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Hot and humid, stop and go.....Intercooler or Twintercooler

mindonmatter

Ready to race!
Location
Houston Area
I'm in Houston. 8 month out of the year it's over 90 degrees, high high humidity. Lots of stop and go.

I have a magic intercooler and a twintercooler sitting in my garage and I'm torn which one to install.

Any advise for my climate? Which type of intercooler would be best for me? I'm more concerned with daily driving temps and drivability.

I have a DP ready to install and willl be going to Stage 2 once the IC and DP are in.

Thanks.
 

swcrow

Autocross Champion
Location
Virginia
Car(s)
7.5 GTI
IC. I'm not sure there's legitimate evidence that doubling up on intercoolers helps any better than just a straight FMIC. PM GTI Jake....he's a wealth of knowledge on this subject.
 

avenali312

Autocross Champion
Location
Mableton, GA
Car(s)
2015 GTI
I'm in a similar situation here just wanting some extra cooling for my daily drives in stop and go traffic. I think general consensus around here is that a direct IC replacement is more efficient. That's based off of some light reading I was doing not too long ago anyway. It's just unfortunate you can't see it through the grille like you can an FMIC.
 

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
Adding turbulent heat soaked air in with your nice cool air is never a good idea.

Real question is FMIC vs Direct replacement.

So 2 hour install vs 4-5 hour installation

Better or equal performance with a properly built FMIC, Swcrow along with almost 50 others can agree with me that it’s an easy decision when broken down
 

avenali312

Autocross Champion
Location
Mableton, GA
Car(s)
2015 GTI
Adding turbulent heat soaked air in with your nice cool air is never a good idea.

Real question is FMIC vs Direct replacement.

So 2 hour install vs 4-5 hour installation

Better or equal performance with a properly built FMIC, Swcrow along with almost 50 others can agree with me that it’s an easy decision when broken down

Install time is a good point, I just wasn't sure if the testing had been done to compare if an FMIC could be equal to a direct replacement. Know of any threads with numbers?
 

mindonmatter

Ready to race!
Location
Houston Area
Just to be clear, I am wanting to compare a direct replacement upgrade to a twintercooler. A true FMIC may be better, but these are the two intercoolers I have in my possession and I'm not buying a 3rd haha.

Thanks for the replies so far!
 

avenali312

Autocross Champion
Location
Mableton, GA
Car(s)
2015 GTI
Just to be clear, I am wanting to compare a direct replacement upgrade to a twintercooler. A true FMIC may be better, but these are the two intercoolers I have in my possession and I'm not buying a 3rd haha.

Thanks for the replies so far!

Ah, I don't know why when I read Magic in the first post I was thinking Majesty and the FMIC haha.
 

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
Just to be clear, I am wanting to compare a direct replacement upgrade to a twintercooler. A true FMIC may be better, but these are the two intercoolers I have in my possession and I'm not buying a 3rd haha.

Thanks for the replies so far!

If you have them both install them both lol, when in Rome
 

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
Install time is a good point, I just wasn't sure if the testing had been done to compare if an FMIC could be equal to a direct replacement. Know of any threads with numbers?

There’s tons of info out there it’s just spread out.

My kit is 25% larger than any of the other stand alone FMIC out there and that makes a BIG difference

A member here (Real name is Jeff) has a graph of data but omitted several of my customers logs for dropping below ambient in vacuum (during shifts on long multi gear pulls). Bottom line is any intercooler is better than stock by a long shot, so don’t feel like I’m pushing that my FMIC is the only one worth doing. But given the overall value (Performance + price + fitment + customer support + labor to install) it’s hard to pass up

Where a FMIC shines is where Jeff’s tests and data logs normally posted wouldnt dare go. On the track, on the dyno, or in smoking hot stop and go traffic it recovers almost instantaneously regardless of how long that abuse is sustained because it’s not trapped in radiant heat like a direct replacement.








Btw the screen shots are from IG, a guy who bought my kit used from one of my customers!
 
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Acadia18

Autocross Champion
Location
The Greater Boston Metropolitan Area
Car(s)
2019 Golf R
Adding turbulent heat soaked air in with your nice cool air is never a good idea.


Just to make sure I understand, are you saying that a twincooler offers no performance gain, and more effects it in a negative way?
 

mindonmatter

Ready to race!
Location
Houston Area
I just bought an air conditioner for my garage. Can't wait to do all these installs in nice cold dry air!
 

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
Just to make sure I understand, are you saying that a twincooler offers no performance gain, and more effects it in a negative way?

I suspect in extreme conditions the OEM IC will negatively impact a twintercooler. However my only personal Twintercooler experience was on my mk6 2011-2013. Like I said anything is better than stock by a LOT, but bicoolers are marketing BS not engineering.

Jeff did an independent test where he drove the same loop twice with an eBay intercooler. Once as you’d normally run it, then again with block off plates eliminating the OEM unit from the airflow.

Results were close but makeshift FMIC alone won. He said it was too close to call IIRC, but I personally think it’s inconclusive since he didn’t push the car in extreme conditions. A normal daily commute with a pull or two is far from a true test IMO if you want to find the weakness of a cooling piece it needs to find its limit (or at least try)
 

Acadia18

Autocross Champion
Location
The Greater Boston Metropolitan Area
Car(s)
2019 Golf R
I suspect in extreme conditions the OEM IC will negatively impact a twintercooler. However my only personal Twintercooler experience was on my mk6 2011-2013. Like I said anything is better than stock by a LOT, but bicoolers are marketing BS not engineering.

Jeff did an independent test where he drove the same loop twice with an eBay intercooler. Once as you’d normally run it, then again with block off plates eliminating the OEM unit from the airflow.

Results were close but makeshift FMIC alone won. He said it was too close to call IIRC, but I personally think it’s inconclusive since he didn’t push the car in extreme conditions. A normal daily commute with a pull or two is far from a true test IMO if you want to find the weakness of a cooling piece it needs to find its limit (or at least try)

Yeah, I just read through his test results. With summer coming up, I'm just trying weigh which options would be best to keep IAT's down while balancing cost, ease, and performance.
 
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