NickS

I'm always curious about just how well designed the factory equipment is on cars. New products always intrigue me and make me ask myself "Do they really do what they say"?

Well, I recently purchased a carbon fiber air intake from the race store (<a href="http://www.theracestore.com/">http://www.theracestore.com/</a>) in hopes of getting an increase in air flow as well as make some additional horsepower.

The day arrived and the UPS driver dropped off my box of goodies. To my surprise, what was in the box was far from what I would call a "ready to install kit"! The only words that can describe this "kit" is cheap! Plain and simple, they spent NO time developing an install kit for this air box to fit my car. Pathetic!
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/12322/cda_parts.jpg" border="0">

I thought no big deal. I'm a good designer and I will make the appropriate brackets and have it looking really nice.

Since I have no VAG equipment, I got the help of DonP and his trusted sidekick Dell the laptop to give me the data I was looking for. Airflow data was captured using datablock 002. The captured runs were done by steadying the car around 1200 RPM in 2nd gear, going full throttle until redline. Before the install, we went out to get our baseline with the stock air box. I then returned to the garage for the swap. About an hour later, I was done and ready to see some good numbers. I held off on doing a complete install as I didn't want to drill in to my car and move things around until I saw that the CDA was an improvement.

You can see by these 2 pictures that I did the intake portion slightly different than the picture shown on the The Race Stores website. The reason for this is that by doing what they show, you actually lose half the intake area even if you compress the tube to fit. DonP and I decided that using the stock intake pipe would be better for getting as much of the air to the CDA as possible. You can see how the install looks. Very neat and tidy. I planned on making everything neater when I knew the testing was done.
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/12322/closeup.jpg" border="0">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/12322/racestore.jpg" border="0">

We went back to our testing grounds and ran the test again.

You can see the results for yourselves. Numbers don't lie. The CDA box flows LESS than stock! There is no way in my mind that this box was developed for the S4. It may be the same box that the 1.8T or 2.8 use, I don't know. It is definitely NOT enough air flow for the twin turbo 2.7!
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/720/airflow.jpg">

Also, you can see by this chart that the CDA DOES NOT keep intake temps down. I'm guessing because it hangs directly over the exhaust manifold and turbo versus the stock box is to the side. The carbon fiber is very thin and doesn't really aid in lowering temps. I made sure that for both stock and CDA runs, I had IC temps EXACTLY the same so there would be no question about intake temps.
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/720/cda-temps.jpg">

For reference: I'm chipped (APR), have the Milltek cat-back, K&N in the air box and I had my IC misters off.

As you can imagine, I went back and put my stock air box back in! To this point, I've found nothing better than the OEM box. Would anyone care to send me any other intakes to test? I'll be more than happy to do that as I am still looking for a better intake for my car.

If anyone in Houston with a 1.8T would like to test this out, please send me an e-mail and we can test it on your car.

mattchow

heh, that is one thing that will remain stock on my car. =]

Hap

Thanks for the info!!!

®ob

Once again...Stock airbox proves to be a worthy design

Pat-SoCal

Shoot, and I was hoping that piece would kick butt, cause I wanted to get one. Well I'll cross that off of my list of "useless stuff to buy".

Thanks for taking the time to test that roach.

BTW: have you done any testing with the EVOMS intake? I'm thinking about getting one.

NickS

No, I would like to test the EVOMS and the AWE unit. I doubt they would "give" me one to test as the results may not favor them. However, if either company is reading this and you KNOW your product performs, please let me know!

wishbone

Great review, thanks!

wishbone

Call evoms and let them know that you want to buy the intake if it performs. Tell them how you are going to test it and you will purchase it up front. If it actually does provide more power and better airflow, then you will take it. But if it does not, get their word that you can return it. They're good guys, if they tell you they will take it back. They will... Anyone who stands by their product should be willing to do this..

joshua

jyoteen

Back in 1995, when I purchased my VW, there were many attempts to come up with a better solution than the stock airbox. Some removed the famed snorkel inside the airbox (which stabalized the airflow). Others drilled away thinking the holes may help the airflow somehow, but it was proven that the stock airbox was still the most efficient at preserving intake temperatures while keeping airflow to a maximum.

Also in the VR6's case, the exhaust also flowed the best, and aftermarket exhausts improved sound.

(edited) I was talking about the stock pieces, and as a great benefit, VW/Audi seems to design their intakes very well. It wouldn't make sense that they would exclude such obvious benefits during the design process.

So, it doesn't surprise me that the aftermarket solutions for this engine in terms of air intake are the same or inferior.

Live, Spend, and learn.

NickS

Agreed...I'll do that, thanks!