Have just done a "very high speed, very high boost" test this night and found out that:

- acceleration in the 160-200 km/h range is much better;
- rpm raise in the 4000-6000 rpm range is much better;
- acceleration in the 200-220 km/h range is slightly improved;
- acceleration in the 220-230 km/h range has not improved at all.

That is, the car runs like a cheetah to 200 km/h, then (gearchange from 5th to 6th) accelerates gently from 200 to 220 km/h, then crawls slowly after many seconds with floored throttle to ~230 km/h.

Conclusion: opening up the path of air, despite what common knowledge said ("it will destroy torque at low rpm and improve engine breathing only at high rpm") works exactly at medium and medium-high rpms and speeds, at top speed the K03S turbo reaches it's limit and simply can't blow enough

Top speed it's like our grandparents from the 1930s said: not "top speed it's 230 km/h" but "it runs at 200 km/h with 30 km/h in reserve" :)

~Nautilus
 
i've run a K&N for the last year or so ,no probs with it,car does seem a bit 'perkier 'for it,must get a heat shield tho'.
2001 180 cupra
 
Induction kits in my experience are a complete and total waste of money.
.

I agree there is little performance advantage but it depends what people want i.e, under bonnet bling / carbon or induction noise / trubo noise and recirc dump sounds...........different folks / different strokes

If your going to spunk your cash on a kit get closed one the open ones are a waste of money.

Why is an open cone a waste of money? heatsoak?
 
Finally finished reading this thread. Started off with Green being a favourite, then slowly went to K&N until some folks think its all a waste of time! In terms of power gain anyway. I can understand the induction noise that some folk may want.

I personally like the sound from my Leon Cupra 03 plate, so only thing I'm going to do is change the dump valve and perhaps get a new Green panel air filter.

But my mate does say that the cooler the air, the more dense it is. So surely that must help, even if it does go into the turbo afterwards?
 
Open cone is a waste of money as it sits under the bonnet with no covering and sucks in all the warm air from the engine and manifold and the idea of an induction kit is to give the engine more COLD air. Heat soak like you said Ruddmeister
 
Utter nonsense I'm afraid. Once intake air passes through the turbo it comes out at over 120 degrees C into the intercooler pipes, where the intercooler cools it before it enters the engine. Therefore it makes ZERO difference whatsoever what your intake filter temps are, because after it's compressed by the turbo it always reaches over 100 degrees.

The intercooler cools the inlet charge - not the filter.
 
Well folks, my car always turned heads, and was louder than the carbonio, i imported an EIP tuning intake from the US with a K&N cone on it, it was awesome!!!
 
Open cone is a waste of money as it sits under the bonnet with no covering and sucks in all the warm air from the engine and manifold and the idea of an induction kit is to give the engine more COLD air. Heat soak like you said Ruddmeister

i think youre correct but i think due to the nature of our cars it makes little difference performance wise. intercoolers are necessary to take the sting out of turbo compressors heating up the air... so having slightly colder air to start with dosnt help matters much. i`d imagine an na car would benifit more.

ive recently switched to open cone as they can flow better than most induction kits. its actually improved my boost levels leading me to think that the panel filter was becoming a restriction.(i`m running B.T.)

mine has a heat shield but i doubt it makes a huge difference other than possibly cleaner air?
 
Utter nonsense I'm afraid. Once intake air passes through the turbo it comes out at over 120 degrees C into the intercooler pipes, where the intercooler cools it before it enters the engine. Therefore it makes ZERO difference whatsoever what your intake filter temps are, because after it's compressed by the turbo it always reaches over 100 degrees.

The intercooler cools the inlet charge - not the filter.

Yeah but it will still be cooler once it has passed the turbo & will still be cooler once passed the ic.. Therefore producing more power!??
 
It makes very little difference. I'm BT with an open cone filter. The intercooler does the work of cooling air heated by the turbo. OK there are warm components under the bonnet, but just work out how much air your engine is shifting per second - the engine can't heat it significantly - there's too much of it.

Even with an open cone under the bonnet, as long as it isn't down the back of the engine, it's sucking air at virtually outside temps.
 
I conducted my own tests on intakes, monitoring the intake temperature using a Scangauge. I setup a K&N Apollo fully enclosed filter with a direct cold air feed from the front fog light and watched the intake temps. Then I removed it all and fitted a K&N open cone filter.

There was absolutely NO difference in intake temps between the two, none at all, both tests done on the same day. The intercooler does all the work, cooling the air entering the filter does nothing on a turbocharged car, nothing at all.
 
I conducted my own tests on intakes, monitoring the intake temperature using a Scangauge. I setup a K&N Apollo fully enclosed filter with a direct cold air feed from the front fog light and watched the intake temps. Then I removed it all and fitted a K&N open cone filter.

There was absolutely NO difference in intake temps between the two, none at all, both tests done on the same day. The intercooler does all the work, cooling the air entering the filter does nothing on a turbocharged car, nothing at all.

Does density not come into the equation anywhere?