# Intercooler Upgrade



## bodyart (Sep 2, 2008)

Hi All,
Looking for some advice/assistance on a front mounted intercooler upgrade for my 225 roadster.
I am looking at an intercooler upgrade but unfortunately in the current economic climate i simply cant afford/justify phoning forge (or others) and shelling out £500+ on a bolt on FMIC so have been looking at other options to acheive the same results so here are my thoughts.......

As i understand it (and PLEASE people, feel free to correct me - i am NO expert!) its all about cooling the charge as much a possible, which as i see it is down to 3 things - intercooler capacity, frontal area and location of the intercooler (ideally in the airflow?? . I have measured the core sizes of the 2 intercoolers currently fitted and worked out the totl capacity of the cooler and their fronal area. I dont think anyone could say they were in an ideal location for cooling so i will assume you will all agree thi area can be improved upon.

So, upgrade, heres the thought.....
The 2.0TFSI cars have a front mounted intercooler as standard. Having again measured the sizes etc it works out (if my maths are right!!) that this intercooler is a 48% increase in total capacity , a 350% increase in frontal area (its only 22mm thick instead of 85mm) and is located directly in the airflow in front of the radiator. So seems to check all the boxes as a good (and using OEM parts) upgrade. I am thinking that i could fit this in front of the radiator on my car, moving the radiator back by an inch or so if needs be (or even fitting the 2.0TFSI radiator too if needs be - Used IC and new replacemen pattern rad would both be less than half the price of a FMIC kit). I already have a 2.0TFSI intercooler from a Golf GTi edition 30(?) that i got for someone else and didnt end up using, so thats what go me thinking.

Has anyone considered this type of mod??? Does anyone know why this WOULDNT work?????? or what the downsides would be and whether they would affect me in the "real world"????? (i dont do drag strips track days etc etc just drive my car and enjoy it immensely   ) 
I would have thought that Audi might have considered something like this themselves when designing the car rather than sticking the IC's in the wings, but i think in theory it should work - pending your replies of course   
Capacity increase shouldnt be a major issue (i am told) as the turbo etc should all be able to cope for boost pressure etc (but i have no idea how big you can go before it does start to adversely affect the time taken to reach full boost pressure - ie i presume connecting this ALONG with the current 2 intercoolers would be WAY too much, but maybe someone can tell me for sure ?? 
The incease in frontal area and location should be a significant improvement on standard and reduce the charge temp considerably (but again i have no idea by how much!)

So people, please, if you have the time, let the debate begin  ALL thoughts/comments positive or negative greatly received before i jump in and hack my car apart lol


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## Bikerz (Aug 23, 2008)

Dont your all 3 as you will suffer from presssure drop, Just use the front mount one


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## bodyart99uk (Aug 12, 2008)

So you think it would work ok with my original plan?
Mount the front one, disconnect the two standard (but leave them in place)


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## Bikerz (Aug 23, 2008)

Id remove, dont want that excess weight :wink: Its the pipework getting made up thats a pain. Go for it buddy


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## bodyart (Sep 2, 2008)

the intercoolers cant weigh that much surely? lol
with all the extra power you wouldnt notice lol


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## Charlie (Dec 15, 2006)

I think that the general opinion on here is that unless you are going the big turbo route you really won't notice any difference by upgrading to a front mounted intercooler, I think for the time and money you could do more beneficial mods, such as fatter arb's and Defcon's. I have both and they made a huge difference to steering feel and handling.

If you do go ahead them make sure you get some pics as you do it and pop them on here for us to admire your handywork 

Charlie


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## bodyart (Sep 2, 2008)

Thanks for that, greatly appreciated.

Whilst i am not planning a big turbo upgrade at the moment, I may well do in the future, we all know how it goes when the bug bites  

I already have the intercooler (which was going to be used by a friend on another project) so its not like i would be going out to buy it specifically so i recon it might be worth attempting fitting anyway.
There might not be a noticable difference to the driver, but i am pretty sure the engine & fuelling etc would appreciate a drop in charge temp (which should be fairly significant) even if it doesnt give me a noticable power/torque boost, it should, i believe make things a little more reliable and provide a stable base for future upgrades.

In the absence of negative comments from the forum (and i will give it another few days just incase any come in!) i think i may well give it at try. If i do, i will be sure to take loads of photos and do a write up for the forum as these intercoolers seem to sell on ebay in the £50-£100 mark which is significantly cheaper than any of the performance upgrades available (i got this one, a genuine OEM part from a 2007 car for £50 delivered)

Maybe there wil be someone on here with a forge upgrade (or similar) that would be able to provide some pictures and/or measurements of the connecting pipework which would help save some time in having suitable pipes made up (one end & routing of pipes should be the same regardless of the intercooler being fitted to the other end  )

I will keep you all posted


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## scott_159 (Jan 23, 2009)

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4380953

http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/showthread.php?t=75425

looks very easy to me mate and im with you on the thinking. go for it and do something different! :wink:


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## bodyart (Sep 2, 2008)

thanks scott, those two links should be enough to get the pipework planning moved forward
will keep you all posted when it starts  hopefully it will provide good results


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## Bikerz (Aug 23, 2008)

The guy on audi sport is located in same town as me. Im going to send him a PM


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## RTune (Oct 22, 2008)

this only helps if you have a 225! i have a 180  !


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