Lately, we at TVS, receive more and more questions about our tuning products and results for the new 2.0 TSI EA888.4 EVO platform like the VW Golf Mk 8R, Audi S3 8Y and Cupra Formentor. In this tech post we will speak about intake modifications and upgrades for the 2.0TSI EA888.4. We will give our followers and customer base another exclusive look behind the scenes at TVS to show what is involved at testing and evaluating upgraded hardware for the new MQB EVO platform.
INTAKES
At a first sight the intake system design of the new 2.0TSI EA888.4 seems almost similar to its predecessor. The most significant differences are the intake hose and turbo inlet design to match the new turbochargers. For this reason TVS decided to first start performing stock intake modifications which were effective on the previous platform and anyone can do easily. Thereafter we installed an aftermarket RacingLine R600 cold air intake package. Summarized the following intakes were tested:
* Next to installing the RacingLine air filter the snow grate is removed as well ** The stock modified intake airbox consists of closing the rear air intake blanking plate and creating a second air intake opening by removing material on the right.
TEST EQUIPMENT
To proper compare various intakes our development Golf Mk 8R is equipped with additional sensors to analyze data that can’t be monitored on stock engine management due to the lack of those sensors.
Those sensors are logged through a Banks Power iDash Datamonster. Together with extended RAM logging equipment and accurate dyno measurements, TVS can compare, analyze and verify any hardware or software modifications extremely accurate. We at TVS believe this is required to operate at factory level and beyond for achieving maximum performance and drivability without sacrificing reliability.
With having the extended measurement equipment installed it is important to determine which parameters need to be analyzed for making a proper comparison between the intakes. Basically engine performance is directly dependent on the amount of oxygen available for combustion. The more air the engine enters, the more fuel it can combust and the more power it can make. So to really compare intake duct systems it is important to look at the amount of air available at the end of the intake system. The most accurate measurement for this will be air density. Unlike looking at intake system pressure or flow only with air density also the effect of temperature is taken into consideration. For this reason both pressure and temperature sensors are installed just before the turbo compressor inlet on our development vehicle.
RESULTS
The results below are retrieved from the TVS development Golf 8R during the following circumstances and measuring conditions which were kept similar at the start of every dyno run:
TVS Stage 2 EVO ECU software
Stock hardware (only intake modifications)
Ambient air temperature: 10 °C
Ambient air pressure: 1005 mbar
Mean values of three dyno runs at 6000 RPM in 4th gear
Intake air system pressure When air flows through the filter and intake piping any restrictions will result into a pressure drop. So if the design of the intake system can minimize the restriction and thereby the pressure drop, air density will be maintained as well.
As we can see in above graph any intake modification is minimizing the pressure drop in the intake system over stock. Only the RacingLine air filter and snow grate removal results into a pressure increase at the turbo compressor inlet of 14% over stock intake. Adding both RacingLine intake hose and turbo inlet elbow to this results into 41% improvement over stock. We don’t measure big significant differences between a fully modified stock intake and a full RacingLine R600 intake, but the intake pressure drop can be improved from 70 up to 75% over stock.
Intake air system temperature Intake air system temperatures will generally be higher than ambient conditions due to air flow friction and heat radiation from the engine bay. So the more an upgraded intake system can cool the air to the filter and maintain the cool temperature as the air is ducted to the turbo, the higher the air density will be. Here we see only slight differences with the RacingLine full intake package having an improvement of 8% over the stock intake.
Dyno results
Let’s see if those data matches the power output results measured on dyno. The performance numbers below are uncorrected wheel HP and Nm since dyno room conditions were kept similar during the start of every run.
When first adding a RacingLine high-flow filter and thereafter RacingLine’s intake hose and turbo inlet we see a maximum performance increase of 3.4 whp and 10.2 Nm over stock. Especially the RacingLine intake hose and turbo inlet elbow give some extra torque over the entire engine speed range as displayed below.
Power and torque graphs for stock intake (blue); stock intake + high-flow filter (white); stock intake + high-flow filter + intake hose + turbo inlet elbow (red).
As the data already showed us, also the dyno results are almost similar for the RacingLine R600 intake package compared to a fully modified stock intake airbox with RacingLine high-flow filter, intake hose and turbo inlet. Over stock maximum gains of 9.1hp and 12Nm were measured at the wheels.
Power and torque graphs for stock intake (blue); stock modified intake + high-flow filter + intake hose + turbo inlet elbow (white); RacingLine R600 intake package (red).
CONCLUSION
After our R&D we see it’s possible to achieve almost similar maximum performance on stock turbo by modifying your stock intake airbox and adding a RacingLine high-flow drop-in filter, intake hose and turbo inlet compared to installing the full RacingLine R600 cold air intake package directly. However if you prefer a better looking intake system and ease of installation only we do recommend the full RacingLine R600 package.
For increased maximum torque only installing a high-flow air filter, intake hose and turbo inlet elbow from RacingLine is sufficient. To achieve maximum top end power we have seen the stock intake duct after the grill is the biggest bottleneck. This can be solved by installing a RacingLine R600 intake airbox or creating a second air intake opening by removing material on the right of your stock intake.
Any other aftermarket intakes we should test next on our development Golf Mk8 R?
For those interested in the development and in-depth tech involved in our products and solutions we recommend our new series of tech posts for the EA888.4 MQB EVO platform.
