Air filter idea (more theory)

1117 Views 15 Replies 8 Participants Last post by The Blue Blur, Jul 17, 2004

The Blue Blur

Discussion Starter · Jul 16, 2004

A wacky idea came to me the other day as I was researching air filter replacements. It was mostly stimulated by the proven merrits of the stock air filter: Do you think it would be possible to swap in a bigger airbox from another VW/Audi product into our cars? It wouldn't be much, but since the only issue is getting more air flow, maybe housing a larger OEM filter would do the trick with none of the reliability concerns. If this idea is on crack just tell me to go back to sleep.

1 - 16 of 16 Posts

D ZIGNER

· #2 · Jul 16, 2004

LOL

And you thought it was hard to change the filter on the regular sized box? I did that ONCE then went to an open intake.

Maybe it will work better when bigger?

The Blue Blur

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jul 16, 2004

eh. there's like no room anyways. i'm just getting desperate.

D ZIGNER

· #4 · Jul 16, 2004

Have you vever taken out the entire air box? It's a pretty simple box and you could certianly fabricate up a similar but bigger one. Look here and you'll find anything you'd need to make your own bigger air box.

http://www.mcmaster.com/

Scott

Nenad

· #5 · Jul 16, 2004

Generaly idea is not insane at all.
This is common aproach on some other markets, like Australian. Bigger Intake and exaust,MAF,TB from "older brother/sister" is very popular. Nevertheless it should be, after installing, measured pressure drop all over new line(intake snorkel, entrance of box,in front of filter, after filter, after MAF) to see will it performe better than previous (assuming that you have calc of stock intake system).

HamrWebDesign

· #6 · Jul 16, 2004

Back in the day we used to drill a series of 1" holes in the face of the lower airbox portion on our MKIII cars (About 12 of them - nicely aligned for asthetic purposes). We also would remove the main tube (about 3" in diameter) from the face of the lower box, which 90 degreed straight in to the fender. Doing these two things provided both extra air to the intake while also maintaining colder air flow as it was all being drawn from the front of the airbox through the grill and gaps in the headlight. I have to admit I haven't looked at the B5 box in detail just yet but it would seem feasible on our current cars as well. Just a thought.

The Blue Blur

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jul 16, 2004

Well I've been reading up as much as I can find on the Colorado Outlaw Airbox Mod and it's interesting me a lot. I just haven't seen anyone do this on a V6 and document it. I also don't see much room for the tubing on a superficial level. So I'm not sure it's even possible (though it likely is in some form). I'm just exploring and seeing if anyone else has thought this or researched it prior. Thanks for the input guys. Dzigner: That is a bad ass website. :thumbup:

PNWdriver

· #8 · Jul 17, 2004

Somebody here has modded the passenger-side front valance grill into an inlet & has run dual air hoses up into the front of the modded airbox. It's a 1.8, but I can't remember who... Maybe something like this for your V6?

D ZIGNER

· #9 · Jul 17, 2004

That would be me.

The FULL story here: http://dzb5.com/2/1_cai.asp

A couple of the pics:

Scott

See less See more

2

VDUBRACER187

· #10 · Jul 17, 2004

scott, that is the SICKEST cai system i have EVER seen on any b5
well done :thumbup:
-chris

The Blue Blur

Discussion Starter · #11 · Jul 17, 2004

PNWdriver said:
Somebody here has modded the passenger-side front valance grill into an inlet & has run dual air hoses up into the front of the modded airbox. It's a 1.8, but I can't remember who... Maybe something like this for your V6?

That's the COAM. And Boris showed it a long time ago. He's run it for years and it involves piping more air to the stock airbox. That's REALLY innovative Dzigner. Nice work. I'm just afraid of short rams. I'm trying to keep the OEM filter for reliability's sake...yeah yeah...I know.

Gerret

· #12 · Jul 17, 2004

The Blue Blur said:
A wacky idea came to me the other day as I was researching air filter replacements. It was mostly stimulated by the proven merrits of the stock air filter: Do you think it would be possible to swap in a bigger airbox from another VW/Audi product into our cars? It wouldn't be much, but since the only issue is getting more air flow, maybe housing a larger OEM filter would do the trick with none of the reliability concerns. If this idea is on crack just tell me to go back to sleep.

Interesting, but I think it would be tough to find the space under the hood for it. I think the stock system is more than adequate already in filtration and flow capability. Here's some food for thought:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/airfilter/airtest2.htm

The author has a Miata and he found that the difference in pressure drop between the most restrictive paper filter and no filter at all was a measley 0.07 psi at 6000 RPM![/i]

Nenad

· #13 · Jul 17, 2004

You should give PM to Geri (check Eu members,Austria) he have V6 and made one duct from same place like other COAM users but he was not connecting it with OE box. He used it to add extra air on cone filter

PNWdriver

· #14 · Jul 17, 2004

D ZIGNER, that is one nice piece of kit. :bow: :thumbup: Finally, someone has truly thermally isolated, to the extent it's possible, an open element filter. Clean and well thought out IMO. Have you ever taken 'shots' with a digital pyrometer of both sides of your heat shield after a hard run?

But for those of use who still use a SMIC, you're not the one I was thinking of; maybe its Boris or COAM. The one I was thinking of had dual side-by-side tubes running from the modded passenger-side front valance grill 'insert' to the front of the modded stock airbox.

Anyway, I don't know the location of a V6's air filter.

Variants Rule! 8)

FastLane

· #15 · Jul 17, 2004

The Blue Blur said:
Well I've been reading up as much as I can find on the Colorado Outlaw Airbox Mod and it's interesting me a lot. I just haven't seen anyone do this on a V6 and document it.

I did this to the V6, and the process was identical to the 1.8T, that is why it was never documented. As for having a bigger airbox, that is not really what we need, as the airbox is huge now and already fills the coffers of 8 cylinder engines as is.

One reason for such a large box is the amount of filter surface area you get by using a pleated element inside this box. If you unfolded the stock filter, there is a ton of paper exposed to work with.

The drawback is that the stock air intake (more so on a modified engine) is on the verge of not being able to get enough air into the box, that is why we have the Colorado and Minnesota airbox mods.

Well, the Colorado mod is designed to get more into the box, and the Minnesota mod gets the air out of the box and into the MAF.

However, the V6 airbox already has the factory equivelent of the Minnesota mod on it, as such, the only mod we can do is the Colorado.

The size of the box is not a real concern, the size of the opening into it is, that is what we were working on fixing.
Another solution was to remove the box altogether, but then the amount of hot air getting sucked into the MAF usually negated the benefits of removing the snorkel, etc.

Mark

See less See more

The Blue Blur

Discussion Starter · #16 · Jul 17, 2004

Thanks! Time to get some tubing then! lol. Um... I've seen a few posts here or there by Boris briefly describing the procedure. Are there any definitive "Idiots Guide to Becoming a Colorado Outlaw" walkthrough's around that you know of? I'm not particularly brilliant with tools. Do I just head out with a dremmel and hope for the best? Thanks.

1 - 16 of 16 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.