# Idea for an airbox mod (MK6) has this been done before? any benefit?



## trickery (Mar 26, 2010)

Hey guys, New MK6 golf owner here.

Upon looking at my engine for the first time i was pleased to see what looked like a ram air setup for the stock airbox. A nice breather from the hood slats that fed the air intake. 

I have been reading about the Carbonio air intake and its impressive HP/YTQ improvements, along with many comments about how poor the stock setup on the car is. This confused me a bit because it looks like the car has a nice ram air breather...

Well after opening the top plastic cover on the "ram air" portion of the air box i noticed this strange plastic bit that looks like it would block the ram effect of the air box.. My guess is that this piece was to quite the air intake? or the other possibility is that it keeps the velocity of the air higher which would benefit the performance?









(see the area in red, if you look at this in your car you will notice it curves up dramatically, which makes it look as the the air coming through the gril slats on the front of the car would be pushed into the engine bay and not into the intake) 


so, has anyone cut this out? Anyone think this would cause detriment? (less air for engine bay/slower intake air velocity?)


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## kiserhd (Feb 2, 2008)

seriously with all of the other bends and twists and other crap in the stock intake cutting that will likely make no difference at all.


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## 1poynt8tee (May 26, 2010)

The air filter is sitting on top of your hot engine, so any means of trying to mess with that piece isn't really worth your time. I'd look into just forking out the $ for an intake :thumbup:


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## 08Drabbit (Feb 3, 2011)

1poynt8tee said:


> The air filter is sitting on top of your hot engine, so any means of trying to mess with that piece isn't really worth your time. I'd look into just forking out the $ for an intake :thumbup:


 x2


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## rabbitransit (Feb 18, 2007)

I agree with what the others said, but if you are concerned about putting an intake on such a new car, and issue with the dealership, what you found could be an opportunity for a mod that is not detectable and might yield some improvement.


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## LampyB (Apr 2, 2007)

i don't really see how it would help out...like someone said above, there are so many pieces to the stock air intake i don't see how a small modification like this will show any power or efficiency gains. if you're concerned about your warranty the carbonio is a solid product it's probably your best bet. also if you need to take the car into the dealer for any warrantied services you can always just swap back to the stock intake before heading over, it takes like ten minutes to do. 

and finally, go for the intake it makes a big difference in the engine's responsiveness, hp, as well as sound. i just removed my aftermarket intake and went back to stock in order to help diagnose a CEL, and i immediately noticed a difference. the car isn't nearly as fun to drive with the stock intake!


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## jaja123 (Jan 17, 2011)

yea i noticed that too. It seems to actually divert air away from the intake and the rest just goes into the engine bay. I actually cut that piece off and it made no difference really. I have the carbonio and the difference is quite noticeable power wise as well as sound. Talking about ducts there are actually small ones that guide air to the brakes which is pretty cool. No pun intended.


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## trickery (Mar 26, 2010)

jaja123 said:


> yea i noticed that too. It seems to actually divert air away from the intake and the rest just goes into the engine bay. I actually cut that piece off and it made no difference really. I have the carbonio and the difference is quite noticeable power wise as well as sound. Talking about ducts there are actually small ones that guide air to the brakes which is pretty cool. No pun intended.


 great, that's exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for. Sucks to hear it doesn't make any difference. It really looks like it would (At least change the sound) ....It must do something....


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## TylerO28 (Jul 7, 2008)

The carbonio intake is seriously top notch...

Thing to remember about apr and carbonio is that they are a tier one level product developer. They are basically the ones that are tuning for vw's circuit racing cars... warranty is not going to be an issue unless you decide to hydro lock your motor by driving into a lake...

In fact some vw dealers in my area offer chipping by apr. What does that tell you? 
Apr is a little conservative on tuning according to some people, but they account for reliability, durability, and healthy,manageable stresses on internal components.

Get the carbonio, you'll see why we all really like them within seconds of your first pull through 3rd gear!


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## jaja123 (Jan 17, 2011)

the carbonio is definitely your best bet for the 2.5's. The power difference was a lot more noticeable relative to at least my exhaust setup. I actually put a k and n drop in first and that made no difference really however it did make a louder hiss sound when I got on it. The reasoning behind vw's intake i think was so dirt and water spray would not flow directly into the inlet but im not sure.


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## vento 95 GL (May 25, 1999)

stock airbox is really bad imo. Aparently they did it like that for emissions purposes, but its just stupid if you ask me. hotter air is less dense and has less oxygen. 

If you look at this pic you can see why even if you take off the plastic part in the intake scoop and put a performance panel drop in filter it doesn't change anything. tubing is not the same diameter and even has small little holes. 











AFE did a prototype intake when they started developing theirs and they followed the stock principle. It did make more power than stock +9hp , +9 tq, but its not as much as the other cold air intakes available now. The more bends or lenght you have in an intake , the less efficient it is, but it also depends on the engine setup. 











when I get the new golf 2.5 , I want to reuse that scoop by turning it the other way, and use a closed box airfilter like a bmc , pipercross, etc... and run a flexible tube to the scoop. keep the filter isolated from the heat and also always get fresh air with a ramair effect at high speed. You will have positive pressure in the airbox and thats good for the engine. Since the 2.5 from 09+ have no Maf, its much easier to setup. 

I never liked cold air intakes for the fact that the airfilter sits low and if you live in a humid/ snowy place its not the best setup. If where you live is mostly dry then I guess its not a problem.


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## jaja123 (Jan 17, 2011)

Interesting setup


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## GTACanuck (Feb 20, 2009)

Ive never seen that AFE setup before until now. Looks interesting, but when i had my Carbonio it was amazing. Tyler028 has it spot on with the 3rd gear pull. Just fantastic!!!


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## itskohler (Jan 7, 2011)

I wish the dealers around here offered APR flashing. They would A) Make a killing and B) Pull more business by being mod friendly. Jelly.


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