Gt tdi intercooler

[Louis95]

Hi I've got a 130hp golf, these have quite small intercooler a as stock I've been recommended to put a bigger one on the car has had a decat and been remapped what effect would the bigger intercooler have?

[mwstewart]

I don't think the increase in cooling area of the larger intercooler starts to provide a real performance benefit until you go beyond the regular 'stage 1' remap, and get up towards, or even over 200bhp. If you buy a kit that includes replacement boost pipes then the main benefit is removal the quick release joints at the intercooler end, which eventually leak due to vibration induced wear. My car is showing signs of this at 60k miles.

[aka_kerrly]

Allard and Darkside Motorsport appear to be the go to guys for TDI tuning and are certain to have a range of intercoolers and additional tuning goodies for your car.

[BGarside]

Doesn't the 130hp Golf use a side-mounted intercooler in the wheelarch somewhere?

The 150hp Mk 4 Golf TDI uses a front mount 'cooler, as does the Mk 1 Seat Leon FR / Cupra TDI, so maybe you could adapt one of those to fit with some brackets and custom piping?

Else maybe try to maximise the air flow through the side-mount 'cooler, maybe using ducting / shrouding to direct air through the core and putting a vent into the wheelarch liner behind the cooler to let the air out (but use mesh, etc, to stop stones thrown up by the tyre from damaging the core).

You might get slightly more lag with a larger 'cooler and more piping as there's a larger volume of air to be compressed before the boost pressure rises at the inlet manifold...