REVIEW: Whoosh intercooler charge pipe kit

[jeff]

Hey folks,

Today I installed these products on my car:

Whoosh 6-piece silicone hoses w/clamps:
https://whoosh-motorsports.myshopif...-hose-kit-free-shipping?variant=9002450550847

Whoosh hot side J-pipe:
https://whoosh-motorsports.myshopif...i-flo-hot-side-intercooler-pipe-free-shipping
[MENTION=5976]ron@whoosh[/MENTION] was very kind and helpful in providing me a kit at a discounted rate in exchange for a proper review. I was searching for a kit, he chimed in, and after some research I realized that his kit is very similar to the Mountune kit (which is a very good thing) for about half the price (another good thing). After determining that this mod isn't going to bring any real gains, as the pipes in question are not a weak link in our car's system, I decided that replacing everything with hard pipes was not for me and at that point the Whoosh kit was the best option. I do think that there should be some flex and that also drew me to the silicone option as opposed to the hard pipe kits. People are breaking tabs and such, IMHO there should be some flex here, and the silicone pipes allow flex to happen. Despite it not adding power I decided on this mod because I just had a birthday and felt jovial and what the heck why not?

So if Ron and I lived in the same city I'd buy him the best pizza and beer in town and we'd chat about life and cars. Thanks again Ron!

A few thoughts:

PRICE
As I said with the right coupon/discount you can get all of this for about half of the price of the Mountune kit which it seems is about identical to this one.

QUALITY
A+...these parts are well-made and they look great.

INSTALL
Won't go into much here...just remove the headlights/bumper (find Cobb's FMIC tutorial and watch my headlight removal video to avoid cussing or breaking the tabs) and there it all is. Watch out, there is grit and it will get in your eyes if you're not careful. The OEM pipes seem to be glued on so there is some struggle involved, watch my video below for more 411 on that. Overall not bad, it took me a few hours start to finish moving at a slow pace which included lunch, a nap, and watching my kid toss Star Wars figures out of her RC truck.

IMPRESSIONS
Props to Ron for saying himself that this was not a "must do" mod but that for the price it's a nice piece to get. That's pretty much my impression. Ron's thoughts from another thread:

the intercooler from the factory isn't very good(small, plastic end tanks, heat soaks too quick, etc) but the charge pipes seem to be up to the task. This small hot side pipe section juist needs some help and who wants a sound baffle?
that's why it's replaced.
The silicone hose upgrades to the OEM charge pipes are don't expand under high boost pressure and will not blow off nearly as easy due to the tighter fit and higher quality clamps used.
Not mandatory mods but good to have if you can grab them while you are adding the upgraded FMIC

-Ron

Again a very honest assessment, I feel exactly 100% the same.

A few benefits I can think of:
1, bling (someone get the purple!!!)
2, better quality over OEM
3, perhaps a bit more flow because of resonator (sound baffle) removal
4, support small business in Nevada
5, perhaps a few HP due to #2 and #3 above

I will say this - after putting everything back together I took a drive. Car feels the same, a little more turbo noise but very subtle, but nice nonetheless. Curiously my boost PSI reads about 1 PSI higher than usual. Not sure if that means anything; the car feels the same. Could be a fluke. Also notable is that I installed a sound symposer delete while doing the charge pipes; it is possible that there was a minor leak since I've been putting all this pressure through the symposer, and now that it's capped off properly I no longer have a boost leak. I don't think I had a leak, I'm just theorizing here. However I doubt that is the case...maybe the stars were aligned and I made more boost than usual. Not sure what's up. Interesting nonetheless. I'm not saying that installing the Whoosh parts will bump your boost by 1 PSI. But it did happen in my case. Maybe not the reason it happened, but still interesting. I rarely see my boost peak into the 26s (I think my previous high was 26.13 on my e30 tune), and never as high as the pic below. Hmmmmmm….I know for sure that you CAN feel an extra pound of boost. Just the facts here, no bias involved, but it is noteworthy. Maybe after a few more drives I'll have more impressions.

VIDEO:
[video=youtube;4K1RdW5mBNY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K1RdW5mBNY[/video]

PICS:

My daughter thought my car was totaled...

The parts...

Cold side pipe out, installing the Whoosh stuff in place of the OEM stuff...

Installed a homemade symposer delete while in there...

Perfect fit!!!!

Comparison...

Guts of the OEM resonator...

This one (hot side) is a bit longer than OEM which is nice...

A few more pics of this fine product...

Polluting the earth with waste...

Accessport shows higher boost than usual.....hmmmmm…..

Thanks for reading!

 

[ROCKYFiestta]

by any chance did you also install one of the turbo inlet adaptors? just curious if you did that as well as part of your setup. looks great btw

 

[CasperFavela85]

This is great!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ron@whoosh]

great review - thank you Jeff

just saw this
I have family in from out of state - been off the radar for a few days

 

[Se7eN]

I have the same set of Silicone tubes in Black (and your same Rota Grid Hyper Black in my Tuxedo Black) and I have to say the tubes even though they don't do much on terms of performance are a heck of a lot better then the stock rubber ones which where actually inflating a bit under boost with my upgraded turbo. The where really a good fit and easy to install.

 

[jeff]

UPDATE

I'm cross posting this in another thread, why you will find out below...

Just a quick update on this mod...a few observations...

1, in the last few weeks I added (a) a symposer delete (b) the Whoosh charge pipe kit and (c) a Pumaspeed lightweight pulley...
2, before any of these mods the highest my Cobb AP HP estimate gave was 292...
3, since adding those mods I'm now hitting over 300 on the Cobb...

Point being: It seems very probably that either the pipe kit or the pulley or BOTH have added/freed a bit of power. Another theory I have is this - when I added the pipe kit I deleted the symposer. It is possible that there was a previously undiscovered minor boost leak which robbed power, as the symposer might not be able to handle all of this...and now that it's blocked off, no more leak, therefore more power. In any case it seems there is a small power increase since these 3 mods were recently done.

Don't concern yourself with the boost number, yes it's high for an X47 but it just peaks there, my tune keeps it right around 25.4. Also I have already taken into account the fact that it is colder, but it's no colder than when I hit 292 previously. Also no I don't bank on the AP as a reliable source of HP numbers, however I will say that before it read 292 and I dyno'd at 298 so it's pretty darn close. However the torque is off, says 280s and I hit 322 on dyno.

In any case, I'm going to a real dyno before long to see what the car is making so we will see...

 

[TemecFist]

Do factory hoses and clamps work with the Whoosh J pipe?

 

[Erick_V]

Do factory hoses and clamps work with the Whoosh J pipe?

Yes. They will work, if you buy his updated hot side pipe or the “S” boost hose (or both) it will come with new clamps that are a little more sturdy than the stock ones. This is the one I got, I opted for both and the fitment was spot on:

https://whoosh-motorsports.myshopif...iesta-st-free-shipping?variant=15718476841023

 

[TemecFist]

Yes. They will work, if you buy his updated hot side pipe or the “S” boost hose (or both) it will come with new clamps that are a little more sturdy than the stock ones. This is the one I got, I opted for both and the fitment was spot on:

https://whoosh-motorsports.myshopif...iesta-st-free-shipping?variant=15718476841023

Awesome. Thanks for the reply

 

[PunkST]

Im going to be ordering the purple to match my intake pipe soon as i get the car back.