COBB Fiesta ST Intercooler Upgrade
There is a very good reason the COBB Fiesta ST Intercooler is offered as early as Stage 2 in the Fiesta ST stage power packages. Heat management is hugely important in turbo cars as they are known to suffer from heatsoak. There is no point in installing a whole array of bolt-ons if your Fiesta ST can’t handle the heat.
When modding cars, the Ford Fiesta ST being no different, people often think about intake and exhaust first. However, COBB Tuning knows their stuff — They offer the exhaust components as part of the Fiesta ST Stage 3 package, not early on. Even though you can very much get away with doing the catback exhaust early on, the gains from that alone are minimal.
On the Ford Fiesta ST, and many other turbo cars for that matter, the front mount intercooler (FMIC) is the most effective mod you can do when paired with the correct tune. In COBB’s system, the Ford Fiesta ST intercooler comes in at Stage 2. This means the COBB Stage 2 tune for 91 octane or 93 octane fuel is the way to go, so make sure you already have a COBB AccessPort in order to load the off the shelf tune to take advantage of the intercooler.
The COBB Tuning Fiesta ST Intercooler is a beautiful piece of design and manufacturing by the way. The welds are excellent, the unit is polished and the debossed COBB logos on either side of the air tanks are a nice touch. The COBB Intercooler is 55% larger than the stock Ford intercooler. Not only that, but the side tanks are alloy instead of plastic. The unit is a little heavier than stock, but that shouldn’t be a surprise as it’s a bigger intercooler. That’s not a big deal though. There are better places to save weight such as the disc brakes, wheels and tires.
COBB really made sure to make good use of the space available. The FMIC is a direct factory fitment. You can use the stock charge pipes, in which case the Fiesta ST intercooler with cost you $645. You can also opt for the complete kit with hard aluminum mandrel-bent aluminum charge pipes, silicone couplers, T-Bolt clamps and worm-gear clamps for $895. That’s the one I’m running on #RallyFist, the RallyWays Ford Fiesta ST project car. Either way, the intercooler is a tight squeeze into the factory space behind the bumper, but it fits well. This is great because you know the intercooler is as big as it can possibly be thus offering the coolest air charge possible while still fitting inside the stock space available.
The combination of the COBB Tuning Fiesta ST Front Mount Intercooler and Stage 2 ECU flash makes for a big improvement in power and throttle response. That charge of cooler air makes a big difference. Just as importantly, the COBB Intercooler provides the gateway to the juiciest mod of all, the COBB Fiesta ST Downpipe! Trust me, you are going to want to do that one! But you need the intercooler first.
By the way, the COBB Fiesta ST Intercooler does not come with the COBB logo painted on it. It does however come with a stencil if you choose you want it. I’ll do a write up on how to best do that soon. Don’t miss that, join our mailing list.
For the entire #RallyFist list of mods, go to RallyWays Fiesta ST Parts List.
