Trophy Gold Front Mount Intercooler

The ARM MK7 GTI FMIC gives your GTI up to 24whp and 26wtq by reducing intake air temperatures by 74%, making it one of the best upgrades you can do for your MK7 GTI.  The ARM MK7 FMIC is so efficient that it outperforms stock-location intercoolers that are almost twice its size! "How?" you may ask.

The ARM MK7 GTI FMIC positions the intercooler in front of your radiator stack, the most efficient position to cool your Gen 3 EA888. This is where the intercooler can utilize the ambient air where it is coolest before it passes through your other radiators and temperatures increase.  

BETTER, NOT JUST BIGGER

Contrary to popular belief, bigger is not better, at least when it comes to intercoolers for the MQB platform.  The purpose of an intercooler is to keep intake air temperatures cool, not to be huge.  The bigger an intercooler is, the more charge-air is required to fill it up, and therefore more of a potential for pressure drop, power loss, and turbo lag.  The best solution would be to not need an intercooler at all and have cool charge-air run straight from the turbo to the intake manifold in an ideal world.  However, the charge air coming from the turbo isn't cool, in fact, it's quite hot, and too much heat will decrease power on your MK7.

WHY YOUR MK7 NEEDS AN INTERCOOLER UPGRADE

When you increase the power on your MK7 with a tune, you increase the boost pressure by asking the turbocharger to spin faster for a longer period of time. The faster and longer your turbo spins build boost, the higher the temperature your charged-air will become.  When the ECU detects that the intake air temperature (IAT) becomes too high, it will reduce timing and limit the amount of power your engine can produce to avoid damage.

An intercooler upgrade is so essential for the MQB platform, that most tuners require an upgraded intercooler for flashing your MK7 with any tune above a basic stage 1 map.  Since we need an intercooler to make the power we want and keep our MK7 running efficiently, the best solution is to have an intercooler that is as small as possible while still keeping intake air temperatures (IAT) low.  This is exactly what the ARM MK7 FMIC Kit does.

LOWER IAT'S

At only 644 cu. in., the ARM MK7 GTI FMIC kept our project MK7 GTI's IAT's to a cool 16 degrees above ambient temperatures during a 2nd - 5th gear pull, on an average 70 day.  Compared to the drastic 61-degree increase we recorded with the OEM intercooler on only a slightly warmer 79-degree day.

CONSTRUCTION

The heart of the ARM MK7 GTI FMIC is its efficient bar and plate intercooler core, measuring 22 x 9 x 3.25 inches.  Making the total intercooler volume 644 cubic inches.  With the OEM intercooler coming in at 493 cubic inches, the ARM MK7 FMIC is only 28% larger than the OEM unit.

Combine the efficient positioning of the intercooler with our ultra-dense fin packs with a fin-density of 20 fins per inch, and you have the ARM MK7 FMIC kit, which is rated to handle up to 575hp, making it capable of supporting some of the most demanding builds.

IN THE BOX