We're going to be putting in an IS38 Turbo for more top end boost shortly but for now, I wanted to improve the air intake. The stock intake is actually pretty efficient but not as good as it can be. The air comes in through inlets on the front passenger side only and then is routed to the driver's side via a plastic duct where the actual intake is.
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| Stock intake removed - 11/9/2019 |
I wanted a stock looking intake that would pull air from the entire front, be sealed to avoid heat soak and have proper inlets for secondary air which the car is equipped with. The obvious choice was the
Racingline R600 intake. Stock, there's a small coolant line that routes on top of the intake that I wanted to replace so that it routes under the intake instead for a cleaner look. Thankfully, Racingline also makes a coolant underhose with an OEM check valve for a straightforward fit.
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| Stock coolant line - 11/9/2019 |
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| Racingline coolant hose - 11/9/2019 |
I was a bit annoyed to find out I had to drill my own hole to fit the secondary air fitting. For the price of this thing, I feel that's something they should've done for me but they probably did it so they can just make one mold and have people cut it as needed for secondary air. What should've been a 20 minute intake install took much longer while we carefully cut the holes to mount the fitting.
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| Bottom part of intake and filter installed - 11/9/2019 |
The filter that the R600 comes with is made of black foam and there've been quite a few reports of it just disintegrating over time which is no good since I don't want foam pieces getting sucked into the turbo. Thankfully, a company called MST Performance makes a replacement filter (VW-R6) that uses more normal cone filters which I'm much more comfortable with. The cover just needed to be bolted on and it was all set. I'll have to say that while the intake is quite nice and performs well, fitment could've been better. Things were a bit fiddly but manageable
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| Intake installed and coolant hose rerouted - 11/9/2019 |
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| Air pulling from all the front openings now |
It doesn't really change the induction noise much which is what I wanted and it looks like it came from the factory so it stays low key. I noticed a bit of an improvement in throttle response but I wasn't expecting this to do anything major for now. What I want is to maximize the amount of fresh cool air entering the turbo which will be helpful once we slap the IS38 on.
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| Racingline R600 Intake - 11/9/2019 |
Overall I'm still pretty happy with it and it's one of the few aftermarket intakes for the GTi that has a proper solution for the secondary air hose rather than just sticking a mini cone filter on it like all the other ones do. Thanks to Alex for helping me today.
