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MAGIC/MAJESTY (eBay) 16.4 liter Intercooler

arob157

Drag Racing Champion
Location
USA
Decided to take a look at IATs today to make me smile. Used obdEleven for simplicity. Low and behold they were quite higher than they should have been. The morning before I took some logs and they were fine. Temps were 71F ambient both days. Intake temps were 100F+. They would drop in an aftermarket intercooler trend, but were just too high for something not to have been wrong. Boost and all looked good, timing wasn't too far off.

Checked all hoses and and everything looked great. Was gonna just leave it to heat soak, but something was fishy. Took the intake cowl off and was inspecting the seal etc. Went to reinstall and sure enough, I had not seated it into the grill all the way. Hopefully that helps. Didn't remember it installing that far. I had installed it into the first bolt slot that is actually for the tab to seat into.

Just a lesson from someone who missed that detail.
 

arob157

Drag Racing Champion
Location
USA
The fan blades are far enough from that plastic support piece that even if there was momentary push from the piping, it wouldn't cause an issue. I had the same fitment problem, and while I was worried at first, I haven't seen any issues.

I definitely saw that. Now I need to put something in between the coolant hose and the intake. That is super close to the intake now as well.
 

mk7gti2.0

Ready to race!
Location
De Soto, MO
Honestly temps will be 20 to 30 degrees over ambient with this intercooler if it's hot outside and your just cruising around especially with the AC on. But WOT will drop temps down very quickly sometimes only a degree or two higher than ambient.
 

arob157

Drag Racing Champion
Location
USA
Honestly temps will be 20 to 30 degrees over ambient with this intercooler if it's hot outside and your just cruising around especially with the AC on. But WOT will drop temps down very quickly sometimes only a degree or two higher than ambient.

I suppose that is one 'disadvantage' to a stock location IC. That being said, my IATs were drastically better this AM after correcting my install error. I was pulling in a ton of air from the engine bay. Gonna get one of the factory blocker plates for the intake as well.

Maybe some heat tape for the radiator hose under the intake. The intake is actually up against the radiator in one location (albeit extremely minor).
 

aameghoo

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Atlanta, GA
Stop asking questions and buy it already............:p

Not an R (as you know), but I used the stock hoses. They were in really good shape and hence I was able to use them to keep the stock look at my car.

Ordered the Intercooler Thursday Aug 16 and received it exactly one week later Aug 23. With the help of Renck, we got the intercooler installed last Friday. Didn't have any issues at all really. To his suggestion we shaved BOTH posts, not just one, to match the factory intercooler in my 15' R and everything fit perfectly on the first try. No gaps after putting everything together.

With the AC off, I'm now only about 10 degrees above ambient after extended runs. We went on a 4 hour mountain drive this past weekend and heatsoak was nonexistent, power delivery was much more consistent compared to previous drives.

Here's a 360 timelapse of the install, remember you can pan around in the video, again shoutout to Renck, he was a ton of help with the install

360 Degree Timelapse video of install

https://youtu.be/OSNFrcuy7-4
 

mk7gti2.0

Ready to race!
Location
De Soto, MO
I suppose that is one 'disadvantage' to a stock location IC. That being said, my IATs were drastically better this AM after correcting my install error. I was pulling in a ton of air from the engine bay. Gonna get one of the factory blocker plates for the intake as well.

Maybe some heat tape for the radiator hose under the intake. The intake is actually up against the radiator in one location (albeit extremely minor).

Good to hear it's doing better since you fixed the intake. But you are right the bigger intercooler takes more psi to push the air across the bigger core. But really heatsoak isn't really much a issue. Definitely well worth the 250 bux it cost.
 
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GTI787

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Ft. Lauderdale
Car(s)
2016 GTI
Honestly temps will be 20 to 30 degrees over ambient with this intercooler if it's hot outside and your just cruising around especially with the AC on. But WOT will drop temps down very quickly sometimes only a degree or two higher than ambient.

This is pretty much the same with any IC upgrade of this size. I’ve been running this IC in S Florida with 0 issues and loving it every day!
 

geokilla

Go Kart Champion
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Car(s)
2018 VW GTI DSG
Probably going to pick up the intercooler tomorrow since eBay has 15% off and then eBates Canada has 15% cash back on top. Aside from the intercooler and the hoses, did anyone need to buy anything else? I recall reading something about plastic clips or something.

My GTI is stock right now but I plan on upgrading to Stage 1 in the future. Don't know how long these 15% deals will last but I figure nothing can beat 15% off plus an additional 15% cash back even if eBay keeps on having these 15% off promotions for the next year.
 

Clem604

Autocross Champion
Location
Vancouver BC, Canada
Car(s)
2018 VW GTI
Aside from the intercooler and the hoses, did anyone need to buy anything else? I recall reading something about plastic clips or something

You don't even need the extra hoses really, you can just reuse the stock ones. As for the clips, they help in the sense that you can just break the existing clips off the IC as a much easier way of getting them off.
 
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Stump909

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Southeast, US
I’ve noticed more brands are starting to pop-up, some with visual differences like uniformly shaped inlet/outlet (ie doesnt taper off to a smaller diameter) and inlet fins.
 

geokilla

Go Kart Champion
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Car(s)
2018 VW GTI DSG
I received my intercooler and didn't inspect it yet. However a friend was saying that his boss has a modified RX-8, and when you upgrade your intercooler you also need to upgrade the thermostats and sensors so the ECU knows the air from the intercooler is colder for the engine and what not. Is that required?
 

GTI787

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Ft. Lauderdale
Car(s)
2016 GTI
I received my intercooler and didn't inspect it yet. However a friend was saying that his boss has a modified RX-8, and when you upgrade your intercooler you also need to upgrade the thermostats and sensors so the ECU knows the air from the intercooler is colder for the engine and what not. Is that required?

None of that is required for our cars.
 

ITGUY

Autocross Newbie
Location
PA
I received my intercooler and didn't inspect it yet. However a friend was saying that his boss has a modified RX-8, and when you upgrade your intercooler you also need to upgrade the thermostats and sensors so the ECU knows the air from the intercooler is colder for the engine and what not. Is that required?


I'm going to say I've never heard of that... why would you change the thermostats and air temp sensors when that is what they do.. detect temperature?
 

Oldschoolmk7

Go Kart Champion
Location
Yonder
Make sure yall once the front bumper clip is off to pop out the air diverters on both sides of grill area. This helps bring in more air into sandwich condenser/ic/radiator area. My A/C blew ice cold. :).
 

afman916

Ready to race!
Location
Raleigh, NC
So I’ll finally be installing this tomorrow and went and picked up hardware from Lowe’s last night. Unfortunately they only had M5x12 and M6x12 (and I’ll be using the 2” mending plate); will the couple extra mms of height pose a problem?
 
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