Okay so I want to talk about intakes, throughout my ownership I've trialled out four different intake systems for the RS3 8V.
My very first intake was the PPH-Motoring intake pipe, this intake retains the stock airbox however has a modified outlet on the box and is comprised of one 90mm ceramic coated steel pipe, I didn't keep this intake for long as I am not a fan of putting heat retaining steel pipes above the turbocharger.. Not sure what the ceramic coating on the pipe is supposed to do either, I'm no expert in thermodynamics but surely the ceramic coating is going to keep the heat in? To be clear, the outside of the pipe is ceramic coated, not the inside..
I bought this intake at the time because nothing else was available. Would I recommend it to anyone? No... I think it is very poor bang for buck and the outside being ceramic coated is questionable. The fittament is poor. There is no intake noise at all and is very stock like.
Next up is the 034 Motorsports Intake. This is an interesting one, as I was heavily involved in its development. I seen 034's option for the RS3 8P & TTRS 8J and after my disappointment with the PPH I straight away messaged Laszlo @ 034, shipped off my spare air box to the USA. 6 slow months and 3 rapid prototypes later this turned up.
I ran this intake throughout all my tuning sessions @ MRC Tuning and it was faultless, its a stunning intake, perfect fittament, I think it has been a great option and has plenty of induction noises. But for me, it was not perfect and I had my own gripes with it which not everyone may consider to be theirs.
First and foremost and you probably seen this coming is the open cone design in the engine bay. When we done all the power runs @ MRC tuning we always do them with bonnet open for best case scenario where this intake will shine, with the bonnet closed it is truly questionable how much the intake is going to be affected by radiant heat from the engine bay, the 2.5tfsi engine runs extremely hot and blows a lot of hot air through the charge piping system, so anything at all you can do to make things cooler in there is going to show gains and I can assure you of this. This is why meth kits are really popular. I just don't see enough airflow coming in from the front ducting on the car for it to start rejecting the surrounding radiant heat. Who knows if any cool air is going in there at all with the bonnet closed due to pressure drop variances outside the bonnet vs inside, you get the idea. This open cone design also lets a lot of sand and grit and dust in and around the engine bay and into the airbox, some may not care as they never open the bonnet, but with my car being at shows etc all the time I value the cleanliness of my engine bay and this can get very annoying very quickly.
Another issue (for me) with this intake is that it necks down at the turbo elbow to around 76mm from memory, it is designed this way so it is a nice and easy install and has clearly been created for the stock/hybrid turbocharger market. The issue this causes me is that when running a big turbo kit, most of the kits on market allow you to retain 90mm right up until the turbo. So with this intake I am pointlessly creating a 76mm restriction when I would rather retain 90mm right up until the turbo.
The filter pod in my opinion is too small for anything over 550hp. I have witnessed the cone starting to collapse under pressure when on a dyno cell, fortunately there is a solution for this though. We big turbo users change the supplied filter to a k&n direct fit replacement which is almost double the size.. I'll try and find the part number for it.
Another issue.. There is loads of turbo noise with this intake, you won't hear anymore with another intake. Thats for sure. It sounds awesome at full chat. You can hear everything. Literally! On a cold start cycle though the engine operates its tumble flaps in order to reduce emissions and aid the cold start, (its like the "choke" on an engine from what I understand) well when this happens with this intake installed you can hear it going on inside the cabin and its such an odd and loud noise that it makes the car sound broken. Best way I can explain it is that it sounds like a hurricane going on inside the intake manifold lol. This can get annoying.
Next up is the Arma intake, in pictures this intake looks promising, nice huge air filter, enclosed box but was a huge let down to me. Again the inlet pipe is only 76mm leading up to the turbo elbow, I found this intake to be very poor quality and poor fittament. I think I removed it after a week as it didn't sit well with me at all, it is just too expensive for what you actually get and the quality of the materials.
Okay so save the best for last and all that.. Eventuri.
So a lot of my friends have BMW's and I spend a lot of time around M3's and M4's, I noticed Eventuri intakes on an M4 at some point last year, and was absolutely blown away by the attention to detail on this intake. You need to actually take a look at it to see what I mean.
http://www.eventuri.net/products/bmw-f8x-m3m4/
There is so much going on with this intake, it is literally intake art and I don't think anyone would disagree with me. The attention to detail is unbelievable. The way it scoops air in from the grill is just unreal. Made me want to get an M4 just to put that intake on it! So I followed them from this point on.
Right well fast forward to December last year and Eventuri posted up a picture of an RS3 they had in for development, this got me super excited so I emailed them asking about info on the intake and pointed out what I felt were the key issues with the intakes in the market at the time. A month later they posted up a picture of a prototype intake, my heart sank as I saw 90mm from the filter pod gradually going to 76mm to mate at the turbo elbow.
Well when this happened, I pointed this out to them at the time but lost interest in the intake. Right so 7 months later a friend sends me a picture of their final design and asks when I'm buying one..
Their final design got me very excited again, straight away key points that I could see was;
Enclosed design
Nice large air inlet scoop
Full carbon (I'm a sucker for carbon)
90 mm all the way from filter to turbo elbow - this was the no brainer for me.
To me and in the pictures the filter element looked a bit small. More on that later.
Fired off an email to Eventuri to be put down on their pre order list and showed my power user appreciation for addressing the issues shown on the other intakes.
Right so it finally turned up and everything from the packaging to the actual intake is epic and you truly get what you pay for. The intake is double packed so its like unpacking a playstation!
The carbon fibre used is nice and thick, feels really good in your hands and feels like a quality part, Out of all the intakes the Arma was probably the worst for the way it felt in your hand, felt like plastic.. This intake goes 90mm from the filter pod up to the turbo elbow without any obstructions, it necks down to 76mm via a silicon reducer for stock/hybrid turbos. For power users you simply change the silicon reducer from 90-76 to 90-90. I'm sure Eventuri will maybe make this an option on their site.
The filter pod on this intake is interesting, its like a reverse filter pod and this is why it looks small in pictures as its an illusion. Its hard to explain, but its a reverse cone with a smaller cone inside of it. Like a "W". Going to attach their CFD from the Golf R intake to give you an idea of wants going on in the filter housing.
I've tried to understand as much as I can about this pod as its like nothing else in the market.
From what I can tell, on a conventional intake cone where the air has to make a sharp 90 degree turn from the surface area on the filter to the inlet tube is where issues arise and can make the car feel "laggier" off boost. Peak airflow increases due to the less restrictive filter element but the disruptive flow disturbs the car off boost. This is something I experienced with the 034 intake, but I didn't actually realise how much it affected the car off boost until I stuck the stock intake back on the car. Car instantly felt sharper off boost.
Below is a CFD from 034 Motorsports, looks fantastic but there is something missing on the CFD which is the air actually entering the filter. The air enters the tube at 90 degrees so the air is in theory turning a sharp corner as soon as it gets inside the filter. All intakes in the market do this, which is why the Eventuri filter design is interesting.
According to Eventuri, on their intake " the funnel-shaped housing invokes the Venturi effect where the smooth reduction in cross-sectional area along the length of the housing causes the airflow to increase in velocity. Essentially the ENTIRE housing acts as a velocity stack. On the road – this translates not only to more power but smoother delivery and a sharper throttle response as the airflow is not inhibited by abrupt geometry changes and so is more likely to remain laminar."
Overall, I think this is a really good intake and its the best available for the car just now, it suits power users well and non power users at the same time. The materials are good and the fitting is spot on, this doesn't suffer from the tumble flap noises like the 034 does, but there is plenty of pure intake noise which is sweet. It deals with all the issues I had with the 034 intake and is a quality product. If I was being picky, I don't like the silver coloured clamps on this intake as I feel it spoils the look, they need to be black (I'm hard work I know!). So I will likely change mine to black, Other than that, I can't fault it.
So enough about the design, I am a data guy. I've logged the 034, Eventuri and stock (for curiosity mainly) back to back against each other and done some real world testing between all three.
Tests include;
100-200km/h vbox testing
Airflow at any given rpm in g/s
RPM at which each intake spools the turbo at/RPM at which target boost is acheived
Wastegate duty cycle
I did not log intake air temperatures as I do not feel there is an accurate way to me to measure them. The temperature sensors are on the throttle body and intake manifold so any differences would be unmeasurable due to their being an intercooler.. If you are wondering then why is radiant heat on the 034 is an issue is because in short hot air is less dense, you would be decreasing the efficiency of the turbo by feeding it hot air.
