What intercooler for GTI?

[h100vw]

Mainly because they use coast down losses to calculate flywheel figures.

Gavin

[MountainBikeMike]

So what does everyone think about cheap Twintercooler knock offs like this:

VW Golf MK5 MK6 GTI FSI Jetta 2 0T A3 Turbo Twin Intercooler KIT Black | eBay

And this slightly bigger and more expensive one:

VW Golf GTI 06 10 2 0T Turbo MK5 Fmic Intercooler KIT Version 2 RED | eBay

I get that the lower quality and expense may present problems in manufacture leading to high resistance etc. Just wondering how much risk there is of this and the side effects. These units are my price range and I cannot spend any more. I drive the car mostly on mountain runs with long hours in the 3-5000rpm range (3rd/4th).

Cheers

[gavs]

Seriously, if you cannot afford the better quality intercooler, don't buy one. With cheap or poorly designed / though out intercoolers you are going to make the car worse, not better. The turbo sucks air through the intake tract so if you're either adding a restriction into the system, you make the turbo work harder to create the volume of air it is being requested to make. This means it sucks the air quicker, negating any possible cooling effect from the cooler and basically making your cheap, grill-filling intercooler a 2 kilo dead weight off the front of your car. For the money you would outlay for either of those 2 coolers you will be much better of getting a catch can and a few cans of degreaser to clean out your existing factory cooler.

When looking at an intercooler you have to consider 2 things that both need to be better than the factory product. 1) volume. The bigger the volume, the more cool air that can be sucked out and 2) flow. Volume is fine but if the cooler doesn't flow the same or better than stock then your generating turbo lag to suck out that big volume of air in the bigger cooler or your introducing a restriction that strains everything further than it should be.

This is why I bought the hp cooler, it was the only one in the world that could back up its claims and it was better in both volume AND flow.

[rjg]

Seriously, if you cannot afford the better quality intercooler, don't buy one. With cheap or poorly designed / though out intercoolers you are going to make the car worse, not better.

How's the old saying go, you either pay now or you pay later.

[gavs]

How's the old saying go, you either pay now or you pay later.

Exactly. I used to be involved in the tuned toyota scene and the amount of times I heard the same story of "I bought this intercooler kit off eBay for $200, cool!" Which turned into "I had to replace all the hoses..." Then "I had to replace all the clamps..." Followed by "turns out the intercooler had a leak...." Etc etc. by the end, they could have just bought a decent cooler and been done with it!

[Lucas_R]

So what does everyone think about cheap Twintercooler knock offs like this:

VW Golf MK5 MK6 GTI FSI Jetta 2 0T A3 Turbo Twin Intercooler KIT Black | eBay

And this slightly bigger and more expensive one:

VW Golf GTI 06 10 2 0T Turbo MK5 Fmic Intercooler KIT Version 2 RED | eBay

I get that the lower quality and expense may present problems in manufacture leading to high resistance etc. Just wondering how much risk there is of this and the side effects. These units are my price range and I cannot spend any more. I drive the car mostly on mountain runs with long hours in the 3-5000rpm range (3rd/4th).

Cheers

Mike - im running this exact intercooler on my car and it works fine. The car makes good power (211.7kw) and consistent power on the dyno and the quality of the intercooler and hoses was a lot better than i had initially expected it to be. The silicone hoses are reinforced and are quite thick. My only real gripe with it was that the hose clamps weren't all that great - but $20 buys you a better set of those. The quality of the cast end tanks was good, fitment was good, and the core is so big, that there is plenty of flow capability for a K03 or K04 turbo. I've had it on my car for about 18 months now and absolutely no issues.

Honestly all of the SPM, THS, Eurojet, Godspeed etc etc intercooler's are the same Chinese made stuff with a different logo on the side. The only intercooler that seems to differ is the APR unit, which is no doubt a better unit, but also about 5 times more expensive.

There are a couple of guys on the VWGolf.net forum running the same intercooler on their Golf R's which are Garrett GTX28 turbo upgrade's and their car's are making 250kw at the wheels, and this intercooler is more than up to the task.

Here are some pics of the unit and install info etc: THS Copy Intercooler review and installation pictorial semi-DIY

To be honest, i purchased this intercooler kit to try it but essentially thought it would be a piece of crap and that i would end up selling it for a loss - but it surprised me. For $400 delivered it fits well, performs well (dyno proven) and is a decent quality item.

[MountainBikeMike]

Mike - im running this exact intercooler on my car and it works fine. The car makes good power (211.7kw) and consistent power on the dyno and the quality of the intercooler and hoses was a lot better than i had initially expected it to be. The silicone hoses are reinforced and are quite thick. My only real gripe with it was that the hose clamps weren't all that great - but $20 buys you a better set of those. The quality of the cast end tanks was good, fitment was good, and the core is so big, that there is plenty of flow capability for a K03 or K04 turbo. I've had it on my car for about 18 months now and absolutely no issues.

Honestly all of the SPM, THS, Eurojet, Godspeed etc etc intercooler's are the same Chinese made stuff with a different logo on the side. The only intercooler that seems to differ is the APR unit, which is no doubt a better unit, but also about 5 times more expensive.

There are a couple of guys on the VWGolf.net forum running the same intercooler on their Golf R's which are Garrett GTX28 turbo upgrade's and their car's are making 250kw at the wheels, and this intercooler is more than up to the task.

Here are some pics of the unit and install info etc: THS Copy Intercooler review and installation pictorial semi-DIY

To be honest, i purchased this intercooler kit to try it but essentially thought it would be a piece of crap and that i would end up selling it for a loss - but it surprised me. For $400 delivered it fits well, performs well (dyno proven) and is a decent quality item.

Thanks for that. I'll definitely take your word on it. I'll get one in a couple of months.

This one in particular is quite tall. Does it not block the stock radiator and send hot air from this one back through the stock one?

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

[Lucas_R]

Thanks for that. I'll definitely take your word on it. I'll get one in a couple of months.

This one in particular is quite tall. Does it not block the stock radiator and send hot air from this one back through the stock one?

The aftermarket intercooler is approx 55mm thick, so about 15-20mm thicker than the OEM intercooler. It sits in between the radiator and a/c condenser (Radiator is closest to the engine, then intercooler, then a/c condenser closest to the front of the car). Other dimensions (width x height) are very similar or same to OEM.

In fitting the aftermarket intercooler, the stock unit is removed and replaced with the aftermarket unit.

[AndrewBurns]

Actually on the polo gti I believe that the intercooler sits under the AC condenser, that's why the APR cooler has the step in thickness (top part goes in front of condenser).

[Lucas_R]

Whoops....i just realised myself and MountainbikeMike have been talking about intercoolers for the Golf 5/6 and Skoda Octy in a Polo thread. Sorry chaps.