3.3TT Have run a couple of test on the OEM air box set up

[runner1]

My concern is just dirt in the engine bay for guys with snorkels and cold air set ups. I Run BMS intake, JB4 and make great power with stable iats....and more important my engine bay stays clean. I don’t know if I’d make more power, and I don’t know that it wouldn’t make a huge mess under the hood for a daily

 

[Travis Wills]

Please let us know how you find them. One thing that does worry me about these snorkels is rain getting into the air box, I would be curious to hear your thoughts on that subject

I was worried about that as well. I have done some controlled testing with a hose and also with rain and I have never been able to even get a drop in the airbox. However, I do know someone else that said they went through heavy rain and had a puddle in the bottom of the airbox. A drain hole would probably solve that issue though.

Honestly, I would be more worried about an open air intake than the closed air intakes that the stock airbox provides. I frequently get water in the engine bay when I wash the car. If the filter is open air it would get wet then.

 

[Shockington]

My concern is just dirt in the engine bay for guys with snorkels and cold air set ups. I Run BMS intake, JB4 and make great power with stable iats....and more important my engine bay stays clean. I don’t know if I’d make more power, and I don’t know that it wouldn’t make a huge mess under the hood for a daily

I can tell you the engine bay gets much dirtier than normal with the snorkels.

Mine is usually pretty filthy after a month of driving with them. You're literally ramming dirt and dust into the engine bay.

As far as water, nothing. I've never had any water get in the engine bay due to them. I take mine off in the winter and put the stock ones back on as they protect against dirt much better. We use sand and gravel where I am and it just coats everything. Also when it's -40 out I don't care about intake air temps. I want to heat the car up as fast as I can.

 

[Slip_Angle]

My only performance modifications are the AirScoops snorkels and the AEM drop in panel filters in the factory airbox. Those two simple changes that cost me less than $250 have added 3.16 mph to my 1/4 mile trap speed.

View attachment 53392

I actually bought a small pressure reading device and put it in the airbox. It showed a measurable increase in air pressure inside the airbox when at speed. It was pretty cool. As long as you weren’t on the gas and you were at speed you could see the ram air effect of the snorkels feeding air into the filters.

View attachment 53393

View attachment 53394

Those aftermarket panel filters aren’t actually as restrictive as people think they are. They are actually very close to the efficiency of the equivalent sized cone filter.

I am working on a video that explains everything I have tested so far. I honestly think that the factory air boxes could be a better option than some of the aftermarket open air solutions.

What are you using to log this data?

 

[Slip_Angle]

I logged boost with the VT Snorkels in place with the OEM airbox. interesting results.

15.2psi is common
15.8-16psi reached on a few occasions

 

[oddball]

I logged boost with the VT Snorkels in place with the OEM airbox. interesting results.

15.2psi is common
15.8-16psi reached on a few occasions

View attachment 73206

.... what?
Is that the manifold pressure from the ECU? Any changes in front of the turbos will have extremely little effect on that reading.

Travis is talking about using a manometer, something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K7HT3XJ

Those do very fine pressure measurements, usually as a delta instead of an absolute.

 

[ForSpeed]

I've been going through the intake (air box) threads trying to find the information I'm after but with no luck, so I started running some test myself and found that with a completely stock standard car I was getting just on 9 inches of vacuum in the standard air box which is not too bad but far from great, IE there clearly is performance to be gained from getting the standard air box to flow better

The next test was to (un bolt) remove the little straight snorkel piece connecting the air box to the front wall thereby letting the air box suck air from just the inlet of the box only, this resulted in the vacuum level dropping down to just under 1 inch which is really very good, and telling me that the restriction to the standard air box is upstream from that point and that the standard opening is big enough ie no need to cut additional holes in the air box (good)

From what I can see there are two main culprits

1 The convoluted snorkel that simply bolts to the front of the wall, (which should be a simple matter of unbolting)

2 Moulded into the tubing that goes through the wall (that the above snorkel bolts too) is a x-shaped piece looking not unlike a cross brace this piece is fairly big and represents approximately a restriction of 20 to 25% of the surface area of this tube, my question is has anyone removed this (would not be hard to cut out) and can anyone see a possible benefit to this piece

And before anyone asked, no I just don't want to bolt on a Pod style filter, I really am a big believer in having a proper cold air box setup
I've been going through the intake (air box) threads trying to find the information I'm after but with no luck, so I started running some test myself and found that with a completely stock standard car I was getting just on 9 inches of vacuum in the standard air box which is not too bad but far from great, IE there clearly is performance to be gained from getting the standard air box to flow better

The next test was to (un bolt) remove the little straight snorkel piece connecting the air box to the front wall thereby letting the air box suck air from just the inlet of the box only, this resulted in the vacuum level dropping down to just under 1 inch which is really very good, and telling me that the restriction to the standard air box is upstream from that point and that the standard opening is big enough ie no need to cut additional holes in the air box (good)

From what I can see there are two main culprits

1 The convoluted snorkel that simply bolts to the front of the wall, (which should be a simple matter of unbolting)

2 Moulded into the tubing that goes through the wall (that the above snorkel bolts too) is a x-shaped piece looking not unlike a cross brace this piece is fairly big and represents approximately a restriction of 20 to 25% of the surface area of this tube, my question is has anyone removed this (would not be hard to cut out) and can anyone see a possible benefit to this piece

And before anyone asked, no I just don't want to bolt on a Pod style filter, I really am a big believer in having a proper cold air box setup

 

[ForSpeed]

I've been going through the intake (air box) threads trying to find the information I'm after but with no luck, so I started running some test myself and found that with a completely stock standard car I was getting just on 9 inches of vacuum in the standard air box which is not too bad but far from great, IE there clearly is performance to be gained from getting the standard air box to flow better

The next test was to (un bolt) remove the little straight snorkel piece connecting the air box to the front wall thereby letting the air box suck air from just the inlet of the box only, this resulted in the vacuum level dropping down to just under 1 inch which is really very good, and telling me that the restriction to the standard air box is upstream from that point and that the standard opening is big enough ie no need to cut additional holes in the air box (good)

From what I can see there are two main culprits

1 The convoluted snorkel that simply bolts to the front of the wall, (which should be a simple matter of unbolting)

2 Moulded into the tubing that goes through the wall (that the above snorkel bolts too) is a x-shaped piece looking not unlike a cross brace this piece is fairly big and represents approximately a restriction of 20 to 25% of the surface area of this tube, my question is has anyone removed this (would not be hard to cut out) and can anyone see a possible benefit to this piece

And before anyone asked, no I just don't want to bolt on a Pod style filter, I really am a big believer in having a proper cold air box setup

Your right on the X brace in the wall. You will have to take the nose of the car off and use a hacksaw blade to cut it out. Use vice grip pliers to hold the single blade and cut it out. I design my own air duct to replace the stock piece. I 3d printed them them overlay them in carbon fiber. I run KN filter in factory air box. I would never remove the ducking for the air that goes into the radiator. I have pictures and files on all the parts I design. I cant seem to figure out how to attach pictures to this. Nice to see you use a vacuum to test where the restriction is. Its that hole though the wall. ForSpeed

 

[ForSpeed]

I've been going through the intake (air box) threads trying to find the information I'm after but with no luck, so I started running some test myself and found that with a completely stock standard car I was getting just on 9 inches of vacuum in the standard air box which is not too bad but far from great, IE there clearly is performance to be gained from getting the standard air box to flow better

The next test was to (un bolt) remove the little straight snorkel piece connecting the air box to the front wall thereby letting the air box suck air from just the inlet of the box only, this resulted in the vacuum level dropping down to just under 1 inch which is really very good, and telling me that the restriction to the standard air box is upstream from that point and that the standard opening is big enough ie no need to cut additional holes in the air box (good)

From what I can see there are two main culprits

1 The convoluted snorkel that simply bolts to the front of the wall, (which should be a simple matter of unbolting)

2 Moulded into the tubing that goes through the wall (that the above snorkel bolts too) is a x-shaped piece looking not unlike a cross brace this piece is fairly big and represents approximately a restriction of 20 to 25% of the surface area of this tube, my question is has anyone removed this (would not be hard to cut out) and can anyone see a possible benefit to this piece

And before anyone asked, no I just don't want to bolt on a Pod style filter, I really am a big believer in having a proper cold air box setup

I cut the X out of mine car. Its about .200 thick and eats about 2 square inches of air from getting in that duct. I also designed my own air ducts. Keep the radiator intake shroud. It helps force air though the radiator.