Intuitively, you expect that venting the wheel arch liner will cool down the charge air passing through the intercooler. It seemed so obvious to me that my first mod was to cut a 4" x 6" hole in the wheel arch liner. It's bound to work, isn't it?

Has anybody else actually done any measurements?

If you measure the temperature of the cooling air before and after it has been through the intercooler, you find that the downstream air is hotter than the upstream air. So clearly some heat transfer is taking place.

If you block off the pikey mod vent (with gaffer tape in my case) the downstream air is 10

Interesting.

How do you measure both tempertures before and after the intercooler? Doesnt vag-com only measure after?

I'm planning on fitting my pikey mod this weekend if all goes well. Was plannign on doing some before and after runs.

you would think it make sence and this is just anacdotal.

when i put mine in a year ago and cut out the soft black plastic in the front round fog light. i did not notice much difference driveing on motor way but have in traffic.

cooling it seems to work. On sat got best run at santa pod after squerting water on it a few times just befor running. Standing in traffic (with air con on) it felt very walm and there was still no air going over when not moving.

while there ther were acouple of people useing CO2 fire extingwishers on there. An audi and vw or seat i think.

I am thinking of making mine bigger.

Be careful in this hot weather, if you have the wrong map, your turbo can get way to hot and pack in. Heat soak isn't the only issue. Don't go for a long thrash then switch off, even at lights etc keep the turbo spinning for cooling and never switch off, let it cool for 5 minutes after a blast, or better still if you like to drive get a FMIC.

Be careful in this hot weather, if you have the wrong map, your turbo can get way to hot and pack in. Heat soak isn't the only issue. Don't go for a long thrash then switch off, even at lights etc keep the turbo spinning for cooling and never switch off, let it cool for 5 minutes after a blast, or better still if you like to drive get a FMIC.

mine packed in today Shall be doing the pikey mod! Still bemused how the air intake is behind the headlight in the golf and the intercooler hidden in a wheel arch... very bad design :thumbdwn:

Interesting.

How do you measure both tempertures before and after the intercooler? Doesnt vag-com only measure after?

wouldn't the ambient air temp sensor behind the N/S fog lamp cover give you a before temperature :confused: i.e. before the air goes through the intercooler

The pikey mod was originally based on the Audi TT arch-liner that was vented, the SEAT Ibiza TDI has a vented arch as standard. If VAG are going to spend money on something like this I assume it's done for a reason. Then again for Skoda not to put a vent in the Fabia's liner - perhaps that's done for a reason too; probably because they didn't think it would become as popular a car as it has(??!!!) and thus didn't want to spend any money on hidden away bits.

I looked at the venting to a new facelifted Ibiza FR, thinking that it would have good air flow to it's SMIC due to the huge bit of honeycomb grille now around the fog light aperture, but NO the IC is still tucked away almost right out of sight and away from the airflow just like on the Fabia / Golf etc etc.

Interesting.

How do you measure both tempertures before and after the intercooler? Doesnt vag-com only measure after?

I'm planning on fitting my pikey mod this weekend if all goes well. Was plannign on doing some before and after runs.

I'm measuring the temperature of the cooling air with semiconductor sensors linked to a data logger. One sensor was behind the foglight, the other was dangling down through the hole by the fuel filter, with a wine bottle cork acting as a spacer so the sensor didn't actually touch the intercooler. The charge air temperature (i.e. the air inside the intercooler) was measured with Vag-Com (Group 7).

I think the intercooler suffers radiant heating from the cambelt end of the engine - there may be a case for putting a heatshield between the intercooler and the pulleys, thus forcing all the air to go through the pikey vent, and keeping the engine bay heat out.

But the bottom line is, the intercooler isn't big enough for a remapped car, however well it's ventilated, and whether or not you spray it with water.

But the bottom line is' date=' the intercooler isn't big enough for a remapped car.[/quote']

Not big enough for standard boost pressure either

Well if I get time this weekend I'm planning on doing some tests to see if the pikey mod is worth it.

Went for a blast last weekend and turned the engine straight off. I quickly realised I shouldnt of and turned it back on and left it running for 5 minutes to let things cool off properly!!

To find out if the mod. does something worthwhile, you'd need pressure sensors before/after the i/c core and an anemometer to measure wind speed through the core. Then take before/after measurements.

ISTR you only need 60%(ish) of the core area for air inlet with a big efficient outlet.

Typically, the front wheelarches are thought of as having a high air pressure and being contributory to front end lift. But the area close to the wheel should have a lower pressure as it's in proximity to a fast moving surface.

The front view of an Ibiza FR, Audi TT and a Fabia might be useful in trying to predict what'll happen. The front bumper of the Fabia doesn't "cover" the fronts of the wheels completely. That might be why Skoda didn't fit the arch vent.

J.