Perpetuus
Data Encryption
- Location
- In my garage
I initially owned a Forge Twintercooler. The logs showed that it really worked in cooling down the intake air temperatures, but I went back to the stock intercooler for a while to fund some other projects.
Long story short, I ended up buying another intercooler in anticipation of getting an APR stage 2+ flash. Among the options available, I found myself looking at APR and Eurojet a lot. The problem, however, was that neither had any pressure drop data from the manufacturer to substantiate their performance. I know there are reviews for both these intercoolers, but for the $800 to $1,000 that I am paying for an intercooler, it did not seem right to just rely on word of mouth. There was really no point of reference for comparison between the different intercoolers, and no reliable data from consistent drive modes between the different intercoolers on the same car to use. And so, I decided to do my own comparison.
While comparing intercoolers, I came across a new intercooler from a company called Wagner Tuning. Their 2.0TFSI intercooler was, in fact, just released at the time. The intercooler is similar to APR’s offering, where it is mounted behind the A/C condenser. I researched a little more and discovered that Wagner specializes in intercoolers only, and is well known in BMW, Audi and Porsche circles. They are a German company and all their intercoolers are made in Germany.
So, I began gathering some data and created the following table:
MkV 2.0TFSI Intercooler Comparison
From the table, it became obvious that the Wagner intercooler has even more core volume than the APR intercooler, at 902 cubic inches, vs. 841 cubic inches for APR. This is the absolute biggest direct-fit intercooler for our cars that I know of. On Wagner’s website, they advertise the intercooler to be 27% more volume over the S3 intercooler: http://www.etektuning.com/wagner-tuning-transverse-2-0t-intercooler-audi-a3-tt-volkswagen-gti-gli/ . The price was also $200 less. I was a little doubtful at the performance of this relatively unknown intercooler, but then I saw Wagner’s Pressure Drop and Intake Ambient Temperature graphs and was instantly sold:
Wagner 2.0TFSI Intercooler - Pressure Drop Data
So far, this is the only manufacturer that I know of that published their pressure drop measurements. As much as I like APR, it just didn’t feel right when they were not able to provide pressure drop measurements for their intercooler, even with so many requests from forum members. Wagner’s graph uses the S3 intercooler as a reference, and shows that the pressure drop is even lower than the stock S3 intercooler, and most likely another step better than the stock MkV GTI intercooler too. According to the graph, this is true for all flow rates tested. If the graph is accurate, then my engine should breathe better, with increased throttle response and more power. Also worth noting is that at 350 CFM, the Wagner intercooler experiences 1.44 psi of pressure drop, compared to 2.52 psi of pressure drop for the S3 intercooler. And, at around 475 CFM, the pressure drop of the Wagner is equivalent to that of the S3 intercooler at 350 CFM. This is impressive!
Wagner 2.0TFSI Intercooler - IAT vs. RPMs
The IAT graph was also excellent in terms of performance. If you look carefully, there is a 40 degrees drop in IATs at 7000 RPM compared to the stock intercooler. I assume that this is compared to the stock S3 intercooler, since that was their reference for the graphs they provided. Of course, I do not know the operating conditions under which this plot was logged, so some validation on my part still has to be done.
Long story short, I ended up buying another intercooler in anticipation of getting an APR stage 2+ flash. Among the options available, I found myself looking at APR and Eurojet a lot. The problem, however, was that neither had any pressure drop data from the manufacturer to substantiate their performance. I know there are reviews for both these intercoolers, but for the $800 to $1,000 that I am paying for an intercooler, it did not seem right to just rely on word of mouth. There was really no point of reference for comparison between the different intercoolers, and no reliable data from consistent drive modes between the different intercoolers on the same car to use. And so, I decided to do my own comparison.
While comparing intercoolers, I came across a new intercooler from a company called Wagner Tuning. Their 2.0TFSI intercooler was, in fact, just released at the time. The intercooler is similar to APR’s offering, where it is mounted behind the A/C condenser. I researched a little more and discovered that Wagner specializes in intercoolers only, and is well known in BMW, Audi and Porsche circles. They are a German company and all their intercoolers are made in Germany.
So, I began gathering some data and created the following table:
MkV 2.0TFSI Intercooler Comparison
From the table, it became obvious that the Wagner intercooler has even more core volume than the APR intercooler, at 902 cubic inches, vs. 841 cubic inches for APR. This is the absolute biggest direct-fit intercooler for our cars that I know of. On Wagner’s website, they advertise the intercooler to be 27% more volume over the S3 intercooler: http://www.etektuning.com/wagner-tuning-transverse-2-0t-intercooler-audi-a3-tt-volkswagen-gti-gli/ . The price was also $200 less. I was a little doubtful at the performance of this relatively unknown intercooler, but then I saw Wagner’s Pressure Drop and Intake Ambient Temperature graphs and was instantly sold:
Wagner 2.0TFSI Intercooler - Pressure Drop Data
So far, this is the only manufacturer that I know of that published their pressure drop measurements. As much as I like APR, it just didn’t feel right when they were not able to provide pressure drop measurements for their intercooler, even with so many requests from forum members. Wagner’s graph uses the S3 intercooler as a reference, and shows that the pressure drop is even lower than the stock S3 intercooler, and most likely another step better than the stock MkV GTI intercooler too. According to the graph, this is true for all flow rates tested. If the graph is accurate, then my engine should breathe better, with increased throttle response and more power. Also worth noting is that at 350 CFM, the Wagner intercooler experiences 1.44 psi of pressure drop, compared to 2.52 psi of pressure drop for the S3 intercooler. And, at around 475 CFM, the pressure drop of the Wagner is equivalent to that of the S3 intercooler at 350 CFM. This is impressive!
Wagner 2.0TFSI Intercooler - IAT vs. RPMs
The IAT graph was also excellent in terms of performance. If you look carefully, there is a 40 degrees drop in IATs at 7000 RPM compared to the stock intercooler. I assume that this is compared to the stock S3 intercooler, since that was their reference for the graphs they provided. Of course, I do not know the operating conditions under which this plot was logged, so some validation on my part still has to be done.
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