Mk7 Intercooler Temperature Trends

This post contains one way of presenting temperature data that may be useful for comparing the intercooler options for the Mk7.

The two slide shows contain duplicate charts for several intercoolers that have been installed on my GTI. Cycling through either slideshow will allow a side-by-side comparison of different IC setups.

All data were measured using my GTI equipped with a Shuenk IS38+ turbocharger. Boost pressure rises to 28 psi and past 5000 RPM tapers down to around 23 psi.

Temperature data is measured during pulls that are made in third gear, starting around 2,000 RPM and continuing to approximately 6,300 RPM.

The dots on the chart represent the intake air temperature at 6,000 RPM above the ambient (outside) air temperature (IAT minus OAT) as consecutive pulls are made.

The x-axis is the time between pulls. The first pull occurs at time zero (0 sec.).

The y-axis is the difference between the intake air temperature and the outside, ambient, air temperature. (degF)

On some charts the dots have different colors, these represent data that was collected during separate data collection sessions.

Generally, over the first few pulls the temperature increases until the rate at which heat is shed from the intercooler approximately balances out with the rate at which heat is added to the intercooler.

Most charts have a time axis that continues to 900 seconds and a temperature axis that ranges from 0 to 35 degF. A couple of charts deviate from this, these charts include a red line to indicate the extension of the axis range.