Squatch Tests CVF Intercooler for 2.3L 7M Badlands!

[Squatch]

So many intercooler products available, so little data. But until your work! Thanks for sharing. This is intake air temps, correct? Is this the difference immediately after a single 20-80 run? It would also be very interesting to see if the IC can impact temps after repeated high load/high rpm runs (i.e. is it anti heat soak). 30 deg F difference amounts to about 5% more dense air and should translate to about 13 hp. Probably not easy to feel that with ones butt-dyno. Might be able to see this with a phone performance app. That would be highly interesting/useful.

This is the IAT2 temp--the hot one--and it is not a single run per one day. It was run several times back-to-back with a small cooldown window in between--just enough to be able to compare the data.

I wouldn't try to drive like a jerk to see if I could force a heatsoak situation, but this is Miami daily-driven so I probably would've noticed if that were an issue by now.

I will say that it was a really short time interval to cool down after a test. I may look at the thousands of rows of data again, but I could probably have paused 30 seconds between slowing down to a stop from a test and starting a new one. The time it took to stop and save the file, etc. may have taken more time than it needed to cool down. That part was noticeable and distinguishable from any placebo effect about an IC adding horsepower.

The stock IC is capable but the CVF is bigger and was ready to run again quickly.

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[xmod]

This is the IAT2 temp--the hot one--and it is not a single run per one day. It was run several times back-to-back with a small cooldown window in between--just enough to be able to compare the data.

I wouldn't try to drive like a jerk to see if I could force a heatsoak situation, but this is Miami daily-driven so I probably would've noticed if that were an issue by now.

I will say that it was a really short time interval to cool down after a test. I may look at the thousands of rows of data again, but I could probably have paused 30 seconds between slowing down to a stop from a test and starting a new one. The time it took to stop and save the file, etc. may have taken more time than it needed to cool down. That part was noticeable and distinguishable from any placebo effect about an IC adding horsepower.

The stock IC is capable but the CVF is bigger and was ready to run again quickly.

What are your impressions on build quality and fit of this IC? I was looking at the Mishimoto which appears to be very well built and looks like it fits perfectly, but is lacking the amount of temperature decrease compared to the CVF.

 

[Squatch]

What are your impressions on build quality and fit of this IC? I was looking at the Mishimoto which appears to be very well built and looks like it fits perfectly, but is lacking the amount of temperature decrease compared to the CVF.

I was as giddy as a schoolgirl when it arrived and looked so clean and well-made. I showed it off to my friends like baby pictures.

I don't know if my temperatures are better than average, but I am a geek about data and numbers and have used them professionally. Perhaps, the 7MT, 2.3L Badlands is somehow the most helped by the CVF intercooler? I've had to break it to some pretty important people that the data is what it is and sometimes it depends on things out of your control. FORScan is really cool and I logged 10s of thousands of rows of data. If you cherry-pick or set up artificial scenarios, like some car manufacturer did with diesel engines not long ago, then you're robbing yourself of knowing what's really going on and how to fix it or what you did right.

All that to say, I'm super excited about my results, but keep in mind these are real world tests and professional drag racers take the same car to the same track and times vary or more applicable is that they'll race at different altitudes and humidity levels and times vary quite a bit. I am confident that my data is repeatable--because I repeated the test multiple times, haha.

 

[l88m22vette]

This is good stuff, thanks for both the write-up and the data, good call on the piping! Do you have access to the logs? As in, could you pull other metrics to compared? I'd love to see inlet pressure, timing, EGTs, wbo2, and maybe a few others to correlate. A quality bar-and-plate intercooler is going to beat the stock FMIC so it'd be cool to see how other things improve. The endtanks can make a big difference with flow, but I'm sure the new hot/cold pipes helped on that end.

Do you have any kind of exhaust? On an otherwise stock 2.3 the Flowmaster American Thunder axle-back makes an extra ~20hp, and with an intake and upgraded intercooler setup I bet its more

 

[Squatch]

This is good stuff, thanks for both the write-up and the data, good call on the piping! Do you have access to the logs? As in, could you pull other metrics to compared? I'd love to see inlet pressure, timing, EGTs, wbo2, and maybe a few others to correlate. A quality bar-and-plate intercooler is going to beat the stock FMIC so it'd be cool to see how other things improve. The endtanks can make a big difference with flow, but I'm sure the new hot/cold pipes helped on that end.

Do you have any kind of exhaust? On an otherwise stock 2.3 the Flowmaster American Thunder axle-back makes an extra ~20hp, and with an intake and upgraded intercooler setup I bet its more

The test setup was really bone stock and then with the CVF intercooler only. That's the only variable I swapped for testing to get this data.

FORScan requires you to choose sensors to measure and it is not always plain English and there are look-a-likes. So, I didn't get data from all the doo-dads I wanted to measure, unfortunately.

The data is saved in whatever FORScan programmers decided or you can save it as a CSV, which is necessary to get pretty graphs, but it is extremely cumbersome.

The pipes are in now, though, and a couple other things arrived, so anything going forward is going to be skewed by those. Still deciding on an intake/filter.

 

[redone17]

S&B looks mighty fine if you ask me.

 

[nolimits]

Any idea how this compares to the Whipple IC?

 

[redone17]

CVF has 10% off right now…tempting. I also have the hidden winch. So, this thread is helpful. I was wondering if they could be run in conjunction.

 

[Squatch]

Any idea how this compares to the Whipple IC?

I have not tested the Whipple IC, but out of necessity of functionality they look similar. I would expect them to be in the same ballpark assuming similar build quality interally, but I can't say for certain.

 

[Squatch]

CVF has 10% off right now…tempting. I also have the hidden winch. So, this thread is helpful. I was wondering if they could be run in conjunction.

I'm glad this is helpful!

One point on clearance:
The front skid plate for the RC hidden winch is at an angle that requires you to put the front in first--almost vertically--for a few inches and then tilt it level into position. I was just extra careful because of the nice finish. It will be an issue with any intercooler that's thicker than OEM.

 

[mike8675309]

With the volume increase, you may have noticed a slight reduction in response. Have you seen that with your installation?

 

[Billnchristy]

The biggest difference I saw was the stock IC, while definitely running cool when under acceleration, will slowly start building up the average. Example:

90 degrees steady state
80 upon accel
102 upon getting off
92 degrees steady
80 upon accel
105 getting off
94 degree steady

and so on.

With the CVF you go back to steady state and sometimes even dip below the previous number. Also the off throttle heat gain isn't as high and the on throttle cooling is significantly lower.

IE more efficient.

 

[l88m22vette]

I have a new aFe intake with the Pro Dry, but I haven't installed it since that's warranty stuff. There also isn't a snorkel option in case I eventually want that, so I'll probably just sell it. I'd love for Ford to offer an FP turbo inlet, that's the best part of a real intake anyway.

 

[Bareback Broncos]

Nice write up and great phots.

 

[Squatch]

With the volume increase, you may have noticed a slight reduction in response. Have you seen that with your installation?

Sorry I missed responding to this, but I did not notice any negative changes with response and I pushed it. I still do, but I used to too(RIP Mitch).

I also installed their charge pipes and now the Ford Performance tune, love it all.

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