Operation "Cold Air" is underway.

[Daft]

I've been busy the past few days getting some new mods done on the A6 and should be done before Waterfest.

I've been seeing some really lousy IATs from the boost I'm running since I still have the puny OEM intercoolers on my car. Stage 3 boost levels are not favorable to them.

So last Monday I received a nice big box from AWE Tuning and inside was my new intercoolers. (I don't have my digital camera with me today so I can only provide the stock photo but, it gets the job done.)



Since the coolers are here I also had ordered a set of RS6 wheel well liners to add more venting to the back side of the coolers. For those who aren't in the know, the RS6 wheel well liners are fully vented at the sections where the bumper sits, this is a huge help in getting the most air to flow through the cores of the intercoolers. I ordered them from Riverside Audi and just got my paws on them this Monday.

Last night I took the time to remove one of my stock liners and see how well the RS6 would fit. Upon test fitment, I discovered that there was A LOT of venting. In fact too much for my taste. I drive this car daily and in the snow too so, I really didn't want water/snow/salt entering the areas where the fan speed controller and headlight ballasts sit. The RS6 venting actually went all the way up the front of the wheel well and almost to the ceiling of the wheel well. Since the A6 isn't meant to have these liners, there are no coverings or shrouds to protect vital parts from the elements.

After this discovery I decided that all I really wanted was the venting area for the intercoolers. The venting is nice and has angled louvres to prevent water and dirt from entering while rolling forward. The driver's side was a really nice area of venting too.

I took the stock wheel well liner and cut out the area where the RS6 liner vents the coolers. I then cut out the vented area for the coolers from the RS6 liners and layed them over the cut out area.






In the last pic, you can actually see the silver of the stock intercooler core through the vents which is a good sign of how these will help airflow.

Here are the pics of the passenger side, see the horrible layout on the passenger side? Honestly, who places a large A/C receiver/dryer behind the IC core?!?!
The areas circles in red are the areas that actualy would be able to support airflow. Notice the support brace for the fender. The yellow area is drawn to show that although that area would be covering the rear of the IC, it is blocked by subframe metal and brackets.





The last pic above shows in red the area where that bracket sits. See how they had a flat area to rest against it?

This final pic shows how much extra venting the RS6 liners had and what was left over from my cutting:





Tomorrow night, I will pull the bumper and work another late night job installing the AWE intercoolers and the fiberglass shrouds..

[A62TURBO]

Nice job!

[VJ's A6]

Hope you finish by Friday night.. What's the plan for DP's??

[Daft]

Yeah I should be done in time. The only unknown is the level of trimming I'll have to do to the AWE fiberglass shrouds. They are mean't for an S4 so we'll see how that goes.

As for downpipes, that is still a bit of a problem at this point. I'd like to get a spare set to modify ahead of time but, finding downpipes for a 2003+ A6/allroad with a manual tranny is really rare.

I might have to get the car on a lift to really do that job.

[oc-drop]

lookin good man!

i hope all turns out perfectly for you... and in time for Waterfest!

[Daft]

Added better pics to the first post.

[FrankA6]

daft i cant see any pics :( but sounds good. hey BTW i bent both rear axles and i hope to get them fixed friday morning before i leave for WF!!!

[cbock]

i see the pics.

very nicely done so far. and, thanks for providing all detail. should be great when you're done!

[oc-drop]

a little bit off topic...

i'm getting giac back and my k&n apollo got stolen (while i came back to stock for a little while) so next thing i want is the BMC CDA to aide my cold air... (a test on 3 2.8s showed that the IAT with the bmc cda was about 1deg higher than ambient temp, while stock box was about 4-5deg higher than ambient) and it also showed 10% increase airflow measured by maf g/s readings

[audirs]

hotness, loving the wheel well venting. i have to do something like this too when my stage3 gets installed. good work, let us know how the ICs work out

[tquattro2004]

Nice Work daft. Got a beast on your hands. Are you goin to dyno your bad boy at WF?

[Daft]

I'd like to dyno it but, I'll wait till everything is done. I still gotta get exhaust work done too.


Anyhow, here's the goods on tonights AWE intercooler install:

The job was really easy to do. Unfortunately I got a phone call in the middle of trimming the shrouds so that added another hour at least.

The time to jack up the car, remove the wheels, belly pan, well liners, bumper and intercoolers was about 1 hour.

The install of the coolers wasn't very tricky either, honestly AWE's install doc is very simple and covers everything.

I had to trim about 2" of plastic off the radiator support on each side to clear the ICs and the new shrouds. The shrouds needed to be trimmed in two places:

1. the hole for the tow bar needed to be a bit bigger to allow a better fit.
2. the upper right opening of the driver's shroud needed to be zipped off at an angle to prevent hitting the valve for the headlight washers.

Otherwise, all as good.

Here's the pics:










You will notice that AWE even etches you last name into the serial number plate too.

I removed my fogs for now to allow more airflow. The 2003+ fogs are huge and really block the space in front of the cores.

Also some extra good news, the new coolers are wider, so the passenger side venting will be more effective now since there is more exposed core on the wheel well side.

My inital verdict is that there is a sizable amount of extra power now. I didn't have time to make any logs since it was so late. I have to get to bed but, I'll say for sure that these were definitely worth the money.

[Kievskiy]

nice, very nice :) man i wish we had some nice aftermarket front bumpers with more opening for the smics.....i guess R6 bumper is your nex mod? :D

[audirs]

awesome work daft. the fog lights is one reason why i mite steer towards a fmic, but im not sure yet. they block so much flow to the smic. looks great tho, they are really exposed with no fogs there

[ENDEE666]

Now I see more what you meant earlier.. And we may have to talk about getting me a set of those fiberglass shrouds!! :)

[cbock]

that's just sweet!

[ENDEE666]

Meant to ask you, How much work did you have to do on the shrouds at the front? Might pick up a set of shrouds & just mod them to fit my IPP i/c's. At least it would give me a good starting point..

[AvantNoir]

Very interesting. Subscribed.

[Gigi]

sweeeeet

[ENDEE666]

FYI to the rest who are interested, I emailed AWE today about the shrouds to see if they sell them separate, how they fit on the A6, or if they make A6 specific ones.. I will share all info once I hear back.

[Daft]

When I bought my intercoolers from AWE, I asked Mike about the actual amount of trimming I might expect on an A6 versus the S4. He wasn't 100% sure but, said that it would require a little trimming at the least.

For me, I had to trim two points on the shrouds:

1. The opening for the tow hook needed to be opened more in the upper right corner of the already cut opening to allow the shround to move towards the left (passenger side).

2. The outermost upper corner of the driver side shroud needed to be lopped off at a 45 degree angle to create a space for the one-way valve that feeds the headlight washers. It is clipped to the inside of the bumper on the driver's side just under the headlight area. This is the valve that you physically disconnect the washer fluid line from while removing the bumper.


Other than these two points, I required no other trimming to get my bumper on and keep full functionality of all accessories.

For the IPP intercoolers Nick, you might not need to trim the driver's side like I did since the IPP S4 intercoolers are slightly slimmer than the AWE ones.

[ENDEE666]

Awesome, great to hear Brett. Hopefully AWE will sell the shrouds alone & at a decent price... Since my i/c's are already in, do you think the shrouds can be put on without removing the bumper? Maybe just removing the headlights or something?

[Daft]

Awesome, great to hear Brett. Hopefully AWE will sell the shrouds alone & at a decent price... Since my i/c's are already in, do you think the shrouds can be put on without removing the bumper? Maybe just removing the headlights or something?

No, you really have to have the bumper off to install them. Sorry Nick.

[ENDEE666]

Bad news on the shrouds. AWE's response-

Nick,

Thank you for your inquiry. We normally do not sell the shrouds separately from the intercooler kits. We have just enough made for the intercoolers we build. If you find a set out there somewhere, they should be a direct fit with little or no modification for the A6.

Regards,
John Voss
Sales
A.W.E. Tuning


So I either have to find used shrouds by themselves or make something

[Daft]

Honestly, you could make a set on your own, you just need to use the stock ones as a guide to the measurements on the distance that they protrude into the bumper and how far they reach across towards the center of the bumper. The rest of the measurements are based on how you want to shape the opening on the shroud to fit your IC's cores.

I do recommend that you use either plastic or fiberglass though. Sheet metal is easy to get and cut but, it will rust and make a real mess.

Honestly..........why don't you do this Nick:

1. Take the stock shrouds and heat the side that sits on the IC with a heat gun.

2. Stretch the plastic to the shape you like and then hold it there until it cools.

3. Drill holes in the sides of it to bolt it to the plate that extends off of the cores.

This should work since the only part that needs to change is the surface of the core.

[ENDEE666]

Hmmm.... The A6 is supposed to have shrouds stock?? lol... I dont have any at all... Otherwise I would have done just that.. Either heated them or done some fiberglass mod... Brett, do you still have your stock shrouds? If so, let me know how much you want for em and I will use them with some modifications..

This now makes sense. I really was surprised I had none, but just figured the A6 didn't come with them..