VinnieTheFish

After talking with the guys at GoodSpeed Performance Labs in Scottsdale, AZ (my local APR reseller) they said that for the A5 the 3 mods that give you the most bang for your buck in their experience has been:

1. APR ECM Upgrade
2. Modified exhaust
3. Upgraded Intercooler

From my previous car/truck mods I know first hand from upgrading the ECM, upgrading the exhaust and the pro's/con's of a cold air intake but I really don't have any experience with upgrading the intercooler.

What exactly does this do and what kind of performance will I see from this on an A5? Anyone have any direct experience with this?

As for the CAI living in the desert I've decided it's not a good idea especially based on the cost to install/maintain. I found that with my Dodge RAM 1500 (Hemi) that as soon as I moved to the desert if I didn't clean the CAI religiously every 3 months my gas mileage/power decreased significantly. When in CA I never ran into a problem and only had to maintain it ever 6-9 months. Definitely not going to be doing this for the A5, but I might consider the K&N filter for the stock air intake.

NWS4Guy

The intercooler takes the air from the turbo and uses a small radiator (which is what the intercooler is) which you can see at the lower front of your grill and cools the air. Turbo's compress air, which adds heat. Cooling it will make it more dense, and have more oxygen molecules per intake stroke. The more O2, the more fuel which can be burned, and thus more power.

With an intercooler, larger is not always better - the size of the intercooler can add turbo lag, so an upgrade is tpucally just a better designed intercooler to make the best size that fits your size turbo as effecient as possible.

atombomb33

To add to what NWS is saying, an intercooler upgrade is a good idea on the B8 A4 and the A5 2.0T simply because the OEM intercooler is not very efficient and does not work at max efficiency with just a tune/chip, let alone an exhaust and other parts. It's extra protection for your engine along with extra hp/tq. Overall, it's a great idea.

For an example of power gains, check out this link to the AWE intercooler: http://www.awe-tuning.com/pages/shar...&IL=a520tfmic5

AWE claims 30% reduction in intake temperature along with gains of +21hp and +20tq at the crank.

You mentioned something about living in the desert, so it would be a good idea to upgrade the intercooler.

VinnieTheFish

Thank you, excellent description.