[jwebb335xi]

Hey everyone,

I had posted a couple times about an FMIC for 2008 335xi. My goals were to decrease intake temps while maintaining as little of a pressure loss as possible. And, I didn't want to cut anything.

I ended up with an ETS 5". It's a great looking piece of hardware and installed as promised. That is, no cutting was required. Everything fit nicely and I'll note that I have the long version of the ER charge pipe with dual Forge diverters. Again, no problems getting that all to mate up - except that i didn't clamp tightly enough and on my first test run, the charge pipe tubing came loose. No worries, 10 minutes with an 11 mm and I'm back in business without problems and its tested to 6500 RPMs on several pulls.

I need to change my APV3 to Stage 1+ aggressive, which should give me about 15-16 PSI. That may require a spring swap on my forge diverters, which isn't a big deal.

When I have some free time, I'll pull a few logs and test intake temp against ambient and post up a chart or two.

[Flex68]

any pics of the fitment of cooler etc ???

[jwebb335xi]

Originally Posted by jwebb335xi

Hey everyone,

I had posted a couple times about an FMIC for 2008 335xi. My goals were to decrease intake temps while maintaining as little of a pressure loss as possible. And, I didn't want to cut anything.

I ended up with an ETS 5". It's a great looking piece of hardware and installed as promised. That is, no cutting was required. Everything fit nicely and I'll note that I have the long version of the ER charge pipe with dual Forge diverters. Again, no problems getting that all to mate up - except that i didn't clamp tightly enough and on my first test run, the charge pipe tubing came loose. No worries, 10 minutes with an 11 mm and I'm back in business without problems and its tested to 6500 RPMs on several pulls.

I need to change my APV3 to Stage 1+ aggressive, which should give me about 15-16 PSI. That may require a spring swap on my forge diverters, which isn't a big deal.

When I have some free time, I'll pull a few logs and test intake temp against ambient and post up a chart or two.

I've posted a few pictures of the FMIC in the car. As you can see, it fits perfectly and the Tbolts do their magic.

[Sgop335]

Looks good! The 5" ETS is a great choice. I would like to get one to swap my 7" vrsf.

Any gaps in the front visible thru the grill?

[Bigboost_E92]

What don't you like about the vrsf 7"?

[mike@x-ph.com]

Thank you for sharing

[Brule]

Vrsf 7 inch should be better then ets 5 inch

[n54gte]

Originally Posted by Brule

Vrsf 7 inch should be better then ets 5 inch

explain

[Cloud9blue]

Originally Posted by n54gte

explain

assuming the design of the cores are similar, vrsf has cast end tanks, which flows better, and it is a 7", so more cooling capacity.

but if you want something that doesn't require a trim, 5" ets is a decent choice...

[jwebb335xi]

Originally Posted by Sgop335

Looks good! The 5" ETS is a great choice. I would like to get one to swap my 7" vrsf.

Any gaps in the front visible thru the grill?

It fills the same horizontal and vertical space as the stock FMIC, but appears to be an inch or so deeper, which you can't tell by looking through the grill. That said, if you're on hands and knees with your nose pressed to the bumper you can tell that the inter-cooler does not take-up the entire width of the lower bumper openings. Those are an inch or so wider than the FMIC near the top, horizontal line about where the license plate is attached. The stock, dirtier FMIC must have been the same and I never noticed. It looks good to me and I doubt anyone would know it's not stock. In fact, the only real way to tell is to see the silicone hoses down toward the bottom of the radiator coming from the FMIC to the charge pipe and hot side inlet. And, you can only see that once you're under the hood and looking.

For what it's worth, my car is now Stage 1+ and unless I have my summer wheels and tires on it looks completely stock. That said, it's substantially quicker than a stock 335xi. I'd guess with DPs and Exhaust it would be about as quick as a stock M3.

[jwebb335xi]

Originally Posted by Sgop335

Looks good! The 5" ETS is a great choice. I would like to get one to swap my 7" vrsf.

Any gaps in the front visible thru the grill?

Here's a picture I took of the front grill - see for yourself. It's fine by me but others may have different tastes.

[Sgop335]

Originally Posted by jwebb335xi

Here's a picture I took of the front grill - see for yourself. It's fine by me but others may have different tastes.

Looks good! Mine has a gap.

[Brule]

Both have decent staggered cores and the vrsf 7 inch has more capacity to suppress iats for longer.
Ets is known to be one of the best intercoolers but no need to go from a 7 inch vrsf to a ets 5 inch. At the top of 4th gear with high boost and hot ambient temps vrsf might hold iats lower.
I would like to see ets and vrsf 7 inch intercooler comparisons.

I don't have any vrsf products.

[Sgop335]

Originally Posted by Brule

Both have decent staggered cores and the vrsf 7 inch has more capacity to suppress iats for longer.
Ets is known to be one of the best intercoolers but no need to go from a 7 inch vrsf to a ets 5 inch. At the top of 4th gear with high boost and hot ambient temps vrsf might hold iats lower.
I would like to see ets and vrsf 7 inch intercooler comparisons.

I don't have any vrsf products.

Thanks for your input. May be mine is a older 7 vrsf or so, hate the gap. Sorry! Also for my untuned car an efficient 5 should be fine. I dont want the gap I havent decided one way or another but the ets design looks great.

[Brule]

That explains it.

[Flex68]

How much was the ets cooler ??? I need a 5 inch as I'll never go bigger than stock turbos .... Was gonna go vrsf 5 stepper