Intercooling

[CrazyAndy]

Vanbcguy, that setup is beautiful!  So much less piping distance than an front mount air-to-air, and with the claims you make that must mean great spool and efficiency under boost.  Checked out the 600Hp kit, and it's very customizable; I like it a lot, especially the selection of heat exchangers to fit in front of various sizes and heights of radiators.  Beats the heck out of cutting a MK1 front support member to fit an ebay IC.

[vanbcguy]

Have you had it long enough to measure any fuel economy change?

I've been running it for nearly 2 years now, I put it in May 2011.

Yep, there was a definite increase in economy - I am reading here in the TDI forum now as I have an AHU sitting on my garage floor I just bought, but my current motor is a 1.6TD.  My overall "average" numbers are a bit tricky to sort as I tow a trailer with my car fairly often on my longer trips, but my best ever "naked" number prior to the intercooler was 6.7L/100km with most of my runs in the mid 7's.  That was running at about 15PSI.  Since the intercooler I've been running my K24 at around 22PSI, and my best recorded economy was exactly 5.0L/100km.  Most highway trips are coming in the mid to low 6's here in the Pacific Northwest.  On average post-IC the numbers have been much better, but I would have to start doing actual math to give a specific number.

[vanbcguy]

Vanbcguy, that setup is beautiful!  So much less piping distance than an front mount air-to-air, and with the claims you make that must mean great spool and efficiency under boost.  Checked out the 600Hp kit, and it's very customizable; I like it a lot, especially the selection of heat exchangers to fit in front of various sizes and heights of radiators.  Beats the heck out of cutting a MK1 front support member to fit an ebay IC.

Thanks!

Yes, it spools super quick - there was no measurable difference between the "pre-IC" spool times and the "post-IC" spool times, at least getting to 15PSI where I was before.  It of course takes longer to get all the way up to 22 where I run now.  I saw absolutely ZERO pressure drop on my boost gauge after installing the AWIC either.  They claim 0.1PSI - I'd say that was probably pretty accurate.  Really the AWIC is so oversized for such a tiny engine that I'd bet it isn't even dropping 0.1.

And yeah - I absolutely was not willing to cut the front supports and things on Jezzie.  Mk III cars only get a 3-star crash rating, and that's for the airbag equipped models.  There's no published stats I can find for a non-airbag Mk III like Jezzie, but I really can't imagine that cutting away anything in the "crash" areas of the car would do anything positive to her crash rating.  I've got a kid now, makes you think about things like that!!

[scrounger]

Can I assume that the cooler tube is full of several rows of cooling fins rather than a single row like a heater core?

[vanbcguy]

Can I assume that the cooler tube is full of several rows of cooling fins rather than a single row like a heater core?

Definitely quite a bit different than a heater core!  They are closer to an engine radiator in some ways. A "naked" AWIC core looks like this:



The end to end passages are separated from the side to side passages.  In my AWIC air is flowing in one end of the core and out the other, while water is flowing in one side and out the other.  The core above is reversed (water goes in the ends, air goes in the sides) but you get the idea.  The hot air is in contact with the cold water in mine for over a foot - plenty of surface area and time in contact to suck the heat out of it.

[Syncroincity]

That's the same charge cooler I'm using .For the front I went with a smaller, 2" thick radiator in the lower grille opening of the van. No intake air temp monitor, but the EGTs never get above 1100* at 18psi even on hard pulls, and the charge cooler is cool to the touch in the engine bay. This is an AAZ, which runs very hot when modded... the 1.6 will have huge room to pour on the coals with this setup.

[CrazyAndy]

That's it, I'm convinced and converted.  AWIC, here I come. . . . when money comes first.

Thanks for the great pics and unofficial reviews of how an AWIC can perform on even a modded IDI, guys!

And 8v, I know you're gonna read this, so I'll say it now; I'll meth inject it later!

[8v-of-fury]

And 8v, I know you're gonna read this, so I'll say it now; I'll meth inject it later!

IT WILL BE BEAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You might not have to if you go with one of the www.frozenboost.com units.. COOLS TO AMBIENT!