Background:
A hypothesis is that the snow grate inside the Mk7 airbox can help to keep water droplets from reaching the air filter.
A previous post addressed a preliminary check to see if this hypothesis warranted a closer look, which I decided it did.
The next step is to install water contact tape at several locations within the stock air intake to check if water enters the intake.
The strips on the lower half of the airbox.
A strip is placed at the bottom of each side of the inlet to the airbox.
Looking down into the airbox from the air duct.
Water indicator tape locations along the underside of the air filter.
Now I will wait for a rainy day.
Hi Jeff, quick question. Are you going to repeat the test with the snow grate installed with new tape on the air filter? Will help prove that even with the grate that water does/doesn’t get through.
Love your research by the way, keep up the good work.
Thanks!
It depends on the outcome of this next step. If there isn’t any sign that water is getting to the air filter without having the grate installed I don’t plan to conduct the test again with the grate installed.
Hey Jeff, snow grate related but slightly off the test topic. A tuner in India dynoed stock EA888 with and without the snow grate. They reported no significant difference other than removing the snow grate caused a weird dip at 4000rpm. Check out the Instagram post for dyno chatt https://www.instagram.com/p/CYdcMrnvkfC/?utm_medium=copy_link
Thanks for pointing that out.
I commented on their Facebook page about the lack of a detectable difference on the dyno with back-to-back pulls. That’s not a surprising result using that measurement device in the manner they conducted the comparison. Removal of the air baffle has a very slight effect on the pre-turbocharger pressure drop. The first measurement I made of the baffle was without the turbo inlet elbow in place. I performed a follow-up with a more typical “aftermarket” setup and included the turbo inlet elbow. You can see that the difference goes down with the addition of the TIP. There is still an improvement, but it is small, only 6 CFM during the test.
For reference, a 6 CFM change at the test condition I chose equates to 0.03 psi – I wouldn’t expect a dynamometer to be capable of detecting such a subtle change.
Oddly though, they attributed the 4000 RPM range 8 HP/14 NM dip to the baffle, which is exceedingly unlikely, for the very reason that it has such a minimal effect on the airflow.