Full of cold air!

ChaseZ

The 13+ (among others) OEM grille covers up nearly half the Treadstone intercooler that comes with TG's kit. Now it runs reasonably cool as it, but this still tells me there is room for more.

So armed with a Dremel I decided to put the theory to the test. The fangs are part of the grille not the bumper cover in these ones so they had to go to. In fact the entirety of the grille portion did.

There was nothing to it really, just a steady hand, the right bits and some patience. The edges left were nice and clean.



I had planned out where I was going to cut based on aesthetics but also with the knowledge that I need semi linear surfaces to bend and mount a new grille afterwards. I'd already used some round hole mesh on the vents in my hood and rear diffuser so I'm going to pick up some similar sheet stainless but with larger openings. (You didn't think I was going to finish it all in one post did you? )

BUT I had to actually test it. So with a small Father's Day cruise already planned, ok it was excuse for a drive but what isn't, I set out with a wide open front end and hot coffee in the cup holder.

I had my temp readings set to Celsius so bear that in mind. Before I was getting around 15c above ambient, more on harder pulls like 1/2 mile events. Now, at 50mph I'm getting ambient. Yes, ambient. It was 22c outside and that's exactly what my AIT were reading.

My oil temps at speed were also 15c lower than they were before. About 5c lower sitting in stop and go traffic. My 25 row Setrab oil cooler sits largeler behind the intercooler on the drivers side, so it was getting more love now too.

Before I didn't see too much difference in AIT between my customized Frozenboost Stillen Speed Density setup and the TG but now it's a whole different story.

Hopefully I don't lose too much of that after I put the new mesh on but either way I won't be covering up half of the intercooler with solid material like what spans the top half of the OEM grille. It will restrict air some compared to wide open but leaving it as is is s bit too 'tuner' for me and don't want to be picking rocks or whatever else out of the fins on a regular basis.

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