What to block ABF airbox hot air inlet with?

As the title says. I need to block the hot air inlet on the lower half of the airbox. Has anybody found anything suitably sized that makes the procedure a doddle?

 

get some 50mm hose and run it down to the front of the car

 

et voila

 

what benefit does this have?

 

I used an alloy wheel badge, forced it on

 

It`ll stop the engine sucking in hot air from the engine bay.

As you may (or not) know, hot air is bad, from a performance point of view, due to it being less dense for a given volume, than cold air.

The solution is, rather than block it completely, and as already mentioned, is to turn it into a cold air feed.

Cold air = higher density for same volume = more power (relatively)

 

so hence, the 50mm pipe going to the front of the car, like mine, is the better option

 

Is there not some sort of thermostatic control system on an ABF's airbox, gating the flow from this warm-air inlet?

If there is, and you block off that inlet, and the thermostatic gating doesn't know about this, don't you end up worse off?


Just wondering.

 

there is a temperature thing going on in there, but i think it only came into use at stupidly low temp (-20*C rings a bell)

mine has not had a warm air intake for the last 2 years, not a problem at all

 

What year's your ABF Matt? One could look up the part number of the thermostat on vagcat and see if it's the same as in a MK2, which I'd strongly suspect. In which case +20C is what it tries to achieve.

Of course you could disconnect this widget, and remove whatever air-diverter thing might live in the bottom half of the airbox. Otherwise you may find that you're only pulling air from the (ex) warm air feed most of the time....

 

mine is a 95.

see, my widget never actually actuated at all. when i first got the car i couldnt work out what it was for so a few times i ran the engine, hot cold whatever to see when this flap opened. it never did

my warm air feed pokes out where the fog light is, has done so for ages. my intake temps are hardly above ambient, it works great.

when im out there next ill try n get the part number

 

Same thermostat as in a MK2 then, 035 129 630B.

Take a piccy of the airflap set-up in the airbox, if you feel in the mood to educate me/us about the arrangement.

 

i dont have one, it went awol years ago. the warm air hole now has a long 50mm hose on it and that goes to the front bumper.

my thermostat must have been broken. the flap never moved at all

 

'Ring whore!

Anyway, thats a nice colour Matt, what is it?

I have foggies and I'm not sure if there is space behind the middle blanks.

 

pretty much the most common mk3 colour. mystic blue

yours is a good colour cos every other bugger doesnt have that colour

 

I have to admit that I was after a Dragon Green number but when I seen the Fjord Blue I had to have it. It might be a nice colour but it's a ****e tryin to get my hands on CL colour coded bumpers! [:^(]

 

i took all the valve out and blanked off the hole the valve left with a bit of sheet plastic, and blanked the hot air feed off with an approproately size plumbing fitting, think it was a PVC end cap for waste pipe. The valve body could restrict flow from the cold air feed as its quite a lump in the way.

then i made the normal cold air feed bigger so all the air goes in the same way.

 

Looks like a good approach lufbramatt, but what colour is the car? Seems to be a crucial factor.

 

L041 schwartz black innit

HTH

 

i heard that colour gives you better mid range urge for safer over taking?

i couldnt enlarge the original pipe on mine, too close to the headlight