C6 S6 V10 MSDS intake filters - do you have them?

[DaveLinger]

Hi everyone!

A few weeks ago I picked up a 2008 Audi S6 V10. It's been great, and I've been going over all of the little maintenance items that haven't been kept up with by the previous owner.

I pulled the intake air filters and they were by far the worst I've ever seen on any car - completely plugged. They likely have never been changed in the car's 125,000 mile life thus far.

No local stores had any paper filters in stock (obviously), and I saw that K&N offers replacement cotton gauze filters for the S6, obviously the same size and shape as OEM - with a flat rubber cap across the end.

But it seemed like everyone was going for MSDS intake air filters. I looked into it, and the one picture I could find of the filters actually INSTALLED seemed to show a slightly tapered cylinder-shaped filter with an internal cone in the end cap, as opposed to the flat rubber cap on the OE and K&N filters. This made perfect sense to me - it's the only way to guarantee more flow! Replace the flat end cap with more filter surface area.

I called MSDS and ordered the filters, which ran DOUBLE the cost of the K&Ns, but I convinced myself it's worth it to have "the best".

Well, they came in today, and have the flat, rubber cap on the end - no internal cone in the end. So they're ultimately (as far as I can tell) identical to the (half price) K&N filters, except SLIGHTLY tapered into a cone shape.

Am I mistaken, or did these filters use to have an internal cone in the end for enhanced flow? Am I wrong to think that these may not be worth any more than the K&Ns without that feature?

Here's the only picture I can find of someone else's MSDS filters: http://www.audiworld.com/forums/atta...1&d=1238800274

You can see it has a CHROME end cap, and appears to have an internal cone, like the other filters pictured on MSDS's site.

[430hps4]

Just food for thought... here's some steps I took to make a custom intake setup for my Touareg...

http://www.clubtouareg.com/forums/#/.../219194?page=1


I bet if you take some measurements of your OEM hoses from your throttle bodies to the MAFs, and from the MAFs to your filters, you could probably put something together pretty cheap.

[DaveLinger]

Just food for thought... here's some steps I took to make a custom intake setup for my Touareg...

http://www.clubtouareg.com/forums/#/.../219194?page=1


I bet if you take some measurements of your OEM hoses from your throttle bodies to the MAFs, and from the MAFs to your filters, you could probably put something together pretty cheap.

Yeah, unfortunately, the V10 in the S6 is very very tight on space - there's not much I can do other than just removing the airboxes and putting larger cone filters in their place - but then I'd be losing some of the "cold air" benefit of the OEM ducting from the front bumper, and sucking in more hot air from the engine bay. As much as I want to increase flow, I do think that keeping the air as cool as possible is even more important on the 5.2, which already runs hot and is very susceptible to heat soak.

[430hps4]

Check your frame rail on both sides. Seems like you may be able to fab up some heatshields, similar to what I did with the Touareg, and separate the engine from the fender well. Then you can shove the filter into the fender well, and get all your fresh air from there.