Intercooler Upgrade - 4G0 145 805 J

[moonshiner]

I had studied the intercooler comparison thread and found this post by context.eax

It took me a while to figure out the Part Number, but it is: 4G0 145 805 J

Here's a pic for reference:



Finding the PN was the easy part. Actually finding the unit proved to be much more difficult, especially since it's from a car that's not sold in the US. When I was looking the only one I could find was from the UK. But I managed to score a used one for $280USD shipped.

It had a little bit of fin damage, but nothing major and it pressure tested fine.



We made an attempt at installation once but discovered that the inlet and outlet are positioned almost 45degrees off the stock IC so the stock and even the Eurocode IC hose kit wouldn't work. The 3.0 TDI (US Spec) has the same inlet/outlet angles so using your existing hose kit works fine. If you're not into fabbing and tweaking out your stock shit I'd just stick with this IC:



So second time around we had a better idea of what we were getting into so ordered a bunch of parts from siliconeintakes.com, including some 45deg bends, couplers, and joiners. Well it turned out that we still hadn't gotten it quite right. Luckily we are pretty close to MAP performance, so we swung by and Nate completely hooked us up with some silicone goodies.

First, this IC mounts up exactly in the stock mount points despite being significantly larger. The only thing that needed to be done to mount it was drill out the IC screw hole on the drivers side as it was a little smaller than the stock bolt.

Mounted


Because of the size of the IC the shrouds are simply not going to fit. I'm sure there are better ways of dealing with this but I just made a stencil and cut out the shape of the IC and snipped the shroud pieces to fit around the IC:



Now for the part that stumped us the first time, hose connections.

For the driver's side we ended up with the following:

• 1 2.5" coupler
• 1 2.5" joiner
• 1 2.5">2.25" 90 Degree Elbow
• 4 hose clamps

The coupler and 90 had to be trimmed for proper fitment, but it allowed the best flow and maintained the largest inner diameter. Here's a few pics:





For the passenger side we ended up using one of the Eurocode IC hoses from their kit and obviously their turbo compressor adapter since it is 2.25" vs the 1.6 or 1.7" stock unit.

These are the parts we used on the passenger side:

• 1 Eurocode passenger IC hose
• 1 Eurocode Compressor Adapter
• 1 2.5" > 2.25" 45 Degree Elbow
• 1 2.25" joiner

Here are a few pics:





It was a bit of pain to have to take the bumper off twice and spend hours and many miles running around to buy parts but I think the effort was well worth it.

I realize I could have simply purchased an existing kit or gone with the 3.0 TDI intercooler, but I feel like this IC is superior even to the 3.0 one and can probably hold its own against some of the aftermarket units and not block my radiator (I like using AC when it's hot out).

Additionally my total costs were:

$280 - IC
$130 - EC hose kit (used on ebay)
$20 - Hose clamps (many left over)
$22 - Silicone hoses and parts (discount from MAP)
$30 - Silicone hoses and parts (siliconeintakes.com)

$482 total.

We still have to log it (have a bad PCV and am upgrading my DV) and I'm upset that we weren't able to log stock for comparison, but we'll make sure to get logs of this unit. There's a few AR's out here that have the same mods that we could log for comparison though.

Thanks for reading and hope this helps someone!

[blbroo]

The TDI intercooler upgrade has been done quite a bit and this is the first time I've seen the need for extra hoses. People usually buy one from rockauto for $130ish and it connects right up to the stock hoses.

You can get a treadstone TR8 or TR11, both much bigger than the TDI IC, for $250 and make it work with $35 worth of hose adapters.

[moonshiner]

The TDI intercooler upgrade has been done quite a bit and this is the first time I've seen the need for extra hoses. People usually buy one from rockauto for $130ish and it connects right up to the stock hoses.

You can get a treadstone TR8 or TR11, both much bigger than the TDI IC, for $250 and make it work with $35 worth of hose adapters.

This isn't the same IC. The IC you're referring to is:



Has plastic end caps and is definitely smaller and not as nice. This IC has cast end tanks and is built by Modine.

I had thought about the Treadstone.

[zcspec]

I've gotta give the OP some props for all the trouble you went through to get a OEM upgraded IC to fit correctly. Seems like it was quite the bitch to complete. Yes, you could have gone with something larger like the TR8 for cheaper, but heck, to each his own. Bottom line, you've given members a nice DIY using another OEM option.

[moonshiner]

I've gotta give the OP some props for all the trouble you went through to get a OEM upgraded IC to fit correctly. Seems like it was quite the bitch to complete. Yes, you could have gone with something larger like the TR8 for cheaper, but heck, to each his own. Bottom line, you've given members a nice DIY using another OEM option.

Thanks man, I honestly thought this piece would bolt up easier than it did. And from a cost basis, I wasn't thinking I'd need to spend the money on extra hoses, etc. But once you're down the rabbit hole there's no turning back! lol

[oascom]

I have 3.0tdi Intercooler for sale if someone interested.