APR 2.0 TDI Carbon Fiber Cold Air Intake System

[pom829]

pom829, I really dig your pics. It truly looks an awesome pice of kit! Go APR!

However, I wonder if APR would ever consider making a Black Plastic version rather than a Carbon Fibre version.

For me personally, I would prefer it to look more OEM with black plastic rather than Carbon Fibre look.
Plus I would assume that it might cost less to manufacture, thus cheaper to purchase!

Plus it would give me more room for a Provent 200!!!

Just my 2 cents...

Thanks ope126,

But reference a plastic intake instead of a Carbon Fibre one; a plastic intake would heat up to much and therefore the temperature inside the air intake would increase.

Don't forget the engine bay is extremely hot while the engine is running and you want to keep the air in the intake as cool as possible.

The outside of the Carbon Fibre intake gets hot like anything else in the engine bay, but the trick is it doesn't transfer heat to the inside of the Carbon Fibre intake, thus keeping the air cool which increases engine power and efficiency.


Advantages of a cold air intake system:
Increased horsepower and torque
Improved throttle response and fuel economy

By the way nice car...

[kaanage]

I wonder if APR would ever consider making a Black Plastic version rather than a Carbon Fibre version.

For me personally, I would prefer it to look more OEM with black plastic rather than Carbon Fibre look.
Plus I would assume that it might cost less to manufacture, thus cheaper to purchase!

A plastic moulding would be much cheaper to produce in very large numbers (ie a mass production run) but the tooling to create the moulds would cost a mint. I don't imagine APR can sell tens of thousands of these.

But a fibreglass version using the same moulds as the CF version would do the job nicely too and that would be a lot cheaper, even using epoxy resin for the layup. But where's the street cred in fibreglass :p

But reference a plastic intake instead of a Carbon Fibre one; a plastic intake would heat up to much and therefore the temperature inside the air intake would increase.

Don't forget the engine bay is extremely hot while the engine is running and you want to keep the air in the intake as cool as possible.

The outside of the Carbon Fibre intake gets hot like anything else in the engine bay, but the trick is it doesn't transfer heat to the inside of the Carbon Fibre intake, thus keeping the air cool which increases engine power and efficiency.

There would be almost no intake temperature rise through the housing when once any amount of airflow is taking place and in any case, CF would actually transfer more heat than thermoplastic precisely because it holds less of it (so thermal conductivity is higher). The resin will have similar thermal conductivity to the thermoplastic but the carbon fibres conduct heat better so the overal thermal conductivity of a CF item of will be greater than a thermoplastic item of equal thickness.
See this paper where one of the carbon is one of the fillers used to improve the thermal conductivity of a thermoplastic.

[pom829]

A plastic moulding would be much cheaper to produce in very large numbers (ie a mass production run) but the tooling to create the moulds would cost a mint. I don't imagine APR can sell tens of thousands of these.

But a fibreglass version using the same moulds as the CF version would do the job nicely too and that would be a lot cheaper, even using epoxy resin for the layup. But where's the street cred in fibreglass :p

There would be almost no heat transfer through the housing when once any amount of airflow is taking place and in any case, CF would actually transfer more heat than thermoplastic precisely because it holds less of it (so thermal conductivity is higher). The resin will have similar thermal conductivity to the thermoplastic but the carbon fibres conduct heat better so the overal thermal conductivity of a CF item of will be greater than a thermoplastic item of equal thickness.
See this paper where one of the carbon is one of the fillers used to improve the thermal conductivity of a thermoplastic.

Bloody hell Kaanage what are you a scientist!!!!

Carbon Fibre is an excellent conductor of electricity, but a moderate to poor conductor of heat, and does not approach metal as a conductor of heat. Carbon fibre is used successfully in making intake manifolds for top fuel dragsters because of the heat environment and the need to keep the intake temp down.

[kaanage]

And the thermoplastic used for common mouldings is a worse heat conductor than properly laid up (minimal resin) CF.

But the heat transfer would be inconsequential in either case.

[poyta]

pom829, I really dig your pics. It truly looks an awesome pice of kit! Go APR!

However, I wonder if APR would ever consider making a Black Plastic version rather than a Carbon Fibre version.

For me personally, I would prefer it to look more OEM with black plastic rather than Carbon Fibre look.
Plus I would assume that it might cost less to manufacture, thus cheaper to purchase!.

If you really want it to look OEM then you could always paint it matt black but personally I think the carbon fibre looks fantastic.

[Greg Roles]

The APR is the berries no doubt, but it's hard to argue with the humble old Modshack made from Phenolic. Low heat transfer doesn't get much better, but it does still look like a paint tin, although I skinned mine in real carbon, so I have double protection!

[VWVIC]

4.5 kgs and how big physically in the packaging? My bro's coming over from the US mid feb and i could probably get him to bring one over for me... Haven't even bought the car yet, and I'm already buying bits and pieces for it...

I'm gonna have to go with the catch can excuse on the missus I think...

[pom829]

4.5 kgs and how big physically in the packaging? My bro's coming over from the US mid feb and i could probably get him to bring one over for me... Haven't even bought the car yet, and I'm already buying bits and pieces for it...

I'm gonna have to go with the catch can excuse on the missus I think...

VWVIC,

The APR box is 46cm(lenght)x31cm(width)x21cm(height), and to be honest there's no space wasted in the box as the carbon fibre box is bubble wrapped. I still can't get over the lack of turbo lag and the sound of the turbo, it's worth the money.

[VWVIC]

Cheers mate. Guess I'll have to see if I get one brought over then "to make room for the Provent"...

[jazd]

I'm very tempted to buy this. Do you think I would need another map from Superchips after I do this mod?

[Greg Roles]

I would assume no, the MAF sensor just downstream adjusts fuel to suit the air volume passing by, and the temp sensor after the intercooler does the same for temps. I'd think it's just plug and play.

[jazd]

Argh so tempted to buy one now... just moved into a new house and really should be spending money on other things haha. I believe it will cost $350 landed in Australia.. so cheap with the Aussie dollar high against the US.

[Greg Roles]

Do it. My FAR less sexy Modshack was $250 or so, and I had to carbon skin it and build a lid myself.

They are the ducks nuts no doubt.

[poyta]

Argh so tempted to buy one now... just moved into a new house and really should be spending money on other things haha. I believe it will cost $350 landed in Australia.. so cheap with the Aussie dollar high against the US.

You'll have to search for while to find someone in the states who doesn't care about the APR grey imports agreement and will ship it to Australia. Took me a while to find someone but yeah if you look you can get one landed for about $320 - compared to close to $600 from an Australian distributor.

[poyta]

Got my APR Carbon Fibre Cold Air intake system installed this morning and thought I might share my opinion.
Anyone looking to buy one of these for the so called increase in induction noise may be a bit disappointed. Sure there is a slight increase in noise but only slight. I was hoping it would be much more noticeable and was comparing it to when one of my friends got an open air-filter pod installed on his Nissan Skyline. That thing after getting the pod sounded like Varth Vader suffering from an asthma attack! Even with his loud booming exhaust you could hear it whereas with this APR unit it sounds more like someone sitting next to you sucking from a straw. With the windows up its almost non existent.
Power gains or any faster spooling aren't really noticeable - perhaps there is some improvement but this would more likely be shown on a dyno rather than actually felt as I suspect the gains are very small - I suspect anyone who says they can actually feel a different are suffering from a placebo effect.
Not sure what the heat insulation properties will be like because the airbox is made from a very thin sheet of carbon fibre. In fact if you look through air inlet its almost transparent!
The big bonus ( as this would be the main reason I got one ) is that it frees up heaps of room in the engine bay so for someone like me who in the future wants to add something like a Provent its a perfect solution. Another bonus is that it looks f$%king fantastic and that fact that its a washable filter is great - no more need to buy those rather expensive replacement filters from VW.
If I had spent the $600 that Australian distributors want for one of these I think I'd be a little disappointed but having imported it for about half that amount I'm quite happy with my purchase.