So, I got a chance to do some more tinkering over the holidays and today I decided that I wanted to make a CAI for my car.
Now, let me get this out of the way: "blah blah blah stock Audi airbox is magic blah blah blah, millions of dollars and hundreds of engineers, blah blah blah your car will explode and kittens will die..."
I know all about the dogma surrounding the stock airbox and I don't buy it. I've proven that a properly built CAI on a 1.8t works better than the stock airbox and I have no reason to believe that the 3.0 is any different.
Here's the simple facts behind the design of the stock airbox. All the money and man-hours spent designing that airbox has resulted in the best possible design within the parameters and constraints that Audi imposed on them. Factors like space, noise, cost, etc... drive the design, not optimal performance.
Now, the stock airbox has a few good design features. Namely, isolation from the engine heat and airflow from behind the leading edge of the hood (albeit 4-5 inches and behind a radiator). So I designed some heat shielding as well as keeping the intake duct. My reasoning is that the air blowing through it and onto the filter would displace any hot air that might get past the heat shielding. As well, I made sure to leave a good 6 inches of straight piping in front of the MAF sensor to ensure that I'm getting accurate readings.
I was quite happy with the end result. My driving impressions are that it makes noticibly more torque from 2500-4000 RPM. Didn't notice much on the top end, but I would take the extra torque any day. It's super useful in day to day driving.
So, my verdict is: do it, you'll be glad you did
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