May i pose an intake location question?

[Smokey Eddy]

I was under the front bumper pushing the turn signals back into their cups (the passenger side one was loose) and noticed something curious...

I was wondering if anyone has removed the factory air box, cut a hole (straight down but be weary there is some structeral stuff near the front) where it sits (it leads into a big fender well type cavity) and shoved a big cone filter in there and made that hole air tight to the hose that has the filter on the end of it?

It is nicely protected from the spray of the tire and no where near the air path from the radiator.

The factory air box already draws cold air (which is awesome); but I was thinking with a high quality, LARGE, filter and say 3 inch piping ... this could be an excellent option with prime locale for a hefty torque increase. It would also remove a large amount of room for inter-cooler piping if you don't want to much up the area above the Injection pump.

I just bought this over the weekend off Ebay. $74 canadian shipped to just a 10 minute drive to the border
oh, PS the dimensions are 27x8.5x4. And i'm planing on fitting it in the big bumper like one would normally do. It's 4 inches thick though so i may need to modify the bumper a bit.


The guy has 9 of these in stock (was 10 ). I'll let everyone know the quality and what not once it gets here. Seemed like a very reasonable deal to me. Free shipping within the united states! Thanks to Catlin Cava for persuading me to buy it! And no i won't blame you if it turns out to be bunk
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/UNIVERSAL-INTERCOOLER-27X8-5X4-FOCUS-GOLF-JETTA-AUDI_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em14QQhashZitem2ea57418a1QQitemZ200344344737QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

[Smokey Eddy]

Yes the idea is to take the highest volume and draw it from the coldest location! =D
I recently put a big cone filter on there instead of the air box and the boost builds faster but it's way more sluggish and the numbers aren't as high as they were and im attributing that to the fact that the cone is drawing hot air from the bay.

[RabbitJockey]

i don't like fender wells because thats where dust and other things tend to end up

[Smokey Eddy]

well its not in the well its infront of it. slide under the front of your mk2 (well i dunno if this is the same for the mk1) and you'll see a big cavity

[53 willys]

I think a Intercooler would net better gains...you might get slightly cooler air coming in...but the compressor will heat it up so much that the IC is the real hero in the mix...worth a shot long as you can keep the filter clean(snow,rain,dust)

[Smokey Eddy]

ah ok so you're saying that since im using an IC it doesn't really make too big a difference? I was wondering about that.

[53 willys]

ah ok so you're saying that since im using an IC it doesn't really make too big a difference? I was wondering about that.

yeah..thats what I would think.

[Smokey Eddy]

Well, thanks chief!
I've got heaps of plans for the near future!
moving the battery to the trunk, a feed pump for the IP, the inter-cooler, a sprayer for the IC from a ford f150 fuel pump and another pump of the same type for methanol injection. I found a wicked DIY
http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forums/power-adders/66148-diy-methanol-injection.html

[Rabbit on Roids]

my engine sucks air from the rain tray. i know for fact that the air in the rain tray is cool. i gained alot of power when i got rid of all the hot engine air. plus, you can hear the turbo from the hood cowl vent. ive got an intercooler too. the 2 biggest power gains i got was from the intercooler, and from the rain tray cowl induction. now if i had a nice new turbo on my car, it would be amazing.


oh yea, on mk 1's theres no room up where you are talking. we dont get any big huge plastic bumpers to fill up with intercoolers and air filters. i have a volvo intercooler behind my bumper and im completely out of room in the front of my rabbit.

[RabbitJockey]

rain tray is pressurized a bit

[Smokey Eddy]

Drawing from the rain tray is a great idea! unless the ram effect from putting the intake in the front bumper would surpass the cowel effect of the rain tray and over come the way longer distance to the front bumper.

[macka]

ram air is a neat concept, but the main issue in a daily driver is keeping the water out in an uncontrolled means. This past summer I saw a guy put 3 walls around his IC and put a bag of ice in the "bucket" made by this. He said it took a full half second off of his ET.

[Smokey Eddy]

That's a hilarious concept! I was thinking of have two water sprayers but the ice is an excellent idea! but not so much for daily driving
Would anyone suspect getting too much water into the filter if it were in the front bumper? (mk2 big bumper style)
like this only ... this isn't my picture or a VW. and it's on the wrong side.

[Jettage1]

Smokey, I have already considered that area you mentioned for my air filter.  There's even a sealed factory hole in the steel under the airbox that leads down there.  But the more I looked at it, the more I thought about all of the road spray that would get on the cone - think how much our cars are vulnerable to belt slippage due to road spray...  I decided against that location.

Rabbit on Roids - can you post any pics of how you set up your car to get air from the rain tray? I'd be curious if I could pull that off with my Mk2.

[truckinwagen]

I did a rain tray intake on my MK1 for a while, but the intake noise was unbearable, had to wear earplugs when I drove it.

I was working on a hoodscoop intake, but the car got wrecked and scrapped before I could finish it.