VRSF

Keep in mind, with the ARM you're also forced to use the plastic lower chargepipe and plastic turbo outlet connector. Both which are prone to failure on cars with over 60k miles.

False.

[GEOS07335i]

I have the new 7" ARM Intercooler. I'd be happy to post some logs. Let the data speak for itself. Anything in particular that I should grab besides IAT Temps? The only tools I have available are MHD Logging and INPA / ISTA-D. Let me know if I can help.

Here is a 3rd -5th gear pull. To be honest not sure what this means. But for those that can decipher the data it would be nice to know how the 7" ARM FRMIC stacks up.

https://datazap.me/u/geosbmw/3rd-5th...-28&solo=15-28

[GEOS07335i]

[QUOTE=stephen335xi]

Lastly I have logs and 2 virtual dyno runs, these logs and dyno runs were recorded on the same exact day before/after install on the same tank of gas on mhd v7.1 e60 flash. The after logs it was a few degrees warmer outside. It was 71 degrees outside and The iats stay 10-15 degrees above ambient rather than stock which was 20-25ish above ambient just cruising.


This virtual dyno run as well, again, same day same weather same tank of gas and this was on the same strip of road, they're website says up to 25hp/27tq gains. I see gains of 25hp/14tq and I definitely feel it. The car pulls a lot harder now and stays pulling since I'm not seeing 170+ iats anymore.
[/QUOTE=stephen335xi]

Hey sorry to butcher up your thread. Can you tell me how you setup virtual dyno? Everytime I try and set it up it tells me I'm making 1500hp wich obviously isnt correct. I'm using MHD to capture logs.

[Ballistic]

Originally Posted by Tiago@VRSF

Keep in mind, with the ARM you're also forced to use the plastic lower chargepipe and plastic turbo outlet connector. Both which are prone to failure on cars with over 60k miles.

Originally Posted by feuer

False.

Yeah i've never seen them fail and we run the cars 130k+ now. Another great piece of input from our vendors. I'll host the site if we can get rid of em

[feuer]

Originally Posted by Ballistic

Yeah i've never seen them fail and we run the cars 130k+ now. Another great piece of input from our vendors. I'll host the site if we can get rid of em

I'm at 96k and track my car. Charge pipe is still OEM. True, I have seen some break but mostly due to drivers/owners doing million dollar-winning gear shifts (being sarcastic here) on worn out engine and transmission mounts. Just this weekend I worked on 170k, Cobb tuned most of its life, aggressive stage 2, full exhaust, OEM charge pipe.

[Ballistic]

Sounds like you are translating use and/or installation errors into prone to fail "facts"

[dublin14]

So the ARM 5 inch seems to be doing a good job on the.street.

[DM_e92]

Originally Posted by Tiago@VRSF

The VRSF 5" stepped generally performs as well or better than the ARM based on the logs we've seen. I believe it has a chance of outperforming our old standard 5" non-stepped design but that's comparing apples to oranges. The non-stepped design has also been discontinued. I'm a firm believer that 5" stepped intercoolers should be avoided if a quality, comparably priced 7" is available simply due to the performance benefits form a larger core with a larger overall surface area.

The OEM connectors have been proven to leak above 12-13 psi on this platform. Please do a quick search and you'll see oil seeping from the connections of both OEM intercoolers and aftermarket intercoolers that utilize the OEM connectors. The OEM connectors also neck down to less than 1.9" which impose a large restriction and create unnecessary back pressure.

We used to sell a 5" and 7" intercooler with OEM connectors and discontinued the design due to the fact that it proved to be a major restriction on upgraded setups. The OEM connectors are designed for the standard 9 psi OEM setup and isn't intended to operate efficiently or safely at 16-20 psi which is the reason every proven/reputable intercooler available uses at least 2.5" inlets or larger.

I think he may be telling the truth ... I have a Arm 5" Intercooler... on MHD stage 1+ and I have a hard time getting over 14 psi and have had new OEM turbos since December. I was just under my car this weekend and noticed how much oil was leaking from the intercooler to the oem outlet connection. I do like my intercooler because it does keep temps down pretty well... but I think I may want to go 7" with bigger outlet connection soon. Just my $.2

[milfriez]

Originally Posted by Tiago@VRSF

If you don't consider us a credible source, Wagner tuning, the company ARM copied to make this intercooler also used to sell an OEM coupler solution and they have also discontinued that design due to the negative performance and reliability.

Are you referencing their EVO I 5" intercooler? I was just eyeballing this one up, as its on severe discount through online vendors. So for future purchases, are you saying to avoid anything that is basically a plug'n'play or OEM-type connectors on a FMIC?

I already have an aftermarket CP and DP, so what should I be looking for?