Forge Race Intercooler – Volkswagen Golf GTI

Following on from our previous intercooler solution for the MK7 golf and MQB chassis variants that utilise the EA888 2.0 GEN3 2.0 TSI engine, we have designed our race intercooler to further enhance performance over the original intercooler and our previous iteration of our cooling solution, designed, developed and tested, at our headquarters in Gloucester UK.

Throughout the development process we have strived to improve the efficiency and performance of the EA888 GEN3 engine. Our project brief was to develop an intercooler that utilised all of the available space in the original position of the OEM intercooler along with increasing the size again over our hugely successful product FMMK7FMIC. We also had to ensure the inlet air temperature is reduced, without any negative effects on the boost pressure or engine and transmission cooling.

In the MQB chassis the intercooler housing is particularly restricted and confined to a small amount of space, due to it not only housing the intercooler, but also the radiator and air conditioning condenser. The front panel in theory is a sandwich pack that houses the auxiliary cooling components. This means in order to increase the size of the intercooler without paying detriment to the performance of the surrounding items, and with also having very little extra space available, that it can be very difficult to execute the perfect blend of a high flow intercooler within such a close proximity.

Our research and development engineers went back to the drawing board looking at previous documented dimensions while also taking new scans of the intercooler housing, this enabled the team to squeeze a further 10mm in depth of the core that houses very snugly into the earlier MQBs platform. We also looked at the differences between the Mk7 and Mk8 cooling components and found that the Mk7 Golf GTI and Golf R has a thicker radiator than the MK8 equivalent models thus meaning we also needed to consider any fitment procedures carefully. The design team started to 3d print the intercooler end tanks while creating a test sample dummy core to fit to the Mk7s platform and check for any clearance issues that may occur.

The final chosen design has increased inlet and outlet sizes along with increasing the volumetric capacity to increase flow which aids with future proofing the design to work well with highly tuned stage 3 plus EA888 Gen 3 engines as well as offering the best cooling solutions for either a stock or mildly modified powerplant. This gives the best package for the enthusiast as they start their journey in enhancing the vehicles performance. The consideration of space and our clever design has led us to produce several intercooler cores with different fin configurations and internal capacities. Depending on the core design, testing results led us to choose a bar and plate design with over 83% more volume than the OEM intercooler, and with a frontal area increase of 10%. The Forge Motorsport intercooler is a perfect performance enhancing product that fits directly to the OEM mounting points, making for a simple install, in a relatively short period of time.

No cutting of any components is needed, making the installation reversible if the vehicle needs to be returned to stock at any time in the future.

The core and end tanks are finished in our black textured anti corrosion coating that also aids with its thermal properties and keeps the product looking that bit stealthier or OEM+.

The Forge Motorsport lifetime warranty on all hardware products shows the trust we have in the quality of our products while they are being enjoyed on your pride and joy.