K&N induction kit.

[Ninja]

A quick question. I'm curious about buying a K&N induction kit for my 8V MK2, but have heard it can mess with the air flow meter? Is it a simple job to fit one, and have it running trouble free from the moment I fit it?

[Dalo Harkin]

Induction kits are one of the easiest mods - if you are bothered about it messing with the air flow meter then get a filter that does not require oiling.

[tisme]

I had one on mine (8v 1990 GTI) no problems with the air flow meter at all, gave a little bit of increased power, I just liked the noise tho when I planted my right foot  you can get the same noise by drilling the air box, but I kept mine in shed for when I sold it or to return it to stock, I liked it some people hate them, but heyho I do  as I please. 

[ianw3321]

The airflow meter does what it says it measures the volume of air being consumed by the engine and tells the ecu to supply appropriate amounts of fuel. With a k&n the airflow meter will sense increased airflow notify the ecu which provides more fuel and hence more power.

[autoelec]

K&N air filters do not improve performance at all, there have been numerous tests on dynos on a wide varity of cars and all of them failed to produce any increase and in fact on some cars there was a decrease in performance.

I know this will dissapoint and there will be a few that will disagree, but the facts speak for themselves.

There is no evidence independant of the manufacturers or their agents of any increase in performance using these and other "free flow" air filters and I personally see plenty of cars that have had there performance decreased by this type of filter.

Ask anyone on the forum that has a vag com to record the live data of their maf sensor at full throttle at 3000 rpm with the standard setup and with a "performance filter" and you can see the results for yourselves.

They do damage maf sensors on a regular basis and certainily reduce the accuaracy of maf readings.
Eric

[Agreeable Slick]

MK2's don't have a vagcom port.

Otherwise, the result is as said negligable, throttle response can be slightly improved, improvement to power, is at best, going to increase by 2-3hp.

[autoelec]

Sorry, you are mistaken, Mk2 from 1991 model year do have a diagnostic port that can be accessed with vagcom, I did one only yesterday.

Can you provide any independant evidence of your claim of any increase at all? If so can you post it so we can all see it?

Eric

[Agreeable Slick]

Well 91/92 is the cross over for mk2's and 3's so would be a rare occurance of a vagcom port on it.

Independent? Not personally, but there are plenty on this site, that have replaced the standard filter with a K&N panel ( i perhaps didn't make that clear ) and there are marginal gains to be had.

[Horney]

K&N air filters do not improve performance at all, there have been numerous tests on dynos on a wide varity of cars and all of them failed to produce any increase and in fact on some cars there was a decrease in performance.

I know this will dissapoint and there will be a few that will disagree, but the facts speak for themselves.

There is no evidence independant of the manufacturers or their agents of any increase in performance using these and other "free flow" air filters and I personally see plenty of cars that have had there performance decreased by this type of filter.

Ask anyone on the forum that has a vag com to record the live data of their maf sensor at full throttle at 3000 rpm with the standard setup and with a "performance filter" and you can see the results for yourselves.

They do damage maf sensors on a regular basis and certainily reduce the accuaracy of maf readings.
Eric

Not entirely true. Although a little out of place on a dub forum it's well documented K&N pancake filters on SU Carbs on minis do produce a noticeable gain. Pick up a copy of David Vizzards "How to tne the A series" from haynes. Pretty sure this has some dyno read outs in which back this up.

As with all these things though applications vary and the same results cannot be expected across all vehicle applications. I've run a cone filter on a Digi 8v and noticed a slight improvement in throttle response. I've run my other 3 with a drilled and flowed airbox with a decent gauze panel filter (often K&N) and found this to be better than the cone filters.

I'm afraid that being an IT geek I don't own my old rolling road to be able to give you any concrete proof but my arse dyno tells me the above on MKII's is correct, well at least for 8v's.

Nick

[autoelec]

Sorry mate , but you made 2 claims in your post both of which are wrong.

I stand by my statement unless I am proven wrong.

K&N themselves have not been able to provide any independant evidence to support their claims, some mags have done propper tests, the last one being PPC, they found no increase and some decreases in power in their dyno tests on a number of cars.

Eric