My modified airbox!... (56k warning!) NOW with log results!...

J@mes

e46psi.com ;-)
Jun 14, 2004
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EDIT (20/12/06): click here for pics, or scroll down!

EDIT (17/06/07):...SEE BOTTOM OF THIS POST (new cold air feed!!!)




Hi ppl!

Right heres a quick write up of my modified airbox, as I am well chuffed with it and thought you lot may like to see what I have done! ;-)

My modified airbox has smoothed inards, with a green filter element and a 102mm cold air feed.


After debating whether to buy a BMC CDA/Dynatwist or go for a jabba heat shield with open cone filter and cold air feed I decided to go down the modified airbox route, because its…

a.)the cheapest!
b.)The most standard looking
c.)ppl have had good results from them, and pound per BHP they work out by far the best value for money!
d.)The Supacopa LCRs run a simlar set up which gave me the initial idea!


So how did I go about it…

First of all I decided to go for a 102mm Green PVC cold air feed (rather than the normal 80mm one that most ppl use!) because I wanted to get as much cold air as possible into the airbox!

I knew the 102mm would be virtually impossible to fit with the battery in the standard position and with the battery cover on! (the battery looks crap with no cover, and it seams a lot of ppl who have induction kits etc run without their covers in order to have a cold air feed!)

so in order to have a 102mm feed (never mind an 80mm feed!) I bought some battery relocation brackets from Phil on here (“Feel”).

I WOULD HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO HAVE FITTED THE 102MM FEED WITHOUT THIS! And I understand you cannot have the battery cover on with a 80mm cold air feed fitted, so therefore if your going to mod your air box like I and many others have, send £20 to Feel and he will sort you out! ;-) (cheers m8! )

53400016.jpg


So I fitted the battery relocation brackets (which moves the battery to the left about an inch or so) then I smoothed the airbox out. The top half of the airbox needs a lot of smoothing! It takes a while to do too! Once you have done this this how it should look…

toppartofairbox_standard.jpg


smoothedairbox.jpg



Next it’s fitting time! Which is not easy… I had to squeeze the part of the feed that goes around the battery as the 102mm feed is very big! Lol
Unfortunately I fitted the cold air feed without the battery cover on! I then went to remove the feed to put the cover on and then refit the feed, but it’s so tight that I was afraid to remove it as I thought it may even get ripped against the sharp bits! So what I did was cut part of the airbox cover so I could still fit it but you would never know it had been cut (cos the feed is in the way!)

I positioned the feed so it was wedged into where the standard air scoop was (by the front grill!), be careful the feed is not touching the nearest engine fan!

Now with the other end of the feed… I positioned the bottom half of the airbox into place and I removed the rubber thing from around the hole, but there is no way a 102mm feed will fit into this hole, so after 5 attempts of making the hole big enough I managed to get the feed to fit into it, and to secure it inside the box I used 4 screws, screwing through the PVC and I also used 2 glue sticks from a hot glue gun!

I know that may sound not great but trust me I have done a very good job! I didn’t need to use any cable ties with the feed because it is literally wedged into place! Everything is solid so all is good!

The 102mm feed is so big that I manage to get most of my arm down it! And even in the bend around the battery it is smooth and round still, well slightly oval, but still!

53400035.jpg


So with the feed in place all that was left was to fit the green element and put the airbox/top part back on!

Job done!

I started at 12 noon yesterday and finished at 10pm! Yes 10pm! :-o The sanding of the airbox takes ages! And the fitting of the cold air feed is not the easiest!

More pics…

53400032.jpg


53400049.jpg


5300170.jpg




Was it worth it?

Well after driving my car, yes it feels “slightly more” responsive… revs slightly quicker i think!

As for noise… there is a slight induction roar from about 1500 – 2100 rpm then it’s the turbo that you can hear! It sounds slightly louder than standard!

As for DV noise… I have a forge 007p and from inside the car with the standard air box, I could only ever hear the DV up to about 3/3.5k rpm (after that the engine was too loud!)

Before the DV sounded more “solid” id say, and now it sounds more whooshy! But now its louder at high RPMs. So I can hear it at 4/5krpm, where before I couldn’t! outside the car i dont think you can hear it, only just maybe, it is very subtle! :)




The other night I did some logging with VAG COM and I got a peak of 178.67 g/s airflow with the standard airbox. So when I get time (on Wednesday I think!) I will do some more logging, and I can guaranty that I will see an increase! Time will tell! :)


Also I am having my BlueFlame 3” down pipe, 100 cell race cat and 2.75” cat back system fitted on Wednesday too! So I’m a happy bunny!


That’s it!


James :)

ps. this isnt a guide on how to mod ur airbox, despite the fact i sort of wrote it as a quick one! lol but by all means use it to help you!






EDIT (20/12/06):

airbox mod still going strong... all intact and no problems! :)

also if you are reading this thread for the first time... by moddifying the airbox i got a 3% gain (on standard map!... about 7bhp supposidly), see page 4 i think...




space


EDIT (17/06/07):


Basically I had to pull out half of the cold air feed from the grill to get access to the rear of the head light and as an experiment to hear my DV a bit more i thought i would position the flexable air feed on the side of the battery rather than straight to the grill in the hope that i could hear my DV more! lol blaim craig (S5ulf) as I fitted a copy of the cabonio induction kit to his car and the DV noise is nice.

shorterfeed1.jpg




sure enough it has worked and my DV is now twice as loud (still very subtle!) but low and behold the car now pulls NOTICEABLY harder! :)

So by having the cold air feed where it is now it has removed the bottle neck and the engine/turbo can thus suck the air slightly more efficiently!

you may think that with the cold air feed in this position it may suck in more hot air, but i think the pros outweigh the cons, because there is no bottle neck and because its still near the grill where air comes through it should be ok, its not like i have an open cone induction kit! Also its summer now so its hot and as i said i can feel it pull harder!

I also did some logging and its backed it up, im getting a couple of g/s more than before throughout the rev range! :-D

next I went to SEAT and bought a new battery cover for £8 odd (original one had to be cut a bit so the air feed to get to the grill) and i fitted that but before I did I cut out about half a metre of the cold air feed and tucked it neatly in place between the wing and battery.

wished i did it this way the first time! oh well LOL!


EDIT: old feed had seen better days so I bought a new one...

new102mmfeed.jpg
 
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J@mes

e46psi.com ;-)
Jun 14, 2004
2,842
0
.
My modified airbox... (56k warning!... pics now work!)

cheers! :)

EDIT: more pics...


green filter...
attachment.php



102mm cold air feed picture from front grill...
attachment.php



Final look!...
attachment.php
 
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LCR mat

LCR Eater
Apr 4, 2004
1,549
0
merthyr Tydfil
Hacve you thought about ruuning the intake down to infront of the right hand intercooler as the intake looks a bit resticted there.
 

J@mes

e46psi.com ;-)
Jun 14, 2004
2,842
0
.
LCR mat said:
Hacve you thought about ruuning the intake down to infront of the right hand intercooler as the intake looks a bit resticted there.


dont think it will fit! not 102mm!


and i plan on getting a BMN or watever its called scoop... well hopefully phil, warren or scotty will get a scoop made up (a la supacopa stylee!) , then il use that!


james :)
 

J@mes

e46psi.com ;-)
Jun 14, 2004
2,842
0
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oh yea mat... as for looking restricted, i wouldnt say it was to be honest!

i see what ur saying, but the flow of the pipe is good, well i think so, and its better than the standard set up (but that aint hard!)


lets see how much air its flowing on wednesday when i log it!

im hoping for about 190g/s :)


this golf gti guy http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=666711&page=1 got 12g/s increase on his... from 172 to 184g/s
 

LCR mat

LCR Eater
Apr 4, 2004
1,549
0
merthyr Tydfil
over half of the pipe is covered by the rad though, thats what i meant by restrictive.

If its routed down to the fog light(youd have to lose the fog light but who uses them any how??) the entire bore of the pipe is used.
 

m0rk

sarcasm comes free
Staff member
May 19, 2001
27,787
33
Clanfield, UK
hoping for 190g/s - is it remapped then?

don't forget that forward facing may not give you any benefit if the pipe has to turn through too many angles.
 

J@mes

e46psi.com ;-)
Jun 14, 2004
2,842
0
.
LCR mat said:
over half of the pipe is covered by the rad though, thats what i meant by restrictive.

If its routed down to the fog light(youd have to lose the fog light but who uses them any how??) the entire bore of the pipe is used.


OH RIGHT! understand now!

despite the fact i dont use my fogs i dont want to remove them!


also im hoping that the air scoop like the supacopa one gets made! ;)
 
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J@mes

e46psi.com ;-)
Jun 14, 2004
2,842
0
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Feel said:
Did you take the "trumpet" out of the airbox bottom, or is it missing?


what trumpet? :confused:

any pics to show me what u mean?


if you look at the before and after pics, you can see what i cut away/sanded from the box!
 

Feel

Veedubya 'velle
Jun 12, 2003
4,918
2
Midlands
J@mes said:
what trumpet? :confused:

any pics to show me what u mean?


if you look at the before and after pics, you can see what i cut away/sanded from the box!

:doh: Ignore me - I was being a :clown:

(Should've listened to you about the grape and grain)
 
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