Intercooler for 162Tsi

[twyat1]

Just curious if anyone has fitted an upgraded intercooler to their Mk2 Tiguan. Is there any difference between the GTI and R intercoolers and if so, which one has fitted. Lastly, how much did you pay to fit or is it easy enough to do with a spare day at home?

Cheers in advance.

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[INASNT]

Just curious if anyone has fitted an upgraded intercooler to their Mk2 Tiguan. Is there any difference between the GTI and R intercoolers and if so, which one has fitted. Lastly, how much did you pay to fit or is it easy enough to do with a spare day at home?

Cheers in advance.

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I was talking with my tuner about this a few weeks ago. It will be a suck and see to see how much space there is around the stock cooler.

There are many hours taking the front end apart, VW don't make it easy. Once front end is out you would need to take some measurements and then work out if any off the shelf aftermarket coolers would fit...

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

another option is to inject water/meth to reduce your IAT, might be an easier solution to suppress knock

[Kachingg]

another option is to inject water/meth to reduce your IAT, might be an easier solution to suppress knock

Or both maybe ?

[ajdean]

Upgrading the stock GTI/A3 intercooler with the larger OEM R/S3 is a pretty common modification I believe. No idea if it works on the Tiguan, but certainly possible on the GTI.

I won't be modding my Tig, but I've got an OEM intercooler from my S3 sitting in my shed which I'd be happy to sell if anyone is interested in it

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

I won't be modding my Tig

Because warranty OR other half aka wife? lol

[ajdean]

Because warranty OR other half aka wife? lol

It's my wife's car yep! I've got my own car to tinker with. I also haven't really bonded with the Tig as much as I hoped I would, so I'm not sure we'll keep it long enough to justify tipping much money into it.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

It's my wife's car yep! I've got my own car to tinker with. I also haven't really bonded with the Tig as much as I hoped I would, so I'm not sure we'll keep it long enough to justify tipping much money into it.

It's an awesome car, just leave it in Sport mode.
I reckon I prefer the Tiguan over the R33 Skyline every day of the week!

Although the R33 has been in my mate's shop/hoist for the past 2x months - cracked heater core anyone? (on top of all the other work we are doing on it)




2.5L surge tank with twin Walbro 450L pumps - plenty of fuel

[INASNT]

It's my wife's car yep! I've got my own car to tinker with. I also haven't really bonded with the Tig as much as I hoped I would, so I'm not sure we'll keep it long enough to justify tipping much money into it.

Chicken and egg, you need to mod it to bond with it

[tigger73]

There's 2 reasons to upgrade the intercooler:

1) To keep intake temps lower = better performance in hot weather
2) To reduce pressure drop/loss of boost due to restriction of a smaller intercooler at high flows

It's relatively easy to log intake temps and see if these are increasing. The pressure drop is a bit harder thing to ascertain but in my gen1 125TSI this was the limiting factor until I upgraded to an R/S3 intercooler. I picked up close to 10kwaw just from the intercooler upgrade (or more accurately I was losing 10kwaw due to the restrictive stock intercooler).

Best off measuring the core thickness to see if there is a difference between the stock Tig intercooler and the R/S3 ones. I know this was the case in the Gen1 Tig / Mk6 Golf but not sure if this is still the case for MQB platform.

Second would be good to get before/after intake temps and before/after dynos to see what the performance improvement is from upgrading from the stock one.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

There's 2 reasons to upgrade the intercooler:

1) To keep intake temps lower = better performance in hot weather
2) To reduce pressure drop/loss of boost due to restriction of a smaller intercooler at high flows

It's relatively easy to log intake temps and see if these are increasing. The pressure drop is a bit harder thing to ascertain but in my gen1 125TSI this was the limiting factor until I upgraded to an R/S3 intercooler. I picked up close to 10kwaw just from the intercooler upgrade (or more accurately I was losing 10kwaw due to the restrictive stock intercooler).

Best off measuring the core thickness to see if there is a difference between the stock Tig intercooler and the R/S3 ones. I know this was the case in the Gen1 Tig / Mk6 Golf but not sure if this is still the case for MQB platform.

Second would be good to get before/after intake temps and before/after dynos to see what the performance improvement is from upgrading from the stock one.

Or just log your IAT, if it's high then upgrade - if it's relatively low say ~10 degrees Celsius above ambient air temperature then there isn't a real need to upgrade.

Replace what needs to be replaced, not just because the internet says so

Colder charged air, means more oxygen which means more power when your motor adds in more timing/fuel, when air thins out and/or is hotter car pulls out timing, pulls out fuel (or else it will run richer) then you'll make less power.

Another reason why you see ECU strategies to inject straight O2 into cars vs. atmospheric pressure on Pikes Peak cars.. amazing stuff (or squirt in nitrous)


Also with VAG motors/ECUs (I don't know much about them, haven't looked into it as I work on all JDM cars) but I am assuming they use Mass Airflow meters (aka AFMs or MAF) and if you decide to install a better performing IC, I wonder if the extra read airflow would trigger any CELs

[twyat1]

Thanks everyone, once I get Stage 2 done I'll watch it. Should also know after a day on the dyno if an Upgraded intercooler is required. I think it's an essentially upgrade for a tuned car in Queensland regardless. I am leaning towards a IE Intercooler as my research has found decent 20kw atw gains over stock, on the mk7 GTIs. I want to just have all my ducks lined up just in case a good priced is38 falls into the Tiguan

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[JRTiguanCol]

I really like the design of IE Fmic, I also have the same doubt if it would fit in our tiguans.

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[Ozsko]

I also haven't really bonded with the Tig as much as I hoped I would, so I'm not sure we'll keep it long enough to justify tipping much money into it.

I must agree, it just doesn't grab me like I think it should. I bought it for practical reasons like ease of entry because I am an old fart and I would rather drive a Golf R. Even if I was in love with it no way would I mod it, it just isn't that type of car. I know others don't see it that way but modding it just does not make sense because it is a boat around corners and too heavy to got really quickly but mainly that it doesn't handle worth a damn and it was never meant to. Sorry for the ramble & OT.

[INASNT]

I must agree, it just doesn't grab me like I think it should. I bought it for practical reasons like ease of entry because I am an old fart and I would rather drive a Golf R. Even if I was in love with it no way would I mod it, it just isn't that type of car. I know others don't see it that way but modding it just does not make sense because it is a boat around corners and too heavy to got really quickly but mainly that it doesn't handle worth a damn and it was never meant to. Sorry for the ramble & OT.

In sport mode it drives and handles quite well for a SUV. Much better than many others in the price range.