An upgrade from the GTI stock intercooler has been planned for some time. Keeping the intake charge air cool is important for a turbocharged engine and more so in the case of operating at a higher boost pressure level than what was intended for the car. With an aftermarket tune planned as part of my upgrades to the GTI, an intercooler better suited for working with elevated boost pressure has been on the shopping list.
Product Choice
Reviewing a number of aftermarket intercoolers and their respective performance I concluded that some of the inexpensive knock-off intercoolers prevalent on eBay were adequate for my purposes. Additionally, if later I was to determine one of these products was not meeting my expectations the cost of trying would be minimal.
My decision was to try a product that appears to be a knock-off of the Mabotech FMIC. I decided to start with a front mounted intercooler instead of a stock location replacement on account of the simpler installation required for the FMIC location.
The Measurements
Dimensionally this eBay FMIC from Majesty for the Mk7 GTI is very similar to the Mabotech:
- Length: 25″ (Mabotech) vs 25.2″ (Majesty)
- Height: 8″ (Mabotech) vs 7.48″ (Majesty)
- Depth: 3.55″ (Mabotech) vs 3.54″ (Majesty)
- Core enclosure volume: 710 cu. in. (Mabotech) vs 667 cu. in. (Majesty)
- Core frontal area: 200 sq. in. (Mabotech) vs 188 sq. in. (Majesty)
- Weight: 19.4 lbs. (Majesty)
Another measurement I am interested in finding out for the Majesty FMIC is the core charge air path volume. This is the total volume of the passages that the air takes when traveling from one end tank to the other.
Determining this volume involved filling the intercooler with water and then draining the water into a measuring cup, converting the results to cubic inches.
The intercooler was held vertically with the lower outlet passage capped off to keep the water in and then filled with water. For the volume measurements I began by draining water only from one end tank so that I could determine the volume held by the end tank. With that measurement made the rest of the intercooler was drained and measured.
The total volume came out to be approximately 248 cu. in. After subtracting the volume of both end tanks the core volume was left at approximately 178 cu. in.
Next up will be determining the pressure drop through this Mk7 GTI Majesty FMIC.