golf mk3 1.4 air box question..............

[El_Presidente]

i have a mk3 1.4 petrol, i took my air box off to fit an induction kit, i have done this on sevral cars no worries. however, when i opened the air box there was a flap and 2 intake pipes, one standard going to the front to draw cold air and then another which appears to connect to a hose drawing hot air from the exhaust manifold, i have not encountered this before and wondered why it was like this, when i start the car the flap closes of the cold feed and and seems to draw the hot air in instead. i have left the bottom half of the air box on and fitted the new filter with no performance issues, so long story short what is the purpose of it?

[AudiA8Quattro]

To prevent fuel icing when the inlet temperature gets too low.

[El_Presidente]

ok thanks, do you think it would be wiser to go for a k&n panel filter instead then or something similar? will i get problems in the colder months?

[AudiA8Quattro]

I would leave it standard, there's not alot of point with 1.4.
Enjoy the fuel consumption 

[Mikester]

same on the engine on my gfs polo.

Held together with duck tape, would just leave it as it is. And fit a new filter.

[El_Presidente]

lol thanks for the advice, ill probably look at a k&n panel filter, i know there is no real performance benefit, i just wanted a gruntier sound.

[g40jon]

if your desperate for an induction kit, go to a scrappy and find a golf 1.8 spi or passat 1.8spi, they use a very similar throttle body, they have a slightly different airbox configuration which will bolt straight on and allow fitment of a cone filter.  A lot of polo owners fit them.
you could also fit the throttlebody to give the car a bit more go, but it does require a little tinkering to get it to run right

heres a pic of what the air filter arangement should look like, note the round air box is replaced with a setup that looks more like the type used on mpi vws

[El_Presidente]

hey thanks for the info, i already took the filter off and put the standard air box back on as it was crap lol, i have ordered a k&n panel filter to see what that will do, as for swapping the throttle body and air box, my throttle body already looks like the one in the picture its just the airbox that is slightly different, instead of the intake from the exhaust manifold going to the front as you have it pictured it goes to the back but its still square shape and not the early round one. would it still be of benifit getting the 1.8 throttle body with this being the case? thanks

[Rmachines]

Its not just a throttle body, thats the whole fuel injection unit,  the 1.8L SPI unit wont work, or it it does.. it really wont like it one bit, diffrent size throttle bodys will cause it to run like crap as the injector is made to work along side that, unlike multi point. 

You can safely remove that warm air feed, i always take them off.  in this climate it makes no diffrence,  on a cold morning it will warm up the air a bit to help it run and not be lumpy but its just not needed,  you can rip it all off to just the intake pipe and put a K&N on it, although that will make no difference to the performance, and like most people will tell you, it will suck hot air from the engine which ultimatly will make it slower.   So the pannel filter is usually the best option, providing you arnt looking for that deep intake noise as the air box silences it...  but saying that, the 1.4 doesnt really make any noise even with a K&N filter so... you have gone for the best option really.   

[Rmachines]

Actually i stand corrected with the 1.8 SPI unit, the ABD engine liek yours should work ok with the AAM 1.8L engine (75bhp) but not the 90BHP engine, either would work but the 90bhp one causes it to be lumpy.