DIY MKVI FORGE MOTORSPORTS TWINCOOLER [INTERCOOLER] KIT - DIY Pictorial

HYDE16 REVIEWS FORGE MOTORSPORTS MKVI TWINCOOLER [INTERCOOLER] KIT - DIY Pictorial

So I dealt with the cold northeast winter weekend and finally installed my Forge Motorsports Twincooler [Intercooler] kit.
All in all, I was very impressed with the intercooler core, the high quality hoses & clamps and the detailed instructions.

As with my last -DIY MKVI FORGE MOTORSPORTS TWINTAKE - First DIY Pictorial- review, I took a ton of pictures and posted them for each step. With the Forge Motorsports Twincooler [Intercooler] kit, the –included instructions– were so clear I didn’t feel the need to repeat all of the steps and pictures. I did however take some pictures of what I found.

Word of caution before install: As with any aftermarket kits, make sure to clean out the new piping. I used an air hose to blow out any possible debris inside the piping. I would even go as far to say scrub the pipes out with a soft nylon brush, soap and water to remove any dirt or debris. Blow out every piece with an air hose to remove water or packing debris.

Bumper removal: There are a lot of bolts to remove but they come out quickly. Remove the bolts for the grill and pull it straight out, remove the fender bolts and bolts for under the bumper and underside tray. I did find that the instructions missed two bolts underneath where the grill was. They are facing forward on the inside corner of each headlight. Pull the corner of the bumpers out and then pull the whole bumper forward.



Front end open:





Hose Removal: Use a flathead screwdriver to pry the round retaining clips just enough so that the connectors can be pulled off of the outlets. Word of advice: on the passenger side, keep track which retaining clip goes to the stock intercooler and outlet pancake pipe. I noticed afterwards that the clips were slightly different and a tiny bit different in size. On the driver’s side leave the retaining clip on the stock intercooler outlet connector; this will make it easier when installing the new hose.

Hose Oil: For all of you CATCH CAN haters and non-believers out there, here’s another example why a catch can may help us out or at least catch some of this oil buildup. These pictures below show the oil build up after 5K miles on a 2011 MKVI. I know the next item on my list will be the -Forge Motorsports Transverse TSI Oil Catch Can- for sure! I used paper towels to clean the small pool of oil out and then stuffed it inside the hoses to get out as much of the oil coating as possible. Needless to say the paper towel was brown.



Intercooler Mounting: Next step is to mount the intercooler core to the front of the car. I held the intercooler core as high as I could underneath the frame and centered the “Forge” logo with the hood latch. I marked the correct holes for the MKVI (as per the instructions) with a sharpie then drilled the center of each marking with a very small pilot drill bit. After holding the intercooler in the same mounting spot, I took an appropriately sized Phillips head screwdriver and threaded the large screws into the holes. Make sure to use a large wide head Phillips screwdriver or else you run the small risk of stripping the screw heads somewhat.



Horn Relocation: As per the instructions I used the included mounting plates and repositioned the horns on each side of the car as pictured.





Driver’s Side Tubing: After the intercooler core was mounted I transferred the o-rings from the old connectors to the new connectors and installed them in the outlet pipe and both stock intercooler outlets. I used the new high quality Forge Motorsport hosing and worked them into the new connectors. Make sure all retaining clips are tight and that they don’t shift or rotate. Pull on the tubing to verify a solid connection to avoid disconnection during boost.



Passenger’s Side Tubing: The passenger side tubing was the only area that needed modification to any of the included parts.
I trimmed 1” off of all three ends so the tubing would fit all three connectors without any bends or kinks to reduce airflow.

Passenger’s Side Tubing Connection: Here is an underside shot to show the connections after I trimmed the hose; no bends or kinks.



Driver’s Side Tubing Connection: Here is an underside shot to show the connections without any trimming; no bends or kinks.



Reassembled Front End: I don’t have anything to add for how to put the bumper, underside tray and grill back on except that the underside tray needed a slight amount of force to align the holes. The bolts all tightened down fine without any resistance. After the bumper went back on I noticed I had the same, even gap from the fenders and headlights as before so no adjustments were needed. I inspected the bumper up close and saw that the back of the lower grill was flush against the front lower corners of the intercooler core. Seems like a tight, firm fit in this location.





Install: The install was a breeze for anyone who has removed a front bumper and replaced air hoses on a car before with simple hand tools. Hopefully this DIY Pictorial can offer up some more detail on installing the Twincooler kit. My goal was to try and explain the installation beyond any typical instruction manual.

Startup: I fired the engine up and checked for any possible vibration and rubbing against other components. I listened for leaks or whistles but the Twincooler and hoses were firmly connected behind the bumper without any movement or air leaks. The car sounded the same at idle on the outside and inside of the car.

Driving: There weren’t any sound differences when in neutral or while driving. For the first drive I didn’t notice a difference at all. After I drove home and called it a night I wondered if the car’s ECU would adjust to what it just experienced on the highway. You may disagree about the car adjusting but the next morning my MKVI was raring and ready to go with its new add-on. It felt completely different from before the install and the first drive! The turbo pulls harder and it’s easy to let the acceleration get away from you. What I mean by “pulls harder” is that when you’re on the highway with your foot on the pedal to maintain speed then hit the pedal to accelerate the turbo is much more responsive and feels like the boost kicks in faster. It felt like the original delay of boost had disappeared and the car pulls away from you much easier. At a standstill, first gear felt the same but second gear was like a rocket. I can’t even begin to imagine how the Twintake, Twincooler and eventual APR Stage 1 flash will all react to provide a completely different feeling than what I’m used to. Driving was a ton of fun because this modification (unlike the Twintake where the performance increase won’t be realized until after the APR Stage 1 flash) finally offered an absolute increase in performance over stock. IMO it is well worth the price for the quality, instructions, amazing customer service (thanks Mike!) and the change in performance.

Boost: I have the AWE vent-mounted boost gauge installed and just as a test, I drove the car hard to see if I could still reach the original10psi of boost that the gauge showed originally. I reached 10psi maximum as per the gauge so this was a great test to check for leaks.

Look: It looks amazing, enough said. The black tubing looks OEM behind the front lower grill except for the subtle white Forge Motorsport logos. The intercooler core has a bright, almost polished silver texture and looks mean behind the black front lower grill. The grill offers enough black to blend in with the silver for a subtle modified look when standing back away from the car. The metal connectors and round metal clamps were all great quality.

OEM Replacement Intercooler vs. secondary Twincooler core: IMO the Twincooler wins hands down; it adds an extra core for even more volume and gets a ram-air style cooling effect in the front of the car and away from the engine and radiator. A friend of mine has a 2010 MKVI and just installed the S3 Intecooler core for 30% more volume over OEM. We have not had a chance to go head to head yet so I can’t comment on the comparison for feel. We’re both building our cars with different aftermarket parts; he installed a full APR intake, S3 intercooler and TOP. I’m all in for Forge parts only except for the APR flash and possible downpipe in the future. Next up is the recently released APR Stage 1 flash for 2011!

Nice writeup.

Details on front plate placement? lol

I didn't want to drill out my front bumper or mount the plate centrally to block airflow to the intercooler. I bought a Low Profile Front License Plate Mount from Skene Design and fastened it underneath the bumper lip.

http://www.skenedesign.com/FPBracket/index.shtml

Eventually I'd like to get the motorized hide away license plate holder but I can't tell if it will hold up to highway speeds and wind.

http://www.swiftmotorsports.com/pro...=3922&osCsid=0fc2b64575047fac19181b64ae35bdad

I've been talking with username: "11223" on vwvortex who just got this motorized kit but has yet to install.

They do hold up if you get the right one and not a cheap one. But they really still stand out. I'd rather have it like you do cause I also need to have one than try to fool people. Is it hard to take off?

I don't want to get away from the initial point of this thread but PM me if you want. Easy to remove with two sideways bolts, you will barely see the mounts underneath.

Thanks for this, it's really useful! I'm planning to get this some time by the end of the year.

Nice job and thanks for sharing! :thumbup:

You saved yourself about $300 as that's what I paid to have it done. I also did the TOP (curious, why didn't you do it since you were right there when you did the IC?) at the same time. Since I did both at the same time I can't tell which provided the what in terms of improvement in power and drivability but I would say my results are similar to what you describe. It really added to the low end grunt as boost seems to come on earlier and harder giving the car some nice low end grunt. Top end changes a little but not much as boost is still limited by the ECU. The low end torque is almost V8 like.

I expect the real benefit will come when we get the tune and the ECU is able to fully utilize the additional cooling. I expect the jump in power to be pretty dramatic. :drool:

You're welcome. I hope this write-up shows everyone how easy it is to do at home with simple hand tools and a drill. If you have questions or concerns post them here for Forge or myself to answer.

Awesome writeup. I want to get one of these by the end of the year. Quick question, unless I missed it, about how long did it take to do all together?

Red2011GTI said:

Nice job and thanks for sharing! :thumbup:

You saved yourself about $300 as that's what I paid to have it done. I also did the TOP (curious, why didn't you do it since you were right there when you did the IC?) at the same time. Since I did both at the same time I can't tell which provided the what in terms of improvement in power and drivability but I would say my results are similar to what you describe. It really added to the low end grunt as boost seems to come on earlier and harder giving the car some nice low end grunt. Top end changes a little but not much as boost is still limited by the ECU. The low end torque is almost V8 like.

I expect the real benefit will come when we get the tune and the ECU is able to fully utilize the additional cooling. I expect the jump in power to be pretty dramatic. :drool:

Click to expand...

Right, I thought about the price of the APR and S3 IC's then the cost to have it installed since it seems like a PITA. It just about came out to the price of the Forge IC.

That's exactly why I did the IC only and not the TOP yet. I wanted to see if there really was a difference in adding the TOP. I've been told that the "pancake" TOP provides sufficient air flow for K03 turbos. Personally, since disposable income is scarce, I can't see how a ceramic coated TOP could provide enough of a difference to warrant ~$200.

AWE advertises a 5.75 crank HP increase with turbo response cut down by half a second on a K04 powered MKV. What is the real gain for a K03 powered MKVI? Worth $200? I'm not sure yet. That $200 could be put towards a track day, sway bars or something else IMO.

Source: http://www.awe-tuning.com/products/vw/mk6-g-j-2010/2-0t/awe-tsi-top.html

Speaking of our tune, I'm heading over to Redline Speedworx this Tuesday (2/15) to get my 2011 MKVI flashed with the new fully loaded APR Stage 1 software! I can finally use my gift cards from Christmas!

Believe it or not I still plan on driving the car home in the stock mode since I still have winter tires on. When I bolt on my spring/summer wheels I'll change the mode over for one kick-ass weekend.

GTIRob said:

Awesome writeup. I want to get one of these by the end of the year. Quick question, unless I missed it, about how long did it take to do all together?

Click to expand...

That's the one thing I didn't pay close attention to.
I want to say my brother and I installed this in about 2 hours.
Having a second set of hands definitely helps with the bumper and mounting the intercooler core but is not needed.

Very cool, thanks! I will definitely be having someone to help.

HYDE16 said:

Right, I thought about the price of the APR and S3 IC's then the cost to have it installed since it seems like a PITA. It just about came out to the price of the Forge IC.

That's exactly why I did the IC only and not the TOP yet. I wanted to see if there really was a difference in adding the TOP. I've been told that the "pancake" TOP provides sufficient air flow for K03 turbos. Personally, since disposable income is scarce, I can't see how a ceramic coated TOP could provide enough of a difference to warrant ~$200.

AWE advertises a 5.75 crank HP increase with turbo response cut down by half a second on a K04 powered MKV. What is the real gain for a K03 powered MKVI? Worth $200? I'm not sure yet. That $200 could be put towards a track day, sway bars or something else IMO.

Source: http://www.awe-tuning.com/products/vw/mk6-g-j-2010/2-0t/awe-tsi-top.html

Speaking of our tune, I'm heading over to Redline Speedworx this Tuesday (2/15) to get my 2011 MKVI flashed with the new fully loaded APR Stage 1 software! I can finally use my gift cards from Christmas!

Believe it or not I still plan on driving the car home in the stock mode since I still have winter tires on. When I bolt on my spring/summer wheels I'll change the mode over for one kick-ass weekend.

Click to expand...

It would be interesting to drive each of our cars to see if there is a difference with the TOP since they are currently modified the same.

Comparing the pancake pipe the AWE's TOP there is a huge difference in size but honestly don't know if the stock one really creates any reduction in flow. I can see were there is a increased benefit with more boost from the tune or a KO4. Be interesting to know what TOP VW puts on the KO4 equipped cars.

I am getting the tune on Wednesday (can't wait!!) and I am going straight APR Stage II with a catted B&B pipe. Here in Phoenix we really don't have winter so I will definitely be gunning it on my way home. We definitely have hot summers so I am confident that the IC will really help.