Background:
The post discusses street data logged using the Racingline R600 intake and a stock-turbo elbow from Epman, a knockoff of the APR TIP.
A series of previous posts compared the APR Pex open intake with the Blaze ATOM Race intake to determine if changing between the intakes would significantly shift the turbocharger wastegate duty cycle (WGDC).
According to an EQT customer, while troubleshooting a low WGDC with the help of EQT, they determined that the APR intake was a significant cause of restriction, and swapping to the Blaze intake dramatically decreased the wastegate duty cycle. This was discussed in the Real World Data Check #6 post.
In my tests of the APR intake vs Blaze, no significant difference resulted from the intake swap. A significant difference was measured when swapping from a stock-size inlet elbow to a hybrid-size elbow.
Another intake claimed by the members of Equilibrium Tuning to trail the Blaze ATOM Race intake is the Racingline R600. In a previous post, I reviewed a comparison by Matt Ferreira from Equilibrium Tuning. Matt overlooked determining the contribution of a stock-size inlet elbow to the overall flow rate through the Racingline R600 intake.
Matt erroneously concluded that the Racingline R600 intake limited the vehicle’s performance output compared to the same car equipped with a Blaze ATOM V2 intake.
Comparison:
Since the Epman turbo inlet elbow (an APR elbow knockoff) is installed on the GTI and was used in the EQT comparison (APR TIP), this presents an opportunity to see how the Racingline R600 intake performs with the stock-size elbow and then with a hybrid-size elbow.
In addition to the R600 intake, inlet hose, and Epman inlet elbow, the significant parts on the GTI are:
- Russell Road & Racing E30 Tune
- Mabotech M520h hybrid turbocharger
- aFe Power Charge Pipes
- Mabotech Stock Mount IC
- MPI / RS3 LPFP / HPA HPFP
- Baun Performance 4″ GESi Cat DP / 3.5 ” mid-pipe
- AWE track exhaust
A series of full-throttle pulls in third gear will be made to record engine and vehicle performance data while the Epman TIP is installed.
The MST TIP will be installed later, and the results will be presented in another post.
Test Results:
An overview of the data collection session is shown below:
The outside air temperature is approximately 4 degrees F cooler than during the Blaze ATOM Race data collection session.
The intake air temperature difference between the intake sessions is approximately 8-10 degrees F, with the Blaze ATOM having a slightly higher IAT.
Previous testing with the Blaze ATOM Race to measure pre-turbo air temperature showed that the intake has slightly higher temperatures than a fully closed intake, which may be contributing to the slightly higher IAT.
The boost pressure curve from the R600 with Epman TIP drops compared to the curve when using the Blaze ATOM Race intake:
This is similar to what was recorded using the APR open intake with the Epman elbow.
Next, a significant increase in turbocharger wastegate duty cycle is observed when using the Racingline R600 intake with Epman inlet elbow:
When pairing the APR open intake with the Epman inlet elbow, a significant increase in WGDC compared to the Blaze ATOM Race intake was also observed.
Note: As a reminder, the Epman elbow is made to work with a stock-size turbo, and this test is being done using a Mabotech M520h hybrid turbo. This mismatch is intentional as it recreates the mismatch of the parts utilized by the vehicle in the Equilibrium Tuning comparison, where EQT concluded that the Blaze ATOM Race intake performs significantly better than the Racingline R600 intake.
Conclusion:
The Racingline R600 intake was installed on a Mk7 GTI equipped with a Mabotech M520h hybrid turbocharger to record engine performance data. The R600 intake is purposefully mismatched with a stock-size inlet elbow to recreate the configuration Equilibrium Tuning used when comparing the R600 intake with a Blaze ATOM Race intake.
The R600 with Epman TIP showed a drop in boost pressure and a significant increase in the wastegate duty cycle compared with the Blaze ATOM Race intake.
In the next phase of this test, the Epman TIP will be removed, and the Racingline R600 intake will be matched with an inlet elbow that is correctly sized for use with a hybrid turbocharger, a step that Equilibrium Tuning failed to take in its comparison of the R600 to Blaze ATOM intake.