Why upgrade to RS2 airbox and IC?

[tobodestroyer]

Hi,

It's been suggested that an ABY S2 will benefit from from an RS2 airbox and IC. Really? What's the huge improvement and is it worth the financial cost?

[Acidburn]

Airbox will flow better and help the engine breath

Intercooler will keep temps down

Have a look at andy_casey's threads for some of his mods.

[s2driveruk]

and liberates a mighty.........3bhp LOL

[tobodestroyer]

and liberates a mighty.........3bhp LOL

That's what I suspected. I'll leave it as standard S2 then. What difference do RS2 ARB's make? Again, is it worth the hassle and financial cost?

[pixsaudisex2]

You can always go the route of making the inlet hole on your s2 air box bigger its what i have done and it works well, although it does not improve your intercooler.
There is a few posts on here about it im sure.

[Acidburn]

Yeah same as what andy did with his airbox

Rs2 farb is a good mod but ideally needs to be done with a rear one to get the most, prices have been going up for the front anti roll bar tho.

[Jamo]

Why are you think in terms of BHP?

Drive a car with the RS2 airbox and then compare the same car without and tell me there isn't a difference in performance!

[spink]

Very true Jamo,ive just put one one mine and its definetely worth doing.

[s2driveruk]

there might be a difference but does it equate to effectively £175 p/bhp ????

I reckon you could spend £500 much more effectively on getting a better car overall IMO. Do you have a remap? proper brakes? refreshed suspension? Could always go down the road of getting an aquamist to get better performance and control the charge temperature that way..?

[A80Avant]

doing a remap then it is most likely that an intercooler and the airbox will make a big difference.

[Rusty]

Assuming you have a reasonable exhaust in place and are purely after power:-

1. Cut a larger hole in the airbox (or the front off like I have)
2. Leave the standard IC in place (possibly change your headlight washers to spray onto it)
3. Get a small hybrid turbo for about £600
4. Get a custom remap for £500

You'll have a LOT more power, torque and performance (330 of each) than putting RS2 stuff on a standard car. (Airbox £175, IC & XM £350, 300 max). Small hybrid will not worry the injectors, IC or piping, lag will be minimal and you'll have more at the top if you choose the turbo right and have it mapped correctly.

RS2 IC is a future-proofing thing, Ross prooved it's good for 430bhp. RS2 airbox is only worth it if you want the car to look factory fresh IMO. I'm keeping the remapped k24 as I'm stubborn and it's cheap as you don't have to play with the bottom end. When I'm ready I have everything in place for 400bhp+ on a GT3071 / MD357 whatever. If that's wat you want long term then perhaps a bit of money wasted now is a good investment...

Just my 2p (from experience!)

[Matt_D]

Why do people always think of bhp gains and forget about torque ?

Torque is your accleration force!

I'll be fitting my RS2 airbox, maf and IC this weekend so i'll let you know my thoughts

[S2central.net]

I think some people are over-simplifying this... Its just not right to say the addition of the RS2 IC on Andy's car was only 3bhp. As Matt says that doesn't quantify a torque benefit (if there was one - I cant remember).

Nor did Andy have before/after air temps with the RS2 IC for us to think about (AFAIK - I might have missed that).

The biggest thing to remember about the ABY ECU is that its boost profile is partially determine by IAT as it tries to level the performance out... So that you don't have a screamer in the Winter and a dog in the Summertime. I kept that character in the homefries just as Audi intended so I'm reasonably confident that the potential gain with an RS2 IC is better than what it appears.

When I fit my RS2 IC (yes I have one stashed away) there will be before / after IAT runs with VAGCOM so we can really quantify its benefit over the stock item with same K24 turbo etc etc... Then I'll look at revisiting the chips to remove the strange temperature compensation so that it can run higher boost when the air is colder.

In summary - I could be wrong here as I don't have all the info - but I think Andy saw that 3bhp improvement because air was a little colder, but he might have got that result running slightly less boost as a result of slightly colder air.

Paul

[S2central.net]

Oh and for what its worth - I think the RS2 airbox is a no-brainer, sure its expensive but Porsche didn't redesign it for fun - it is fundamentally better in that it flows more air than the 3B or ABY one. IIRC, Andy modded his own airbox in the style of the RS2 one... I bet if he dyno'd again with a stock airbox you would see less ooomf.

And yes - torque is where its at for me too - I'd rather have 500Nm from 2k-6k than 500bhp at the redline - unless the same engine is doing that of course

Paul

[S2central.net]

Why do people always think of bhp gains and forget about torque ?

Torque is your accleration force!

I'll be fitting my RS2 airbox, maf and IC this weekend so i'll let you know my thoughts

Do us a favour - get some VAGCOM acceleration runs before and after if you can - say from 30-70 (ish), WOT in 6th...

And do the RS2 IC last - I'd like to see three sets of results...

1 - Stock engine with homefries
2 - RS2 airbox (doesn't matter so much about MAF but hey)
3 - RS2 IC

try to do it on same stretch of road, a few times to average out and make sure the car is properly warmed up but isn't heat-soaked on any run.

Logging IAT is crucial here - I should have old logs myself - aint done it in ages but happy to do so for comparative purps....