I'm thinking about intercoolers......again!

[B5QUAT]

Was just thinking about FMICs and to be honest I'm not a big fan on the A4.

From what I've seen, in most kits out there, there seems to be a lot of the intercooler wasted as it is hidden behind the bumper. I've been looking on the audisrs forum and a lot of the mega power S4s and RS4s don't seem to go much for FMICs and seem to make do with SMICs. This got me thinking.

Rather than going for a FMIC would it be possible to maintain the stock look of the car from the front by doing a twin side mount conversion, maybe utilising the 2 s4 intercoolers or keeping the OEM one and adding a custom fit one on the other side?? Particularly if target power is only around 300bhp which the twin S4 coolers will easily handle.

Sure, the pipework might be a bit complex but I can't see it being THAT much of a problem. Being as Audi chose twin SMICs for the S4 snd RS4 from the factory it tends to suggest that that is a better solution for the A4 than a single FMIC????? Sure, those are both twin turbo jobs so it's a bit different but who says a twin stage intercooler couldn't work with a single turbo??

If anyone has any thoughts on this I'd be interested to hear them. Has anyone ever attempted something similar?

 

[Jason.s]

But if you dont go crazy on the size so that you can retain the grilles, once painted black you can barely see a FMIC..Look at Soupie`s thread a few threads down and that shows you how well hidden it can be.

 

[aragorn]

In S4/RS4 land a lot of people DO go front mount. Dest posted recently about switching from a pair of RS4 coolers (which are pretty decent coolers for an OEM sidemount) to a CX front mount and it made a huge difference.

190hp B6 A4's use twin sidemounts, as does the 2.5TDI B5 A4, the trick would just be sorting out the air ducting to get the boost into the drivers side cooler, as the turbo discharges down the way.

 

[Broken Byzan]

My FMIC is quite hidden, hardley hanging out fo the front

 

[PaulJC84]

I have one hidden in there too. Can just see the pipes if you look closely.

 

[Oranoco]

Mine's not even vaguely hidden at the moment.

Shall be hiding it as soon as I find some mesh and pull the bumper off to fit the nice new snub mount

 

[B5QUAT]

Thanks for all the pics. What kits have you all used? Were they easy enough to fit? It's the major bumper hackage that puts me off a bit.

 

[PaulJC84]

Mine is the autobahn one off ebay. Got it a while ago.

Here is how much bumper hacking I did.

Pic without the bumper, since then I painted it black to hide it even more.

 

[adamss24]

I would be very carefull to do any hacking on the bumper cross member as the alloy one is pretty pants anyway and you're weakening it even more ! I had a small bump in a a4 as i hit a post in 2nd gear (5-10Mph!), you wont believe the ammount of damage: wing,inner wing, bonnet, bumper,lock carrier, headlight, air box, compressor pipes,etc. I would not wanna hit anything at 40mph in the a4, that's why i bought a a6 allroad ! As aragorn pointed, the s4 and the v6 tdi a4 comes with twin intercooler as standard and the v6 have single turbo's. The twin coolers are good to 270 Bhp tested. Remember that the larger the cooler/pipes the higher the pressure drop and the turbo will have to work harder to fill the void (which in effect becames a heat pump) so ther bigger is not allways better !