Fitting my airtec intercooler tomorrow.

[Manic172]

I bought the welly cooler style . But then had to make all my own brackets for the cooler. I will get some pics at the week end

 

[20VT_AUQ]

You guys happy with the Airtec? performance/temperature wise.

I think I am fitting one when I go for a stage 2 remap. Probably after summer.

I like the fact that it is easy to install and you can keep the fog lights. Also I need a "stealth" looking one since they are not legal in my country, I mean if a car doesn't have a FMIC from factory you are not allowed to fit one (yeah absurd) so I would pick the black one without letters and black hoses

 

[Rich.T]

Im happy with mine. After 20+ minutes of hard driving, my inlet manifold is still very cool to the touch so it definitely works.

I went for black pipes and no emblem on the cooler.
Nobody would know its there if i didn't tell em.

Rich

 

[g60stu]

You guys happy with the Airtec? performance/temperature wise.

I think I am fitting one when I go for a stage 2 remap. Probably after summer.

I like the fact that it is easy to install and you can keep the fog lights. Also I need a "stealth" looking one since they are not legal in my country, I mean if a car doesn't have a FMIC from factory you are not allowed to fit one (yeah absurd) so I would pick the black one without letters and black hoses

I’m fitting mine at the moment. Will report back later.

 

[g60stu]

Well, I finally finished fitting the intercooler today. It wasn’t without a few issues and a bit of head scratching.

Highlights:

• Its fitted.
• I bought a Dremel last week with metal and plastic cutting discs. First time I’ve had such a tool and it was a god send. I can’t imagine cutting the diagonal metal bits with a hacksaw. So that’s a win for the Dremel and I have a new found desire to cut stuff just to make sparks!
• Black hoses and black cooler – perfect for the stealth install.
• I’m an expert at bumper removal.

Lowlights:

• I snapped one of the crash bar studs – 17 years of corrosion. Its not really needed.
• Fitting the supplied diagonal brackets was fiddly. Thank god I had the Dremel to cut away large chunks of plastic just to get my fingers in there.
• I had 3 right angle brackets. Two were 5cm by 5cm and one was 5cm by 6cm. Guess which one provided the better fit? Yep, you guessed it, the one that I only had one of. I tried phoning Airtec but couldn’t get through this morning, but I will chase them up on it at some point to find out which was right.
• I think that getting the perfect location of the supplied brackets is a bit of a wild stab in the dark. I lined them up as best I could and drilled holes, cut bars with no issue, but when I went to fit the intercooler I found the slotted holes on the brackets at their absolute limit. No wiggle room at all.
  
  I tried many permutations of bracket orientation (and size!) to find the best fit. I wasted a ton of time. The fitment of the cooler was not quite centred, but I can live with that.
• I then found that the left hand intercooler connection was hard up against the metal work of the car. Now I believe that the supplied spacers that bolt to the crash bar help to bring the intercooler forwards a bit to prevent this. But I think that the welding position of the tabs on the intercooler was too far forward on one side. It made for an awkward fit and the silicone hose was squeezed between the two bits of metal.

Left hand tab and hose (plenty of spacing):

Right hand tab and hose (tab seems welded too far forward and hose connection is hard up to metal work). I had to man handle the intercooler to get the hoses on at this end:


So the airtec is supposed to be a no hassles fit, and it could have easily turned out that way in a parallel universe. I felt like I had a load of alignment issues that dragged the job out quite a bit. I’m used to working with OEM parts that fit millimetre perfect, so my DIY skills were pushed hard with this install.

Anyhow, all is fitted and car drives well . I’m booked in for Badger5 next month to get the car mapped.

 

[Rich.T]

I must admit (your post has jogged my memory) mine was the same with clearance on the nearside.
I got the grinder to it to give it space then put some paint on the bare metal.
At least its done now ?

 

[Thai-wronghorse]

I've got to add I was pretty impressed with the fit of mine but admittedly was surprised at the amount of slam panel modifications required considering it's supposed to be straight fit item.
Not that this particular phased me anyway considering I've pulled apart or tweaked just about everything else on my car already...plus the fact I guess it helps if you're a metal fabricator by trade to.

The brackets were spot on and I used the spacer bushes on the lower fixings between the crash bar.

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