Intercooler/Charge-cooler Advice (2015 S4)

Gurus,

Seeking your expert advice/experiences on intercoolers/charge coolers (apologies if I’m not using the correct terminology) for a 2015 S4. A little context as to what I’m hoping to achieve – basically just the same “feel”/response as we get when driving in nice cold, crisp weather. I’m not a 1/4 mile nor track guy (may go once or twice) and the car is a daily driver at times caught in brutal traffic (mixed highway and city).

I’ve been researching and it appears that AMS, AWE, and APR have setups with their data posted etc. These systems look to have 3 components – the cooler itself, a larger reservoir for the coolant, and a “pump”. Question – to balance cost/benefit to what I’m trying to achieve, do you think all 3 are required or just specific parts? Obviously the full system is best, but if I were trying to trade-off some benefit to keep the cost lower, which parts would you recommend?

Thanks for your time and looking forward to your input!

I’d think the greatest benefit comes from the larger heat exchanger.
That thing is like more than 3 times taller than the stock unit!
More surface area, and catches more air to cool the fluid. That is where the benefit is going to come from.
As well though, swapping grilles will help with airflow to the exchanger + rad.

Each part of the system helps make the other parts performance better. You can have a large resivware but if the heat exchanger isn’t pulling out the heat the system will just take a little longer to heat up. If you don’t have the pump but you have the heat exchange unit and resivware your not going to push the heat out quickly enough

the point of all those components is to delay heat soak for a long as possible. Heat soak will happen if you push the car long enough. So that’s really one part of the point of the system upgrade.

The next biggest issue you want to deal with is rebound of the system. This is how long it takes the system to cool back down after the entire system has gotten heat soaked. The AMS would be the least desirable kit due to it never divorcing itself from the oem system. Giac and APR have proven kits adding any one of the 3 components will help but it will only get you so far and when you reach the point of heat soak if you don’t have the entire system it will take much much longer for the car to cool back down and remove all the heat.

When you say the AMS system is not ‘divorced’ from the OEM system, but neither is APR’s or AWE’s - at least i dont think it is?

I was also leaning towards the AMS system due to the effort they made to design the system to be as close to an OEM like install vs the other 2.

But if AMS is the inferior product I’ll look else where.

The apr and awe are divorced from what I understand. One of the guys on here even made his own kit using bigger heat removal parts. His name is Pete his dad has the record for fastest b8.5 s4 I think.

I would look into the AWE kit it seemed to to we’ll for most of the guys.

I have the APR Cooling Performance System and I’m quite satisfied with it. It hasn’t had any issues in 2 years. I occasionally check the supercharger loop to ensure it has coolant, and there have not been any leaks.

Join the group buy if have been waiting to get an AMS cooler:
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/639762-Group-Buy-ALPHA-AUDI-BOOST-COOLER-SYSTEM

The APR and AWE systems are fully divorced IF you install the separator (both offer it as one of the options). As mentioned above, the system is only connected at the overflow tank to begin with, so any mixing would be minimal. The other benefit to not divorcing the systems, and someone can correct me if I am wrong, is that you will be notified of any leaks on the supercharger cooling side which I don’t think is the case if they are fully divorced (the level sensor is on the engine coolant side).

With all that said, I don’t think there is a huge difference in any of the 3 systems in terms of performance; at least not enough to go one way or the other. I personally went with the AMS system because I felt like the combination of a triple-pass core, pump, and larger reservoir was the most beneficial (AMS’s testing backed this up, and my own logging looked really good). AMS also uses custom fit silicon hoses for all the hoses whereas APR and AWE use your more standard rubber/radiator hose quality parts (APR already had several failures with one of their caps which has since been replaced/upgraded). I believe the AWE and AMS systems are fully plug-and-play since AMS made their latest cable change (there are no electronics on with the APR system since they moved away from their pump).

The basics:
APR: Single pass core, larger reservoir, small separator
AWE: Single-pass core, pump, larger separator (that if large enough for you to add ice to if desired)
AMS: Triple-pass core, pump, larger reservoir

Thanks for the info JRan. I think that helps with my decision in going with the AMS system. Just need to get the approval from the wifey now lol. Was going to go for a set of wheels, but I think I may go for this instead - moh powah instead of bling!

Agreed, these are all great kits and the relative advantages are pretty minor between them.

One other positive for APR/AWE, is you can get their kits piecemeal. So maybe you only want the larger heat exchanger. Some will say you are overpaying for simple hardware, and might sub in their own components to reduce the overall cost.

APR no longer offers the components of their system fully separate. You have the option of the radiator and reservoir for $1699, then the separator for $299, or the complete system for $1899. There is no option to buy the radiator or reservoir separately.

AWE does offer all components separately, obviously at a higher cost than the complete kit at once ($1960 for the complete kit versus $2150 for the components individually). They are also the only one that offers a protection screen; albeit at $179.

Ah good correction!

Speaking of screens - remember reading a post on az about someone who used a company called Tapco that manufactures Hurricane proof screens:

http://img-2013.tapatalk.com/d/13/05/30/4e4edu7e.jpg

Not sure how something would affect air flow though.

One other thing to add in regards to possible damage to the radiator… AMS uses a hemmed-fin design that is much much stronger than the non-hemmed fins on the stock radiator. I am sure APR and AWE probably use a similar (stronger) fin design. I would stop short of saying radiator protection is not needed with the aftermarket units, but you are far less likely to suffer damage.

I added a protection screen attached to my grille mostly for cosmetic reasons:

http://i570.photobucket.com/albums/ss146/jran76/385B518D-8BED-4E0E-BB2A-5AE5A09A4706_zpsjglgihim.jpg

Interesting note on the triple pass core feature. It would be interesting to see the heat exchangers on each kit. Are they priced about the same.

I opted not to use a protection screen on mine because I feel like the hemmed design of the AMS exchanger is pretty durable. Looked at it the other day and it is blemish free. Been handling our MI roads and snow/salt/debris like a champ. I may fab one up this spring to be extra safe, I also wasn’t sure if it would restrict air flow but I don’t see it having much of an effect. I blacked my heat exchanger out for a more stealth/conspicuous look. It did stick out very much, see before and after


http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/s532/msid9210/IMG_1571_zps2923c129.jpg


http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/s532/msid9210/20141230_152237_zps24979154.jpg

For what it’s worth…I have an APR system, zero problems. I also have a P3 gauge which had extra input spaces. Put a temperature sensor at the exit of the APR radiator and prior to supercharger intake. Now have a constant read out of coolant temperature in the divorced system and unless needed for other purposes leave the P3 gauge selected to CPS temp. Stock temperature gauge reads out engine temperature. Hope this helps.

A somewhat related question: does the RS4 grill provides any extra air flow when compared to stock one? In other word, will I get better cooling with RS4 grill?

Now that I’m getting an AMS cooler, I might get a RS4 grill if there’s any advantage.

RS4 grill definitely has better air flow. It also increases drag considerably.