OK. The intake arrived today at my work at 1pm and the box was slightly open as it wasn't taped up too well and I saw the pop-corn train from the elevator to the office to prove it. Luckily, nothing was amiss except for the installation instructions. Nevertheless, a quick call to evoms guided me to their online installation guides. *whew*

Now the wait was tough. I wanted to get out of the office fast. I decided to sneak out at 2:30pm letting my co-workers know that I have something important to do while holding a box that’s almost as big as me. Come 3pm, I'm in my garage inspecting the pieces. The build quality of the intake is impressive. The intake is made of thick plastic which supposedly reduces heat absorption from the engine bay. I also opted for the EVOMS heat shield to shield the heat from the exhaust manifold.



The airfilter was really something. It is the standard cone filter look, but the bottom of the filter is as wide as the base. Also, the intake pipe is curved inwards as to guide air into the intake smoothly. The past air intakes I’ve had never looked like this so I was impressed (of course the previous intakes I purchased were 50% less).


Now the installation was very straightforward. It basically requires that your about 5’ 10” or above. Have slender arms, and resistant to hot surfaces if you decide to install the intake immediately after driving. Speaking of which, I did the hot iron test on the turbo to see how hot it was, big mistake… OUCH!!! Now the removal of the stock engine cover and intake is real easy with the most basic set of tools and only took 10 minutes. Installation of the intake was just as easy as well. I did notice that if you have an AWE boost gauge you will have to cut a hole in the plastic heat shield which sucked. I’m going to send in a e-mail to David and hopefully he’ll make some changes to his future intake kits.


Everything goes together really easily and the toughest part of the installation is tightening the hose clamps. Once that’s done its, well, DONE!

Now, the view of the engine bay just sucks! It looks horrid and naked which was the reason I was holding off in purchasing an intake for the A3. However, the promise of a CF engine cover from EVOMS sealed the deal. I also noticed that the silicon hose for the turbo to the MAF sensor is a bit short and results in the piping to appear in a downward slope. Again, I’ll be calling EVOMS and hopefully they can give me a longer hose.


Now, the test drive. Driving around the apartment I didn’t notice anything new. I tapped the throttle in hopes for the familiar woosh sound I got from past intakes but nothing was there. I then decided to take it to 3500rpm in 1st and let of the gas… PSHHH!!! HOLY ****!!! The once shy turbo has now woken up! I drove around the block and various RPM’s, easy, hard, WOT. The car sounds and performs totally different. When I go easy on the throttle you can actually hear a nasal type breathing sound. When I’m aggressive, you can hear every little thing going on inside the turbo. You can also hear the turbo when you’re at 0psi. I’m pretty much convinced that you do not need a boost gauge if you have this intake as the amount of detail in the sounds is enough to tell you the condition of the turbo. Driving around the city I couldn’t help myself from making the “blow-off” sound. Granted, its not loud as a BOV, but its loud enough for people on the street to hear it as you pass them going 60mph (I confirmed this as I was passing a group of teens about 25feet away).

Now the performance of the intake is great. I’m confident that this intake does increase the performance of the car by 15+hp/torque. The design is top notch and I hope the engine cover will be just as nice. I do see a few gripes with the intake though. When I was driving around the car’s turbo is considerably louder by about 2.5x. It is up to a point where it will be very bothersome if your crusing anywhere near 3.5k RPM +. I can also see the advantages of the Carbonio intake as it is more likely to keep these noises in check. Nevertheless, I’m a nut and I love to hear the car talk to me so the noises are acceptable.

Now, do I recommend the intake to fellow A3 owners? YES!!!

 

looks like a nice piece! I have some possible plans, but this looks like a very good alternate option! Now if i could just find a review of the Neuspeed piece in comparison i'd be happy(er)!

 

I drive at about 85mph usually, which is 3300rpm, so this would make the turbo quite loud. With the APR chip alone I already hear the turbo "squeal" once in a while. It makes a sound like a BOV but much softer, you must have sensitve ears like mine to hear it.

 

wow, very envious.......... did you say it only took 10 mins to install? maybe i'll bring my CAI to the gtg and you can help me install it, the only part i'm iffy about is the removal of the engine cover, i don't wanna break anything.

 

Nam,

The engine cover removal is the easiest part. Just unhook the MAF and unclip the turbo inlet pipe and yank up on it like a
Son-of-a-Bi]ch! Either your arms or the engine cover will pop off. Even though you're a skinny dude, the cover will probably come off first. LOL

Cheers!

 

Hmm, I think Nam's shoulders will pop out before the engine cover does

 

Chef, you forgot to remind him to remove the front airbox first, or else something could snap...but yeah, just pull like hell and it will come off...eventually. I found if you lift it corner by corner, it comes off a lot easier.

 

Yep, you're right! There are two phillips screws on the front air box that need removed prior to lifting up on the cover.

Cheers!

 

ok............ i'll give it a shot............. someday..........


kinda funny how you all always talk about how small i am..... i think Cheng and Richard is much smaller than i am, i'm 165lbs, it's my freakin big head that makes my body look small!!!!!! =)


having fun with your new intake? how much $$$ is the EVOMS engine cover gonna run for?

 

I think it'll be around $200