yeah when I pull the stock box I'll make sure to photodocument the progress... and I am not sure how effective the carbon fiber is against the radiated heat, I mean I am sure there is some advantage, however I am leaning towards a true insulated air box, it's won't be as pretty but should be more effective...

 

Looking foreward to you reporting your results. Yeah - there is boku heat under that hood...and a cf shell will likely only block out so much...

 

I know where your coming from.

So you are looking for the lowest cost, highest performance intake (aren't we all?).

Most of the time we can improve on the Audi engineers. Most of what they do is a compromise between, cost, performance, sound, comfort, etc...
I know I will give up some noise level, comfort, for more performance.

Here is what you need to do.....

Remove the entire airbox, & filter, go 7 do some logs, this the MAX air the engine will flow threw it, unless you change something else.
Driving a few miles with no airfilter is fine. So log grams, and temp. Also once you stop, use a IR Thermometer on the intake hose.

That will become your base. Then when you try other setups you have the baseline to compare.

My main point is the airbox setup is NOT the bottle neck in the system. You will get more gains by changing the exhaust, or cleaning up the intake
track, sealing every little leak. The best performance mod is a well maintained engine, I always start there.

Even with the X-1 intake people with out K04's do not see any real gains over a stock airbox with a panel filter.

Since were talking about degree's I have a BS in Physics.

 

I ran the car with no box or filter a few days ago when i posted my results, there was really no differece from stock to nothing i would assume that this is due to the turbulence factor you mentioned earlier, and the fact that the MAF was sucking nothing but hot air from the engine compartment.

I do have an IR thermometer and thought of that but the data loggin software does display the intake temperature of the air as it is entering the throttle body, and that is ultimately where we want the air to be cooler, so i am not sure if i will mess with the IR thermo and the temp, it will simply be another variable in our already flawed equation, plus there is so so much radiated heat from the engine i doubt it would change much (the important part is to get the air entering to e colder and more dense and in my opinion the IR thermometer is not an accurate enough method to justify the trouble.)

 

Interesting 2k S4...well my car is very well maintained I think and right now - except for an intermittent brief engine cut off issue around 4k rpm (that does not ussually occur often) I think the car is running great - no leaks - etc. And I'm pretty happy with my AWE setup in regards to flow under hard throttle...I am running stock intercoolers and have considered upgrading - but results posted on other forums leave me wondering concerning the potential for gains...and its not so much the flow into the MAF IMO - but the heat of the engine and of the air the engine is heating up going into the filter. BTW when I bought the car it hat this HKS hemisppherical foam filter that looked really cool - but did not filter very well - might as well have been running no filter at all...I went with the EVO open filter setup because I had heard good things about it and liked the look and because I had no stock airbox. We considered an RS4 airbox...but I was more concerned with the engine heat then restricted airflow or such - thus the apeal of that X-1 setup...though not sure if it is really all that much beatter then the very minimal attempt at isolation that came with my EVO setup...

 

i think that the most overlooked part of the aftermarket intakes is the attempt or lack there of to insulate the intake from the heat of the engine, i single layer of Carbonfiber is not going to do much in the way of insulating, also I found on my car there is really no heat shield between the passenger side header and the stock airbox, this to me seems rediculous.

I fabbed up a cardboard version of what i will attempt to construct out of aluminum tomorrow, I also got the largest cone filter i could find, I was dissappointed when i was looking for other places to induct cold air into the airbox, the best location is the top of the fender, but i am concerned about sucking up water, I will make my intake with an option to open or close the bottom to the fender well, basically the ability to have a darintake style hole or no hole. I also saw potential for a fender gap behind the passengerside corner light, but i doubt that much air will make it past the intercooler ducting and up the fender to the small hole, but it's worth a try i can always cover the opening in my box later if it seems not to be beneficial.

Hopefully pics and Vag Com runs tomorrow...

Mason

 

The concern about sucking in water is a real one. Before my recent mods I twice had to replace my MAF after doing just that. Sucked up lots of dirt into the engine as well! I'm just lucky that both these instances didn't cause more damage. I was using the HKS mesh filter at the time - and it didn't stop much of anything from comming through...a filter in name alone (but the performacne aspect of the intake was quite good...lol)...except of course for the heat concern...were a bit f'd in that regard i think....but anxiously awaiting any reports of sucess that you might have!

 

I had an epiphany tonight, tomorrow should bring some interesting results...

Mason

 

I hope so ! cant wait to see how it goes...
I know the general consensus is the stock airbox is best.
until you go into the stage 3 realm... but if there is a cheap / better alternative,
I'm all for it.



maybe thats why carbonio never came out w/ an intake for our application?

 

If you do the no filter thing again, try putting a short section of tubing on the end. This would be a
ghetto velocity stack. It will smooth out the airflow quite a bit.

Yes, there is no real good place for the air filter. The S4 engine bay is WAY, WAY to hot. Honestly I'm thinking about
the ricer vented hood, to help with airflow. I'm also very upset that our cars don't have a stock oil cooler!

You should take temps of the intake & Y pipe when you are done. The better the cold air flow the lower the intake temp.
It may be slight due to heat soak, but a good cool intake will lower the temps. It also good to know if a higher flow
intake is pulling in more hot air. I know from past experiences that some cone filters can get heat soaked, and just
suck after they get hot.

Anyway, back on topic. The best place for cool air seams to be behind the headlight. Don't worry about rain getting
into the filter, some is ok, and if the filter is placed back it should be fine. If you are really concerned, put a cheap
foam panel filter right behind the headlamp. So it will prefilter, and pull water away from the cone filter.

CF is really good as a heat shield. It has a very low absorption rate, and dissipates quite quickly. The CF, fibers
have a very high surface area per sqin. So far the X1 intake shows the lowest intake temps.

Another thing you can do is put a heat shield on the accordion hose & Y pipe, that will really help lower temps.
Another Ghetto mod, take some ALM Foil and cover them up, then go & do your measurements. This will also
help with measuring intake temps as it will give you a more true reading.

I just picked up a used AWE S-flow & will be putting it in today, I don't expect much over my ITG panel, but we will
see.

I will stand by my guns & say that the stock airbox & panel filter or cone in the airbox, with the Darintake is the BEST for a K03 car!