Quote:
Originally Posted by COcyclist
Everything I have read and experienced about diesels says to supply the engine intake with as much cool air as possible. Block the radiator because they are so efficient they don't generate much heat but I would keep the cold-air intake in place and free flowing. Warm-Air Intake mods may work in gas (petrol) vehicles because they are fighting against the throttle plate at low load situations. The warmer air is less dense and allows gas engines to run with the throttle a little more open and operate more efficiently at hypermiler cruising speeds. It hurts their power too but some people may get a few mpg out of it. Not for diesels though. Diesels don't have a throttle and can work at very lean injection rates.
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And with that in mind, I re-worked my cold air intake today. This was a bit tricky since I don't have an opening on the front grille any more so I had to get a little creative - or destructive actually.
The top of the grille is the only place to suck air in from now and unfortunately it looks like this:
So I got trigger-happy with a jig-saw and opened it up.
Now the air flows in through the VW badge (the badge was blocked behind but now it's an intake!
Next step was to sort out the very restrictive cold-air feed which for some reason had a big plastic chunk blocking the flow of air. It also had an opening at the bottom about 15mm high and covered the full width of the intake section. In short, most of the air coming in the front would be directed out the bottom and didn't head towards the engine! WTF!
I've now cut out the restriction and taped the whole thing up so that the air can't leak, and the air pressure increases on the intake that goes to the engine. Here's the before and after. You can probably see the original gap from the height difference in the "after" pic below:
