Club 80-90 Forums

I have an air to air intercooler mounted in the left hand rear corner. It's set up differently from the Bernd ones in that it is virtually flat, and I have sealed it in and cut the bottom out of the tray so the air goes through and out of the bottom (helped by a motorbike fan that constantly sucks air through it). It has inlet and outlet on the same side (seemingly quite difficult to find) which made fitting relative easy. It seems to work OK but I don't have any data to substantiate any improvements. The bernd set up uses a bigger intercooler which is obviously better.

The general consensus seems to be that the air to water ones are better but I've never seen any data that prove this (but I'm sure someone will pop up with some soon!). As I already had the air-to-air one and the others are quite expensive I never bothered looking into it!

I've been having doubts about installing my AHU since reading how much the conversion costs, but will watch with interest to see what you conclude. In the meatime my AAZ is hanging in there!

Im with smokeyjohn on this one. I feel that an air-to-air system is just as efficient, cheaper and has less to go wrong and as smokeyjohn says no one has any figures to prove which one is better so its down to personal choice. As long as the exit airflow is controlled I feel it would be better!

Hello,

just for what it's worth, I have a very similar setup to smokeyjon by the sounds of it with an electronic tdi setup

https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=99254" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I know it's not a syncro so not as heavy, but it is the type of intercooler put behind the rear cluster. It would be interesting to see a similar foot-to-the-floor test (at sustained peak boost) with an air-water intercooler. I'm sure a chargecooler with decent radiator and pump would be more efficient, and some setups here look really good, but the data I have shows the maximum air temperature at just over 50 degrees (albeit not on a very hot day) and that's well within what's expected on a stock tdi.

Ewen

OK. well this is all very encouraging.

if i do this its going to be on a shoestring at the moment so i need to use as much golf as possible, and sell my old 2.1 and petrol peripherals to help fund their diesel replacements.

but i do think its going to happen.

i keep reading about a custom left hand engine mount. from what i have read, is this to do with keeping the golf turbo in situ?

hotpod wrote:i keep reading about a custom left hand engine mount. from what i have read, is this to do with keeping the golf turbo in situ?

yes

Fitting an air to air cooler is fine on a road vehicle....but when it's covered in mud it will be useless, also the JX manifold and turbo location can be retained by use of an adaptor plate, ok the manifold is not the best in terms of air flow but it works and is cheap, also standard engine mount fits, exhaust can remain un molested, air intake pipe fits, possibly even the oil feed,

If I ever decide to make my 1z into an Afn that's the way would go, I did the 1Z that way and I like the lack of home brew, not vw parts, there's enough to do with sorting the wiring and charge cooling, gearbox, clutch, air supply etc.

max and caddy wrote:Fitting an air to air cooler is fine on a road vehicle....but when it's covered in mud it will be useless, also the JX manifold and turbo location can be retained by use of an adaptor plate, ok the manifold is not the best in terms of air flow but it works and is cheap, also standard engine mount fits, exhaust can remain un molested, air intake pipe fits, possibly even the oil feed,

If I ever decide to make my 1z into an Afn that's the way would go, I did the 1Z that way and I like the lack of home brew, not vw parts, there's enough to do with sorting the wiring and charge cooling, gearbox, clutch, air supply etc.

That just makes it too easy You need to shed blood, sweat and tears doing a TDI conversion, otherwise it don't count.. like a right of passage, becoming a man kinda thing...

syncropaddy wrote:Im with smokeyjohn on this one. I feel that an air-to-air system is just as efficient, cheaper and has less to go wrong and as smokeyjohn says no one has any figures to prove which one is better so its down to personal choice. As long as the exit airflow is controlled I feel it would be better!

My chargecooler never results in intake temps above 40.....ahu under motor way / climb loads
Unfortunately I never vagcommed my air to air system.......I just n
Knew it was not getting enough airflow

lloydy wrote:

max and caddy wrote:Fitting an air to air cooler is fine on a road vehicle....but when it's covered in mud it will be useless, also the JX manifold and turbo location can be retained by use of an adaptor plate, ok the manifold is not the best in terms of air flow but it works and is cheap, also standard engine mount fits, exhaust can remain un molested, air intake pipe fits, possibly even the oil feed,

If I ever decide to make my 1z into an Afn that's the way would go, I did the 1Z that way and I like the lack of home brew, not vw parts, there's enough to do with sorting the wiring and charge cooling, gearbox, clutch, air supply etc.

That just makes it too easy You need to shed blood, sweat and tears doing a TDI conversion, otherwise it don't count.. like a right of passage, becoming a man kinda thing...

Hmmm...I'm ok as I am thanks...easy is fine.

I'm hoping in a months time i'll be happy i went this way To be fair though, it would have been a lot easier if all the parts had been bought at the same time so they worked together

well since the summer is like it is, i am not really missing the camper so badly at the moment and am actually quite pleased its undercover. i have given myself until next Feb ( planned trip to Austria snowboarding ) to put a tdi in.
i am now in the market for some bits.

does anyone have any ideas regarding reshaping fuel tanks with hot air guns?? was i dreaming or have i heard of people successfully doing this?

russel has done it but i got the impression he wouldn`t jump at the chance of doing it again. that said nothing to loose really petrol tanks are almost free compared to derv tanks.

lee

max and caddy wrote:Fitting an air to air cooler is fine on a road vehicle....but when it's covered in mud it will be useless,

Why and how would it be covered in mud? You would stand a better chance of clogging your charge cooler radiator if you did a bit of bumper deep wading in muddy water. Bow waves can get quite high!

hotpod wrote:well since the summer is like it is, i am not really missing the camper so badly at the moment and am actually quite pleased its undercover. i have given myself until next Feb ( planned trip to Austria snowboarding ) to put a tdi in.
i am now in the market for some bits.

does anyone have any ideas regarding reshaping fuel tanks with hot air guns?? was i dreaming or have i heard of people successfully doing this?

I have a petrol tank here for £35 plus £10 postage. I paid £200 for my diesel one. That was the hardest part to find when I went petrol to diesel.

I have heard that a heat gun and a bowling ball is the way to do it. I just went for a diesel one.

hotpod wrote: the vans "ears" were designed originally to provide cooling air for the entire engines, surely on ear can provide enough cooling for the intercooler?

Well, the air intakes on T3s were designed for cooling Aircooled engines. SHOULD make sense to put an i/c in there now.

Having driven syncros with JX, JX with i/c, AAZ, AAZ with i/c, 1z and AFN, I have to say everyone of these engines would meet my need. Depending on the weight of the car of course.
In the highroof syncrowesty I have an AAZ with a Langerer & Reich water/air i/c system that was installed in Germany when the car was a month old. It works fine and makes a big difference! The design of the aircooling unit puts it right on top of the turbo and engine, it sits next to the right wall in the engine compartment. And with the AAZ being 11mm higher than the JX, it actually rubs... I also have the Rover boost pin and AAZ pump, JX turbo and Brickwerks SS exhaust. Best guestimate: 87 bhp. Not as powerful as an 1z, but a huge improvement over a JX with i/c.

I miss my doka with the 1Z! Great torque, better fuel economy and reliable. The AFN isn´t mine, but ran VERY nice. Not sure I would dare put that much power/torque through my gearbox though..

Having a VAG technician with 31 years experience (how many people love their jobs so much that they stay with the same employer for 31 years...?) in the family is very helpful He has showed me the difference between TDK and TDI, and the answer can be found in the color of the engide oil. TDIs run much cleaner and if you TDI-M them they will not be TDIs anymore. So now I´m looking for a low mileage 1Z With i/c and different injectors they perform very well.