intercooler

When it comes to turbocharged cars, the flow of air through the system is just as important as keeping it cool. From the factory, the MK7s do get some extra attention in the performance category, especially when it comes to the GTI and Golf R, but they're never really pushed past what the VW engineers designed them for. Given the popularity of cranking up the boost on any turbo vehicle, especially the 2.0T found under the hood of most modern VWs and Audis, it's no wonder that the stock intercooler piping turns out to be a restriction.

Before we dive straight into how our new piping design performs, let's take a look at what it is that makes them perform. As you might recall from our last post, we went into the basics of our intercooler piping overhaul. We planned to make them bigger, and from better materials. More specifically, we increased the overall size of our piping to the extent that our build envelope would allow. Our hot- and cold-side piping now have a 2.75" diameter, equating

Everyone loves a dynamic character. Think about it. When have you ever read a book or watched a movie and said to yourself, "Wow, I'm really glad that the main character didn't develop throughout the story"? We long for that feel-good moment when the protagonist reaches a turning point and changes. The development for our F20/F30 intercooler has a relatable plot line.

R&D is a process with its own ups and downs. That's what makes it a challenge, and thus fun for us problem solvers. Even with a lot of research and simulations, some things lead to unexpected outcomes. If you look back through the beginning stages of our development, it's clear that we're taking a unique approach when it comes to the stepped-core intercooler. If you're worried that adding the angle to the top of our intercooler core was the part that worked out differently, never fear, it does its job. The topic of shrouding is the aspect that eventually took a different turn once we arrived at the testing phase.

Heavy Shrouding

Investing in an intercooler shows some similarities to going to college. Hear me out. When that acceptance letter arrives, it's understood that there's a lot of money about to be spent as a down payment on the future. Some of us might have held a job or two while in school, but the general idea is complete your degree, and get your dream job, or at least something that is enough to pay off those loans.

A bigger intercooler is an investment in your Civic Type R's future, especially for those who are doing builds and expect big numbers from the K20C1. Depending on the car and the design, adding more fins and surface area to the intercooling system usually gives you some power right off the bat. Our new design does squeeze a few extra drops of power from the CTR, but the main objective is to keep your charged air temperatures down.

Where the stock intercooler would flunk out from even spirited driving, our intercooler is designed to keep the CTR's GPA up, and its finals week here at Mishimoto.

Big things in small packages have long since been the idea behind the hot-hatch. Smaller, punchy engines in small bodies creating big smiles in the corners is the name of the game, and the GTI wrote the rule book. Now, 44 years later, the seventh iteration is the ideal platform for any enthusiast of fast and practical.

For those looking to enhance the sporty Golf even further, you might have already taken notice that we're already on the case by way of cooling the charged air running through your 2.0T. A beefier intercooler is a start, but unfortunately that air doesn't transfer into our intake manifold via osmosis. Naturally, ducting is still required.

When it comes to designing a new intercooler for any vehicle, it's all about finding the right balance between core volume and flow. Knowing this, our engineer made some adjustments to our intercooler's inlet and outlet sizes to maximize flow for stock and remapped tunes, while maintaining the right diameter for the MK7's stock piping. However,

It goes without saying that the intercooling system is an integral part of any turbocharged vehicle. What's the sense of trying to cram more air into the cylinders if it can't be compressed that easily. In fact, that almost defeats the entire point of having a turbo installed on your engine. For those of you who have a craving to crank up the heat on your hot-Honda by lowering your intake temps, we already devised a solution for you. However, much like how your CTR transports you from A to B, your chilled charged air still requires a delivery method.

Until we can somehow devise a pipe-less intercooler system, ensuring that we improve on the stock pipes is always a requirement.

You might remember from our design plans post that we decided to ditch the plastic end tank construction and go with a full aluminum design better suited for the new, much more robust core. In doing so, we also changed the design on the inlet and outlet, rendering the stock piping all but useless.

Where the oval openings

When it comes to shopping for an upgraded intercooler, the first thing any of us look for is the temperature drop figure. For our new design, that information has still yet to come. For now, we'll focus on the next most interesting specification, which, naturally, is the size of the core. In the case of our new core, that number is 1003mm³. That might just look like a number, but compared to the stock unit, it's a 169% increase in size. One-hundred and sixty nine percent. Crushed it.

How does the number compare, though? What does a 169% increase in size look like in relation to the FK8? Well, lucky for you, the difference in size is quite notable, as it should be when we're more than doubling the size of the stock unit. The stock unit appears as if it fills that entire lower grille opening on the front bumper. However, our engineer put in his best efforts to demonstrate that there was plenty of room to expand into.

Honda was nice enough to leave plenty of room for us to grow.

Once removed

It's been a long time coming since we last left off with the development of this intercooler. While it might have been trying on your patience, and a little on ours, it's not necessarily a bad thing that it took some time. Simply put, how are we going to make sure that what ends up at your door step is perfect if the first doesn't possess the same qualities? And sometimes doing things a little differently takes some time.

If you look back to our last post outlining the design plans, you'll see exactly what I'm on about when it comes to doing things differently. We did end up giving a good amount away then, but since it's been a while, I'll refresh your memory.

Yes, the stepped core is nothing new nowadays. With the F2X and F3X Bimmers, the design of the stock system almost requires a stepped core in order to squeeze more performance out of the N55 and N20 engines. During our development process, we investigated the idea of a few other core configurations, but neither quite stacked up to

Bigger is better has long since been an unofficial mantra of the automotive world. To go faster or further, you have to go bigger. Either by way of more cylinders, bigger turbos, thicker sway bars, the increase in size helps quench the thirst for speed. The Golf GTI and all its subsequent variants have been showing us since 1974 that sometimes smaller can be just as good, and plenty of speed and practicality can come in a condensed package. The same can be said for our intercooler design for the latest generation of VW's compact chassis. It's not the size that matters, but rather the innovation packed inside.

Limited space in the engine bay is always a challenge when it comes to designing new products, but in the case of the MK7, it was a major obstacle.

With the MK7 especially, available space is the first major hurdle to overcome. If you revisit the stock review of the MK7's intercooler, you'll see that the intercooler is the meat in a heat exchanger sandwich, all mounted on the front

When we're talking about cooling the charged air in any forced induction vehicle, the intercooler always steals the show. To be fair, it is doing a majority of the work. No matter if you're still running a stock unit or if there's an all-aluminum core seated in the front of your car, it's the star. However, the intercooler would be nothing without the back-up band, the intercooler piping. Putting in all the effort to cool off the charged air would be useless without a method to transfer it to the intake. If the stock intercooler unit had some shortcomings, the piping was bound to end up with some flaws, too.

The safe passage for your charged air is currently left up to the combination of plastic and rubber construction that makes up the factory piping. It might seem that we're prejudice against these building materials, but it's quite the opposite. These materials are great for the mass production of your Golf or GTI, providing an easily produced, lightweight channel for the charged air

Honda might have changed the game in the world of hot-hatches with the latest generation of the Civic Type R, but if you recall from the stock review, the FK8's intercooling system barely met the classification of "gamechanger." We're already well on our way to elevating the Type R's charged air heat exchanger to that level, as we covered in our last post, but what about the piping? After all, the car is an ecosystem and can only be as strong as its weakest component.

Discussing the new piping requires a brief recap of our design plans for the intercooler itself. Specifically, we'll start with the revised end tank design. In the Type R's stock form, the piping was a combination of a rubber hose and a piece of cast aluminum which attached to the inlet and outlet of the core by means of a specific bracket design. Our engineer found that the stock openings on the intercooler were too small and would cause a restriction in airflow if left as is, especially once a tune got involved. The 58mm