Erikwithak01

This weekend the wife and I installed a CTS intercooler in my A3, and a TTRS style grille in her 8J TT, so both cars had their bumpers off at the same time, lol. Man it's a lot of work to do an intercooler in an A3 O_o glad it's done though.

Fitment was good. I used the CTS, REVO, and APR instructions for good measure. Make sure to use a good strong permanent marker, and mark the corners of the crash bar with a line connecting to the frame, so you know how everything was lined up originally. It's a good weekend project. Takes time, some cursing, and forgetting exactly how the thing went back together, hahah! All in all pretty fun.

I spent all week, couple hours at a time on it. It's much less frustrating like that.

You have to tilt the bumper bar down and forward to pull it out of the carrier assy, and the lump of radiators was a bitch to get out, and back into the radiator core support. Took lots of modifying the shroud for the CTS unit, but that didn't take more than a few hours to do. The AC lines are a **** though....APR says to remove them, but that's a bunch of bull, you can unhook the condenser from the Intercooler and twist it to make more room.

Just got back from a rip.

I can tell the stock intercooler was a restriction. It clearly pulls evenly all the way through redline now, where as before if was gassing out at 4500 rpm. However, you can tell it's volume is much larger. It takes another 500 rpm to spool fully, and it doesn't hit as hard when it does come on. It makes for a smoother power delivery though; more usable from a motorsports standpoint.

I can feel the weight over the nose though :/ the CTS unit is HEAVY. It is physically difficult to pick up with one hand, where the stock unit feels lighter than my half empty Nalgene water bottle. It's a little more bouncy hard in corners, and handles more like a dragster now, than a sporty sedan. I'm gonna relocate the battery to the passenger's rear in the trunk, to balance out the weight issue.

All in preparation for a GTX2867R this summer :P

Currently running a CTS catless downpipe, JB4 on map.2, highflow dry element air filter in the stock box, the new CTS intercooler, and a res delete.

Check out my Instagram for more cool Audi stuff. ig: thegoodlife_pnw

Erikwithak01

A few more for good measure. The wife always likes to snap pictures in the garthe when we're working together.

KevinGary