Re: drilling airbox

[Lee Levitt <wheelman@shore.net>]

From: dmiller@iea.com (Doug Miller)

>Use caution on this type of modification.  Air movement through an
>automotive induction system is quite fast, particularly at the high RPM's
>where you are looking for your performance improvement.  The upshot of
>this is that manufacturers spend considerable time designing this part of the
>system, including the airbox, to shape the airflow and manage the "pulses"

>My suggestion is to consider an engineered part like a K&N low resistance
>filter, though I have no experience with them.  At least (presumably) these
>parts were engineered to work with your induction system and have been
>designed with the intake parameters in mind.

I'd agree with the first part of this posting...to a point...manufacturers
are caught between making a car driveable for the vast majority of the
population, keeping costs down, and maximizing performance for us, the
lunatic fringe. So it's possible that drilling an airbox *could* increase
performance, but IMCO, just about as likely to have a positive effect as
using green ink on the CD label.

With regard to the latter...K&N has done a pretty good job marketing its
products...just because it takes the position of offering higher
performance, lower operating costs, etc., doesn't mean that it actually
provides these benefits. Filtration is one area where I leave the expensive
experimentation to the manufacturer and defer to their recommendations
(IOW, I buy OE filtration parts). Filtration is too important to leave to a
relatively unknown third party who won't be materially damaged by system
failure.

Audi is certainly interested in helping us get 100K, 200K + miles out of
our engines. Does Fram have similar motivations? Nope. If your engine fails
at 50K, who takes the hit? Fram? Nope. Audi? Yep.

I'll stick with OE, thank you. 

And I'll bet that while you may be able to find legitimate performance
enhancing techniques if you look *really* hard, most of your gains will
cost real $$$ and may reduce longevity.

(speaking strictly as a marketing guy <g> )

YMMV,

Lee
Lee Levitt, mailto:wheelman@shore.net
Director, Business Development, Software.com - http://www.Software.com
webmaster, NeedhamOnline - http://www.NeedhamOnline.com
and Bicycle Classics, Inc. - http://www.BicycleClassics.com
1990 Audi 200T, 75K
1995 Range Rover County LWB, 45K, member Bay State Rovers
1987 Wicked Fat Chance, 1981 Condor