DCi add an intercooler - anything to watch out for?
Discussion
Simple question 
My econo box has a larger capacity common rail diesel engine with smallish turbo and no intercooler.
The next model up in the range had a nice size intercooler, and the fittings between turbo to intercooler and intake all just match up to mine without modification.
The only thing is that the standard fitting from turbo to intake is less than a meter of piping, the OEM intercooler routing is about 10 times as long, and I have heard that this can be "bad" for throttle response...
I am not really looking for more performance exactly, more an improvement in efficiency to go with the fitting of a 6sp box until I can overcome one small hurdle do what I originally wanted to do.
The original plan being to fit a nice big VNT turbo (modified one from the model up GT1852v in place of a gt1549) at the same time as the intercooler addition the only problem is that I don't have any way to properly control the VNT turbo which is the small hurdle...
My econo box has a larger capacity common rail diesel engine with smallish turbo and no intercooler.
The next model up in the range had a nice size intercooler, and the fittings between turbo to intercooler and intake all just match up to mine without modification.
The only thing is that the standard fitting from turbo to intake is less than a meter of piping, the OEM intercooler routing is about 10 times as long, and I have heard that this can be "bad" for throttle response...
I am not really looking for more performance exactly, more an improvement in efficiency to go with the fitting of a 6sp box until I can overcome one small hurdle do what I originally wanted to do.
The original plan being to fit a nice big VNT turbo (modified one from the model up GT1852v in place of a gt1549) at the same time as the intercooler addition the only problem is that I don't have any way to properly control the VNT turbo which is the small hurdle...
7erbera said:
Simple question
My econo box has a larger capacity common rail diesel engine with smallish turbo and no intercooler.
The next model up in the range had a nice size intercooler, and the fittings between turbo to intercooler and intake all just match up to mine without modification.
The only thing is that the standard fitting from turbo to intake is less than a meter of piping, the OEM intercooler routing is about 10 times as long, and I have heard that this can be "bad" for throttle response...
I am not really looking for more performance exactly, more an improvement in efficiency to go with the fitting of a 6sp box until I can overcome one small hurdle do what I originally wanted to do.
The original plan being to fit a nice big VNT turbo (modified one from the model up GT1852v in place of a gt1549) at the same time as the intercooler addition the only problem is that I don't have any way to properly control the VNT turbo which is the small hurdle...
What was the question?My econo box has a larger capacity common rail diesel engine with smallish turbo and no intercooler.
The next model up in the range had a nice size intercooler, and the fittings between turbo to intercooler and intake all just match up to mine without modification.
The only thing is that the standard fitting from turbo to intake is less than a meter of piping, the OEM intercooler routing is about 10 times as long, and I have heard that this can be "bad" for throttle response...
I am not really looking for more performance exactly, more an improvement in efficiency to go with the fitting of a 6sp box until I can overcome one small hurdle do what I originally wanted to do.
The original plan being to fit a nice big VNT turbo (modified one from the model up GT1852v in place of a gt1549) at the same time as the intercooler addition the only problem is that I don't have any way to properly control the VNT turbo which is the small hurdle...
Evoluzione said:
What was the question?
I think it was in the thread title...[quote]
As long as you re-tune to make the most of any benefits it might offer than there is no problem.
If you dont then it's probably pointless.
I maybe confused here!
To be fair I'm not expecting gains as such more asking if the increase of the piping from turbo to intake would be detrimental...the ECU remap would be done after the Turbo conversion is completed.
While I accept some people enjoy this kind of work, would it not be more effective to flog yours/trade in and buy the next model up?
As you are effectively taking an existing model and upgrading to the next model up seems a pointless to me as these things generally cost more to implement and cause more reliability issues.
Upping performance beyond standard can be beneficial, but at the same time if there is an off the shelf solution that does what you need, you are generally creating more problems than you solve.
As you are effectively taking an existing model and upgrading to the next model up seems a pointless to me as these things generally cost more to implement and cause more reliability issues.
Upping performance beyond standard can be beneficial, but at the same time if there is an off the shelf solution that does what you need, you are generally creating more problems than you solve.
annodomini2 said:
While I accept some people enjoy this kind of work, would it not be more effective to flog yours/trade in and buy the next model up?
As you are effectively taking an existing model and upgrading to the next model up seems a pointless to me as these things generally cost more to implement and cause more reliability issues.
Upping performance beyond standard can be beneficial, but at the same time if there is an off the shelf solution that does what you need, you are generally creating more problems than you solve.
That is a good point, I guess I am banking on the fact that the car has been rock solid for the last 5 years I've owned it, the next model up is exactly the same car but with a VNT turbo and an intercooler, the engine itself is exactly the same. As you are effectively taking an existing model and upgrading to the next model up seems a pointless to me as these things generally cost more to implement and cause more reliability issues.
Upping performance beyond standard can be beneficial, but at the same time if there is an off the shelf solution that does what you need, you are generally creating more problems than you solve.
The car model is pretty much unloved - I suspect I would get very little for selling my car even though it is relatively low mile and good condition, while buying another of the same model would cost more than the parts I would fit cost and I would be getting a car that is an unknown quantity.
The parts I am preparing to fit cost less than £100 to acquire, the most expensive think will be the remap once I have figured out the turbo problem...
(The only car I would be willing to buy would be an A5 Quattro and it will be at least a year before I can get the model I want without needing to use finance)
7erbera said:
annodomini2 said:
While I accept some people enjoy this kind of work, would it not be more effective to flog yours/trade in and buy the next model up?
As you are effectively taking an existing model and upgrading to the next model up seems a pointless to me as these things generally cost more to implement and cause more reliability issues.
Upping performance beyond standard can be beneficial, but at the same time if there is an off the shelf solution that does what you need, you are generally creating more problems than you solve.
That is a good point, I guess I am banking on the fact that the car has been rock solid for the last 5 years I've owned it, the next model up is exactly the same car but with a VNT turbo and an intercooler, the engine itself is exactly the same. As you are effectively taking an existing model and upgrading to the next model up seems a pointless to me as these things generally cost more to implement and cause more reliability issues.
Upping performance beyond standard can be beneficial, but at the same time if there is an off the shelf solution that does what you need, you are generally creating more problems than you solve.
The car model is pretty much unloved - I suspect I would get very little for selling my car even though it is relatively low mile and good condition, while buying another of the same model would cost more than the parts I would fit cost and I would be getting a car that is an unknown quantity.
The parts I am preparing to fit cost less than £100 to acquire, the most expensive think will be the remap once I have figured out the turbo problem...
(The only car I would be willing to buy would be an A5 Quattro and it will be at least a year before I can get the model I want without needing to use finance)
Adding an oem intercooler will be fine, all you will be doing is cooling the air before it's being ingested. Your engine will already have compensation for air temperature and pressure so it's all set to go.
The oem ecu might allow a slightly higher boost pressure with the inter cooler which you might be missing out on but getting it remapped will solve that. Are you sure the engines are identical apart form inter cooler ?
Don't worry about throttle response and the length of the inlet pipework, it's a diesel, you're counting in minutes compared to a nice petrol engine
But as mentioned above, conversions like this are only worth doing if you get all the parts cheaply/free and you already have a great car you want to keep, otherwise buying a faster car to start with is almost always cheaper. It's also more complicated for the insurance company.
The oem ecu might allow a slightly higher boost pressure with the inter cooler which you might be missing out on but getting it remapped will solve that. Are you sure the engines are identical apart form inter cooler ?
Don't worry about throttle response and the length of the inlet pipework, it's a diesel, you're counting in minutes compared to a nice petrol engine
But as mentioned above, conversions like this are only worth doing if you get all the parts cheaply/free and you already have a great car you want to keep, otherwise buying a faster car to start with is almost always cheaper. It's also more complicated for the insurance company.
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