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ECS MK7 GTI/Golf R Intercooler Upgrades!

Jovian

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Denver, CO
Car(s)
2016 VW GTI
I ordered the stock charge pipe kit. It came in 2 boxes; one with all the supporting hardware and pipes, one was just intercooler all by itself. The intercooler box was huge compared to the size of the intercooler, almost comically huge. The intercooler is packed in thick pieces of foam that are cut like a puzzle to fit around it on all sides. I'll try to remember to grab a few pics of packaging tonight.

Sounds like they upped their packaging game, good news
 

seanmcd1

Autocross Newbie
Location
SC
Would be cool if someone did a controlled before and after experiment using Dragy to see if this IC makes their car any quicker or faster. The last two times I tested aftermarket intercoolers on two different cars there was no appreciable gain.
How much is a Dragy? I'm definitely going to do some before/after logging with VCDS once the 90F+ days kick in here. I'm just not sure one could do an accurate test with 1/4 mile runs unless you did a shit ton of them in a row before and after.

PS I wasn't exactly guessing at the weight - its somewhere between 17.8 and 18 lbs for sure after weighing it with me on my cheap digital bathroom scale :D.
 
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reverend_sean

Go Kart Champion
Location
Pittsburgh
PS I wasn't exactly guessing at the weight - its somewhere between 17.8 and 18 lbs for sure after weighing it with me on my cheap digital bathroom scale :D.

Yeah the whole kit including IC, pipes, clamps, brackets, etc. is probably less than 25 lbs. Not bad
 

NopeR

Autocross Champion
Car(s)
18 Golf R
Intercooler upgrades aren't designed to make your car faster. They're designed to help keep consistent performance compared to the oem setup due to heat soak.
 

NopeR

Autocross Champion
Car(s)
18 Golf R
You didn't see more consistent results after upgrading? The oem setup bogs down power pretty bad after a few pulls. It's rather noticeable.
 

NopeR

Autocross Champion
Car(s)
18 Golf R
Cold-ish day? I've read some logs that show iat's go through the roof and the run times get progressively worse. But those are in 95°+ outside temps.
 

mopar22

Autocross Newbie
Location
Michigan
Car(s)
16 GTI
I’d say you’re wrong since I live in southern FL.

The consistency doesn’t change when it’s hot or cold. The stock intercooler is fantastic.
Considering it was at a high of 76 and low of 60 in miami that day and then the next morning was 59 to 55 means you were probably doing pulls right around 65-60 degree weather. That is vastly different then 76 and even bigger difference during the day in the middle of summer where a stock intercooler could not keep up over that time.
 

Roadhog

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
USA
Car(s)
19' R
These are back to back runs with the stock IC. Doesn’t get anymore consistent than this... The bogging you feel could be psychological.

LMAO are you for real? 5 minutes between runs isn't back to back. Coasting from 110mph is enough to drop your intake temps drastically. Plus I'm sure you drove back to your spot between runs which would cool down the intake temps. I get serious heat soak during a session of autocross that the intercooler needs to be sprayed with water between runs as to not have a drastic power reduction.

I'm sure you have all the fany data logging tool, so give it a shot next time, you will see your "back to back" runs were enough to cool down your temps.

Doing a 12 second dragy run then having 5 minutes before the next isn't going to heat soak anything. Running a 1.5 minute autox course in 90f days, then sitting in the staging lane with a roasting engine is how you get heat soak.
 

Roadhog

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
USA
Car(s)
19' R
The first two runs at the top of the list occurred within 1 minute of each other.

I don’t have any data for autocrossing or road racing. You could be right although I’m not sure how this intercooler would be any better if the car is “sitting in the staging lane with a roasting engine?” ANY intercooler will get heat soaked without airflow. Not sure how many people buying this product are autocrossing their cars though.

Well, a cooler IAT at the end of a run is a cooler IAT you have to deal with. You get heat soak throughout the run... Temps just keep going up till you stop. Lower speeds and very high rpms will do that.

Maybe this one does nothing. I don't see any data backing up anything. I have seen that the IE intercooler is a nice upgrade even over your R IC.

Anyways, I don't think drag racing is a good test of an intercoolers ability to handle heat. The time in boost is short and the time out of boost is even longer. Autocross or a Road course is a much better test.
 

NopeR

Autocross Champion
Car(s)
18 Golf R
Yup. All the logs I've seen where heat soak occurs and power levels drop considerably were from track sessions. I imagine autocross would be even worse as you're not going as fast and there's no long straights to have direct air flow.
 
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