rupertpupkin
Ready to race!
I have no affiliation with this company. Normal consumer like the rest of you that bought a part during an intro sale.
Saw it here: http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?7375849-do88-MK6-GTi-R-performance-intercooler-VWvortex-offer!-500-USD-shipped-worldwide!
www.do88.se
Reason for Purchasing: I have wanted to buy an upgraded stock location Intercooler for some time. The car is UM stage 2 Loaded set to 28PSI. I have the Neuspeed TOP, and Uni intake. The FMIC seemed to be the last major bottleneck on the intake stream. I told myself an IC near $1000 was ridiculous and I wanted to spend around 4-500 on maybe a used one. When I saw the do88 page about this FMIC I first laughed at the name, and then began researching. The Saab, Volvo, and Porsche guys rave about this brand. They all speak to the quality and gains. I really liked the fact that they chose to pick airflow and pressure drop more seriously than straight up cooling. I never had an issue with high IATs, but wanted more flow and the increased cooling of an aftermarket FMIC was going to be an improvement regardless. With the data provided and reviews I read online it seemed like a solid choice. The unknown name to me and lack of this IC in the U.S. made me question it, but in the end I decided to buy it. I am very glad I did.
Ordering Process: Very simple. I PMd do88 on Vortex and was sent a PayPal invoice which I paid in USD. This was on Friday 11/14. I received a UPS tracking number on Monday the 16th with an expected delivery date of Wednesday the 18th!!! 2 days from near Stockholm Sweden. When I checked the tracking it showed a customs fee. I called UPS on Tuesday and paid it over the phone with a credit card. It was $14.50. Apparently can be paid in cash or check to the UPS driver as well. Super easy ordering from a company in another country. Isak was very good with communication and Information.
Unboxing: The box was waiting for me when I got home on the 18th as expected. Very large (38 x 9.5 x 19.5) It weighed 36 pounds per the UPS label. The intercooler itself was very securely packaged and surrounded with plenty of packing material and tape to keep it from moving. All accessories and hoses were nicely packaged in bags. A Full color installation manual was included as well as an info sheet from do88 about the intercooler. The intercooler itself had a very nice finish and welds and overall appearance are of excellent quality. Silicone hoses, clamps and hardware are all nice quality. I was very impressed!
Installation: Same as every other FMIC install on a mk6. Took me about 5 or 6 hours total for the intercooler. I took my time to make sure everything was perfect and done properly. My only other experience was installing and APR FMIC on a mk6 GTI. This was nearly identical and was not that difficult, just tedious. Tons of screws and bolts to keep track of. Hoses fit nearly perfectly, CNC coupler fit perfectly and the O ring transferred from my stock pipe fit as intended. Clamps were perfect fitment. Only trouble was the AC line bracket which slowed me down, but would have happened with any other FMIC. It is such a snug fit in there it has to be done slowly. Best advice is to only tighten each bolt all over a few threads until they are all in. Then tighten them done. You need all the slack you can get. After we put the front end on I attached all the hoses. Literally zero issues with fitment or install.
Fitment: Spot on. No issues, all bolt holes lined up properly and were all tapped perfectly. No trimming of anything was necessary. Really helped having a second person to hold things while we finagled the new IC into place. It is a lot bigger than stock so does take some finesse installing. Once in place, it fit perfectly.
Fit and finish:
• Very smooth casting
• Machined mounts into radiator support
• Perfectly tapped mounting holes
• Excellent welds
• Fin spacing and core was nearly perfect
• Light grey powder coated finish is very nice
• Overall was very clean and well prepped and ready to be installed.
• CNC coupler was flawless
• Silicone hoses were very nice, printed “do88” on them. Had the stepped ends where it meets the intercooler similar to the APR ones.
• Very sturdy overall construction, no noises when shaken or anything loose or anything at all. Incredibly solid.
• Intercooler alone weighs 28.1 pounds
Cons: Install booklet is for an older S3. If someone has never installed this will cause issues. The concepts are all the same, but not 100% to a mk6. Could be improved. Weight could be seen as a con to some.
Overall Reaction: Better than I could have imagined. The quality of the product and the ease of install allow me to highly recommend this intercooler. The car pulls incredibly hard now. The boost builds and builds and a lot smoother than stock. Feels like it is breathing better which would make complete sense. Seat of the pants reaction is that it added as much power and response as when I put just a downpipe on my otherwise stock car. It feels excellent. Boost builds and peaks and holds. It used to drop off a little. This is based on watching my boost gauge. I do not have a before and after dyno, but the Butt dyno is saying there is more power for sure. The overall drivability has gotten much better. The car feels much healthier. When you see the stock intercooler, hoses, couplers and piping you can see obvious restrictions. This seems to have addressed every bottleneck within the restraints of the chassis. I cannot speak highly enough about this intercooler. I would say the quality of everything is better than the APR that I installed a few years ago. Not knocking APR, but this just seems to have more care into it. It is currently on an intro sale for $500 shipped worldwide. I would say this is a deal for sure. I would have been this happy with it had I paid the full normal retail price. It is worth its price.
Stock Dimensions: - Tube and Fin Construction
do88 Dimensions: - Bar and Plate Construction
I will try to add more photos and logs as I can get them to this review over the next couple of days. I would ask the do88 guys how long the sale is going for. At $500 shipped it is a steal. if anyone has any specific logs they want me to run i have a VAG COM cable, but have never really run logs or know how to turn them into pretty graphs. Please let me know and i can provide the raw data dump to be made pretty.
Saw it here: http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?7375849-do88-MK6-GTi-R-performance-intercooler-VWvortex-offer!-500-USD-shipped-worldwide!
www.do88.se
Reason for Purchasing: I have wanted to buy an upgraded stock location Intercooler for some time. The car is UM stage 2 Loaded set to 28PSI. I have the Neuspeed TOP, and Uni intake. The FMIC seemed to be the last major bottleneck on the intake stream. I told myself an IC near $1000 was ridiculous and I wanted to spend around 4-500 on maybe a used one. When I saw the do88 page about this FMIC I first laughed at the name, and then began researching. The Saab, Volvo, and Porsche guys rave about this brand. They all speak to the quality and gains. I really liked the fact that they chose to pick airflow and pressure drop more seriously than straight up cooling. I never had an issue with high IATs, but wanted more flow and the increased cooling of an aftermarket FMIC was going to be an improvement regardless. With the data provided and reviews I read online it seemed like a solid choice. The unknown name to me and lack of this IC in the U.S. made me question it, but in the end I decided to buy it. I am very glad I did.
Ordering Process: Very simple. I PMd do88 on Vortex and was sent a PayPal invoice which I paid in USD. This was on Friday 11/14. I received a UPS tracking number on Monday the 16th with an expected delivery date of Wednesday the 18th!!! 2 days from near Stockholm Sweden. When I checked the tracking it showed a customs fee. I called UPS on Tuesday and paid it over the phone with a credit card. It was $14.50. Apparently can be paid in cash or check to the UPS driver as well. Super easy ordering from a company in another country. Isak was very good with communication and Information.
Unboxing: The box was waiting for me when I got home on the 18th as expected. Very large (38 x 9.5 x 19.5) It weighed 36 pounds per the UPS label. The intercooler itself was very securely packaged and surrounded with plenty of packing material and tape to keep it from moving. All accessories and hoses were nicely packaged in bags. A Full color installation manual was included as well as an info sheet from do88 about the intercooler. The intercooler itself had a very nice finish and welds and overall appearance are of excellent quality. Silicone hoses, clamps and hardware are all nice quality. I was very impressed!
Installation: Same as every other FMIC install on a mk6. Took me about 5 or 6 hours total for the intercooler. I took my time to make sure everything was perfect and done properly. My only other experience was installing and APR FMIC on a mk6 GTI. This was nearly identical and was not that difficult, just tedious. Tons of screws and bolts to keep track of. Hoses fit nearly perfectly, CNC coupler fit perfectly and the O ring transferred from my stock pipe fit as intended. Clamps were perfect fitment. Only trouble was the AC line bracket which slowed me down, but would have happened with any other FMIC. It is such a snug fit in there it has to be done slowly. Best advice is to only tighten each bolt all over a few threads until they are all in. Then tighten them done. You need all the slack you can get. After we put the front end on I attached all the hoses. Literally zero issues with fitment or install.
Fitment: Spot on. No issues, all bolt holes lined up properly and were all tapped perfectly. No trimming of anything was necessary. Really helped having a second person to hold things while we finagled the new IC into place. It is a lot bigger than stock so does take some finesse installing. Once in place, it fit perfectly.
Fit and finish:
• Very smooth casting
• Machined mounts into radiator support
• Perfectly tapped mounting holes
• Excellent welds
• Fin spacing and core was nearly perfect
• Light grey powder coated finish is very nice
• Overall was very clean and well prepped and ready to be installed.
• CNC coupler was flawless
• Silicone hoses were very nice, printed “do88” on them. Had the stepped ends where it meets the intercooler similar to the APR ones.
• Very sturdy overall construction, no noises when shaken or anything loose or anything at all. Incredibly solid.
• Intercooler alone weighs 28.1 pounds
Cons: Install booklet is for an older S3. If someone has never installed this will cause issues. The concepts are all the same, but not 100% to a mk6. Could be improved. Weight could be seen as a con to some.
Overall Reaction: Better than I could have imagined. The quality of the product and the ease of install allow me to highly recommend this intercooler. The car pulls incredibly hard now. The boost builds and builds and a lot smoother than stock. Feels like it is breathing better which would make complete sense. Seat of the pants reaction is that it added as much power and response as when I put just a downpipe on my otherwise stock car. It feels excellent. Boost builds and peaks and holds. It used to drop off a little. This is based on watching my boost gauge. I do not have a before and after dyno, but the Butt dyno is saying there is more power for sure. The overall drivability has gotten much better. The car feels much healthier. When you see the stock intercooler, hoses, couplers and piping you can see obvious restrictions. This seems to have addressed every bottleneck within the restraints of the chassis. I cannot speak highly enough about this intercooler. I would say the quality of everything is better than the APR that I installed a few years ago. Not knocking APR, but this just seems to have more care into it. It is currently on an intro sale for $500 shipped worldwide. I would say this is a deal for sure. I would have been this happy with it had I paid the full normal retail price. It is worth its price.
Stock Dimensions: - Tube and Fin Construction
do88 Dimensions: - Bar and Plate Construction
I will try to add more photos and logs as I can get them to this review over the next couple of days. I would ask the do88 guys how long the sale is going for. At $500 shipped it is a steal. if anyone has any specific logs they want me to run i have a VAG COM cable, but have never really run logs or know how to turn them into pretty graphs. Please let me know and i can provide the raw data dump to be made pretty.
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