TIP Ranking Round 3

For round 3 there is quite a collection of Turbocharger Inlet Pipes on hand:

Setup:

Round 3 entails a significant departure from round 1 and round 2 in the apparatus used to attach the turbocharger inlet as described on this page.  To briefly recap, the silicone hose that was used to attach the inlet elbows to the flow bench has been replaced by an adapter that more closely matches the inlet to the IS20 and IS38 compressor housings.

The revised adapter is shown below with the APR turbo inlet pipe:

Products:

For round three the following list of products are being compared.  To the right of the brand name are the inlet and outlet dimensions for each of these inlet elbows:

Brand  Inlet / Outlet (mm)

• APR 62.7 / 48.7
• BMS 66.2 / 53.9
• CTS 66.4 / 50.4
• Induct 65.7 / 50.4
• Leyo 65.6 / 53.8
• MST 72.4 / 48.1
• Neuspeed 64.5 / 51.0
• Stock 61.9 / 47.6

Not being tested today, but previously tested was a Unitronic TIP:

• Unitronic 64.7 / 48.7

Testing:

With the exception of the new flow bench adapter this test is the same as tests from rounds 1 and 2.  A calibration is performed prior to testing to check for proper reading from the flow bench.

Each of the turbocharger inlet elbows was tested at 28″ of H20 and the resulting airflow value in CFM was recorded.

The results for all of the products tested today are shown in the chart below:

Note: The MST inlet elbow must use an MST inlet hose, which was supplied for this test.  The inlet side of the elbow is too large to work with the stock GTI accordion hose.

Conclusions:

Revising the adapter significantly changed the results produced by this test as compared to rounds 1 and 2.  The airflow through the elbows that had been previously tested (Stock, APR, BMS, MST) all decreased.  In the cases of the previous highest flowing BMS and MST elbows the decrease in maximum airflow with the revised adapter was around seventeen to eighteen percent.

The results across all of the TIPs using the compressor simulating throat adapter are much more closely grouped than what was recorded with the silicone hose adapter.  In general all of the aftermarket TIP products produced gains of seven to nine percent.  The exceptions were the APR TIP which produced an approximate 4% gain, and the MST TIP+Hose combination that produced a 14% gain.

The Unitronic inlet elbow was not available for this test.

Based upon the trends of the products previously tested it is estimated that the Unitronic elbow would have performed comparably with the products reaching 388-390 CFM.

Below is a look at the maximum airflow values versus the dimensions of the inlet elbows:

There is a weak trend toward the larger dimensions having a higher airflow, but there is a point beyond which returns diminish substantially.

Overall the differences in maximum airflow at the test point are minimal between most of the aftermarket turbo inlet pipes.

Recognition:

Contributions by GolfMk7 forum members GolfRRRR and Crackness made possible the testing of the Unitronic and CTS inlet elbows.

Manufacturers loaning products for this testing were:

• Burger Motorsports
• Induct Performance
• Leyo Motorsport
• MST-Performance
• Neuspeed

Thanks go to all for their help with this Turbocharger Inlet Pipe test and evaluation.