Uprated Intercooler on 1.9 TDi

[Mollygoogle]

Browsing through the Darkside website and uprated intercoolers caught my eye, not FMIC, just uprated in the factory position.

Is there much benefit to them on a 1.9 running 180bhp? Only other physical mods to engine are K&N panel, EGR blank and a decat.
Would I need to get it mapped to suit the uprated intercooler? I assume not as you normally map to compensate for an FMIC as it has moved and boost pipework has changed length, etc?

Has anyone done the conversion to an uprated cooler on theirs?

p.s. it was looking at the Darkside website that got me thinking, though they dont actually list one for the A4

 

[adamss24]

A uprated intercooler has absolutely no benefit unless you're running a hybrid or larger turbo which puts more heat in the cylinders. Also the factory intercooler is pretty efficient out of the box unless you're living very high up the mountains or in a hot country ! FMIC's also add to the lag as the turbo needs to work harder to fill in the enlarged/extended pipework... Upgrade the turbo then think of an intercooler and new map ! Early a4 v6 tdi used a twin intercooler setup with all alloy intercoolers so they can take a lot more boost before going pop !

 

[stu_m]

I have heard the OE intercooler is good for about 300bhp how true this is I dont know!

 

[Mollygoogle]

As per my original post, not FMIC, but a replacement that sits in the standard position

 

[steve wallace]

a fmic would require no extra length in the pipe work as one of the pipes already runs across the front of the car(in the subframe)
I fitted a fmic to my old rs turbo that was running a standard turbo and it increased the power by 25bhp and that was verified by a rolling road session

 

[adamss24]

a fmic would require no extra length in the pipe work as one of the pipes already runs across the front of the car(in the subframe)
I fitted a fmic to my old rs turbo that was running a standard turbo and it increased the power by 25bhp and that was verified by a rolling road session

Intercooler does not increase power it just helps maintain it at higher level as the factory cooler get heat soaked. In your ford's case they had really poor intercooler setups, VAG's are much, much better in that respect !