ITG Maxogen Air Intake vs. HP Cold Air Intake

[RandomX]

Hi All,

Is someone able to explain the difference between these two air intake system for the 6R Polo GTI?

1. ITG Maxogen Air Filter Intake System For VW Polo GTI 1.4 TSI

2. APR - High Performance Development for Audi, VW and Porsche Vehicles.

Price for the ITG system works out to be ~$441 excl. shipping

Price for the APR/HP system is $795 (providing you can pick it up from one of their dealers)

I can find graphs on the performance gains by the HP CAI, but does anyone know how the ITG system performs?

Any feedback on whether the HP CAI is worth the extra $$$?

Cheers,

Josh

[PoloDave]

All I can tell you is what someone over here achieved with his GTI + Milltek and ITG: 233,4 hp on the dyno

[gavs]

Simple answer? No. If you are happy to pay $300 for a speculated difference compared to the ITG (if there even is a difference) AFTER tuning.....

Hurdy over in the uk is running the ITG intake and saw a power increase prior his stage 2 tune, I "think" it was 9whp so what's that, around 3.6wkw? Stock I would highly doubt you would get any noticeable difference, other than intake sound.

I don't want to sound like an APR basher here because enough of that occurs in other sections o the forum but "10-15 wheel kw increase" sounds like that would certainly be on a tuned car, most likely running stage 2 (Guy woul have to confirm) but the line that says "hot air feed eliminated" is just plain wrong. The polo GTI stock intake trumpet is already a cold air feed as it sucks air from the upper front grill and I regularly see intake temps maybe 1-2 degrees warmer than ambient unless I'm sitting in traffic when the heat soak starts building up in the engine bay.

[team_v]

Simple answer? No. If you are happy to pay $300 for a speculated difference compared to the ITG (if there even is a difference) AFTER tuning.....

Hurdy over in the uk is running the ITG intake and saw a power increase prior his stage 2 tune, I "think" it was 9whp so what's that, around 3.6wkw? Stock I would highly doubt you would get any noticeable difference, other than intake sound.

I don't want to sound like an APR basher here because enough of that occurs in other sections o the forum but "10-15 wheel kw increase" sounds like that would certainly be on a tuned car, most likely running stage 2 (Guy woul have to confirm) but the line that says "hot air feed eliminated" is just plain wrong. The polo GTI stock intake trumpet is already a cold air feed as it sucks air from the upper front grill and I regularly see intake temps maybe 1-2 degrees warmer than ambient unless I'm sitting in traffic when the heat soak starts building up in the engine bay.

Does the oem intake have a ventilated base?

I know that the 2.0TSI intakes have an open base so while they can suck in cold air from the front, they also suck in hot air from the engine bay.

[RandomX]

i believe the stock intake has a small opening at the bottom... however it only looks like it's there as a water run off...

cheers gavs for the input regarding the intakes

[Guy_H]

Gav's, all our figures are for a tuned car, no one with a stock ECU has bought an airbox off us.

Oh, your polo does have a hot air feed, that is 50% of the air going into your airbox is fed from behind the radiator (the hot air feed), generally used by OEM's in sub zero climates I'm led to believe. If you dismantle yours, you will see it.

The ITG does a very similar thing to ours (eliminates the hot air feed).

One way to test is to do what we did - back to back a series of tests on the dyno between the two intakes - we obviously only did ours vs stock, on two separate test cars.

[Guy_H]

Oh, P.S. The test car in question had an intercooler, no exhaust, average increase over 6 runs (not the maximum or minimum gains, the average), so not a stage 2 (I would call stage 2 with a full exhaust).

[gavs]

Thanks for that info Guy. Not trying to sound like a knob, but was the car running the stage 1 tune, or something more powerful? I ask because most people don't consider hardware (myself included) as a stage 2 tune, they would asses that as a stage 2 package.

Still disagree on the intake though

[readerr0r]

The graph key pretty much sums it up fine imho. It says the HP gains were measured on a Polo GTI with the APR Stage 1 ECU tune and HP Intercooler.

I think it's fairly safe to say that the car would need to be tuned to make the most out of the Intake

[Gambit]

Guy, how many KW's at the wheels does that polo gti make with no mods whatsoever?

[Banana2]

That was my car. I have the graphs, but not sure I have the right to publish, so will leave that to Guy.

The figure, completely stock, was 117.1 kW. Peak figures tell only part of the story, though, as clearly there are increases throughout the range.

Not relevant to performance, but the HP Intake, aesthetically, is a work of art when installed. The Carbon Fibre is gorgeous.

Edit: I confirm I only have the Stage 1 tune.

[Banana2]

Still disagree on the intake though

Why would you disagree on the intake? There either is a hot air intake or there isn't... no?

[RandomX]

gavs... based on your views on the 'supposed' performance gains would you buy the ITG or the APR/HP? or neither?

[Gambit]

That was my car. I have the graphs, but not sure I have the right to publish, so will leave that to Guy.

The figure, completely stock, was 117.1 kW. Peak figures tell only part of the story, though, as clearly there are increases throughout the range.

Not relevant to performance, but the HP Intake, aesthetically, is a work of art when installed. The Carbon Fibre is gorgeous.

Edit: I confirm I only have the Stage 1 tune.

I'd be interested to see your stock dyno run.
@117kw peak sounds like a happy dyno tbh, my 1st GTI made 112kw on a tough dyno at HPF fyi as a comparison.

[gavs]

Why would you disagree on the intake? There either is a hot air intake or there isn't... no?

I am continuously logging (when my laptop is charged) what my intake temps are and as I said, a difference of 1-2 degrees over ambient. At rest, yeah the heated radiant air from the radiators would creap into the intake but once moving, I struggle to believe that 50% of the cubic volume of air being sucked through the MAF and intake temp sensor can be cooled that much without seeing the data that shows where that half of the volume is coming from. All intake temps will creap up at rest, especially after driving. Engines work as a vacuum and suck air into them, logic dictates (and is proven by race teams the world over) that the best place for an engine intake is at a point of high air pressure and the highest air pressures are found at the base of the windscreen and at the front bumper. That high pressure air is much easier to be sucked in compared to the area of low pressure behind the radiators which is the area of heated air. But hey, that's just me and data from several days of heat and pressure testing of radiators and intercoolers and the effect on the motor of the vehicle being tested.

For the money being asked, would I personally say either or any aftermarket intake is worth the coin? Nope. I am a strong believer in retaining the use of OE filters as they are filtration tested to a spec and in the last 10 years I am still yet to see empirical evidence that an aftermarket filter (other than direct OE replacement) can filter as well. If you're chasing big power gains then I'd say go for it and yes, the HP unit really does look spectacular and is proven to flow better and provide more power to a tuned car, but would you see the same gains on a stock car?