DIY: CARBONIO 2.0 + Heatshield + Silicone Intake Pipe

[DownUnderSLine]

My objective for this project was simple: Build the best CAI for this car that I could for as little cost as possible !

Now, before I get started, I would recommend anyone that wants to further discuss/debate the technical aspects of cold air intakes does so in the excellent thread started by Keith of APR:
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=257109
Please take the time to read Keith's thread before starting another Carbonio/Cold Air debate here....

OK, firstly the Carbonio CAI:

I did all my research on the Carbonio, read all the conflicting opinions, online debates etc. Given it's cost, it appears to have it's share of fitment issues but I was confident that they could be sorted out with a little TLC & DIY know how.

Did I go out and buy a new one ? NO WAY !! In Australia, a new Carbonio CAI costs the equivalent of about $460 USD I watched ebay for ages and scored an as new Carbonio setup out of Cananda for a very nice price.

As I had read, the fitment of the Carbonio is poor. Not much lined up as it should and a lot of twisting and pushing was needed to get the 3 pieces even close to coming together.

Once in place I wasn't over impressed with a size and quantity of gaps around the inner body work and the edges of the Carbonio air box. Gaps that would invite hot engine bay air to be drawn in to the filter:







I set out to close these gaps. On the front side of the airbox there is a gap left from the metal tab that is pressed out to locate the Pipercross filter.
I cut a small piece of scrap alloy angle bracket to fill this one:







Next, the side piece of the air box need some work in order to get the Carbon Fiber lid to fit properly (approx 6mm recess cut out):





Even with this, all 3 holes in the CF lid needed to be slotted to get the fitment correct:





Now after about the 5th test fit, I noticed that the side piece has about 60mm of completely redundant material on the lower end that bolts to the chasis rail. While it was on the bench and I had the jigsaw out, I removed this excess. It made fitment and removal a little easier !





For the rest of the gaps around the airbox edges, I used generic automotive boot rubber.
This was easily cut and applied to the airbox edges:







The Carbonio airbox now sits snugly in the corner of the engine bay and lines up perfectly with the OEM cold air intake duct:

[DownUnderSLine]

Next on the agenda was the Heat Shield:

With the turbo & catalytic converter so close to the air box, I wanted to make a more effective heat shield that would also close off the large air gaps at the rear of the Carbonio side panel.

This is the material I used: http://www.aclperformance.com.au/prod_heatshield.htm

It's a nice material to work with, easy to bend & curve to the desired shape. Pictures are self-explanatory to the fitment:

[DownUnderSLine]

Silicone Intake Pipe was next !

No doubt inspired by the GSG Intake pipe discussions and the various other DIY jobs that others have posted.

Firstly, the OEM intake pipe for reference purposes:




I took a slightly different approach to the other intakes I've seen to date. In my opinion, an alloy pipe with short couplings is not suitable for a Carbonio or OEM airbox fitment as the AFM housing is in a fixed location. The intake pipe, like the OEM part, needs to be flexible. I set out to make a cost effective ALL silicone intake pipe out of 2 silicone elbows. I picked up the following parts from the discount bin at a local auto part shop.
Total cost of parts was ~$40 USD !




To work out the fitment, I basically trimmed a small amount at a time, test fitted, cut again, test fit, cut again, test fit, etc... Here is a useful link on trimming silicone joints:
http://www.siliconeintakes.com/stpg....ddc08a3401bccd

One method I found effective is that instead of using tape, attach a hose clamp to the position you want to make the cut. Tighten the hose clamp lightly and then cut along the edge of the clamp as a guide. Ensure your knife is new - the sharper the better and less effort required. (and therefore less likely to cut yourself !)

After many trims and test fits, I concluded that a 45deg bend off the turbo flange just wasn't going to do the job !

The angle needed to be more so it was back to the store to buy a 90deg 2.5" elbow. Only downer is that it's a different brand and a different shade of blue !





The angle needed at the turbo inlet was more like 80-85degs so I angle cut the 90deg elbow at the turbo end.
This allowed the joint to sit up a tad such that everything lined up perfectly:











While I was at it, I took to the ends of the alloy coupler with a carbide burr in die grinder



5 minutes later:




One final tip/observation, T-Clamps are completely unnecessary for this application. In fact, they won't actually fit correctly on the AFM housing and Turbo inlet:




The width of clamp area on the AFM and turbo inlet are only just wide enough for the traditional hose clamps.
T-Clamps are too wide and will actually sit OVER the flange bead rather than behind the bead. Not ideal.

I hope this has helped others with their planned DIY projects. Cheers !

[p1nk50ck]

nice writeup. the carbonio really does look good in the engine bay.

silicone intake pics?

[JRMSLINEA4]

nice writeup. the carbonio really does look good in the engine bay.

silicone intake pics?

+1 but the silicone parts are just for show. No gain in h.p. over the factory elbow but it does look better.

[Quattro]

great DIY, looks like A LOT of work went into making the intake fit and the silicone pipes fit as well. This guide is not for the faint of heart!

How do you like it so far? Was it worth it?

[audidrver]

very impressed. Looks very clean too.

[7speed]

hey man very nice work, looks like fun

[RedS-line]

bravo. informative and brilliant. thank you for a beneficial thread.

[P3RryaudiA4]

nive work man, you got talent bro...

[evilgabbie]

looks amazing, but too much work for me... too scared to start trimming the metal and carbon top

[CZA420tAvant]

I like that intake pipe. Great write up.

[agkellyboy]

Fantastic write up, might start looking for a Carbonio now!

[juggernaut201]

wow good write up bro lol u beat me 2 it i finished mine today for anyone intrested siliconeintakes.com has everything you need for this and it works perfect did it today all i used was the 3 inch pipe 45 degree angle ... 3 inch jointer ... 90 degree coupler 3 inch to 2.5 i trimed the one hose a little bit but it was realllly simple i used tbolt clamps tho but it worked fine for me lol .... but great write up and i think its def worth it looks so much better i bout all my stuff for 60 ... cant go wrong

[LampyB]

looks very good, nice work man...doesn't look like it was easy. my only complaint is the number of clamps in the final product, just many additional areas that can potentially leak air.

[Dangler]

Great Job Terry!!! Intake looks great. I'm going to go back and mod the carbonio i have now, to get a better fitment and seal.

Awesome!!!

[juggernaut201]

looks very good, nice work man...doesn't look like it was easy. my only complaint is the number of clamps in the final product, just many additional areas that can potentially leak air.

it was insanely easy .... and as for the clamps its just because of the jointer so if you think aboyt it its like a solid pipe n e way

[dj_dub]

Great job! ...makes me wanna change my intake pipe now too!

[wayneB7]

Love the excellent write-up by DownUnderSLine, especially the excellent photgraphs and mark-ups. Great job!

Personally, I would not bother with the extra relatively miniscule gains that might be had from the silicone intake pipe. I am not into showing the car to the extent that this pipe, mostly obscured by the system intake from the grille, needs to be changed unless there is something wrong with the OEM ribbed pipe.

OTOH, the sealing of the gaps and the new heat shield aspect is great work and something I would be very interested in doing. Now I just have to find a Carbonio for a price I am willing to pay.

Side note -- my K&N Filtercharge filter is quite nice so far. Reduces lag at takeoff (slightly) and the engine is a little more lively, even on standard (not sport) shift mode, playing around under 4000 rpm. To me it is worth the $46 I spent. Carbonio will follow chipping, unless someone "gives it away".

[Great White]

Great job man

[TX-A4]

These are the best write-ups; no need to read, just look at the pics .

[cab7a4]

very very clean!!!gotta get rid of my evoms

[Grassmonkey]

I liked what you did!!!

[DownUnderSLine]

Thanks everyone for all the positive feedback !

It did take some time to do all this but I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT !

Not hard at all - just a lot of time spent test fitting, thinking, trimming, test-fitting, trimming etc. About a 12 beer exercise over a couple of weekends.

I've been tinkering with cars and bike for over 25 years and have a nice collection of tools & equipment down in the garage. I get a lot of satisfaction out of working with what I've got and making something better for minimal outlay. Doing It Yourself is what car tuning/mod'ing is all about in my books - a lot more fun than handing over my hard earned to someone else....

[DownUnderSLine]

The silicone intake I did last and was mainly done out of interest & curiosity following the numerous discussions around the GSG intake product.

It only cost me ~$40 USD to gather the needed parts.

Did it make a difference over the OEM pipe ? Not that I can tell from the butt-dyno. Possibly a minor improvement in low end throttle response but that could just be the sound effects foolin' me.

The Carbonio, (as well documented), provides a huge increase in induction and DV noise. The sound has changed slightly again with the addition of the silicone intake.

One thing I plan to do in the near future is capture some temperature data. I have a dual input K-Type thermocouple meter - it doesn't do logging but it will show real time delta between the two probes. It won't be hard to gather some intake air temp vs engine bay temp vs ambient air temp.

[autoverruckt]

thanks for the time and effort put into the write up!

[wayneB7]

It won't be hard to gather some intake air temp vs engine bay temp vs ambient air temp.

Now that I want to see! Thanks again for this great effort.

[G-Ride]

Was talking to my mechanic yesterday about the carbonio on my car as i think it pretty much sucks. I think ill be closing it up as you have with the help of this DIY ...

If you want the carbonio to work even more efficiently, grab a V6 intake snorkle instead of the 1.8. Has a much larger throat on the inlet and is able to ram a much larger volume of air. Cost for the OE part is about 40-50 bucks. He mentioned it does rub slightly on the plastic engine cover which isnt really a big deal. I dont know why they dont pair them up with the intake to begin with!?

Cheers

[kitae80325]

my carbonio doesn't have carbonio logo on the top? whts up wit dat?
does anybody else have the samething??

[eskimopunk]

Was talking to my mechanic yesterday about the carbonio on my car as i think it pretty much sucks. I think ill be closing it up as you have with the help of this DIY ...

If you want the carbonio to work even more efficiently, grab a V6 intake snorkle instead of the 1.8. Has a much larger throat on the inlet and is able to ram a much larger volume of air. Cost for the OE part is about 40-50 bucks. He mentioned it does rub slightly on the plastic engine cover which isnt really a big deal. I dont know why they dont pair them up with the intake to begin with!?

Cheers

can you use that with the rest of the snorkel for the 2.0T??

[G-Ride]

my carbonio doesn't have carbonio logo on the top? whts up wit dat?
does anybody else have the samething??

It's just a decal anyway. Dont stress.

[G-Ride]

Maybe look at the V6 3.2lt B7 snorkle. Id imagine it'd be the same airbox design and would fit correctly?

[dlcarreon]

FYI, by looking at the intake pipe, it looks good but with the metal fitting inside, it actually slows down the air flow... intake pipe should be continious flow. just an FYI

[bmc333]

FYI, by looking at the intake pipe, it looks good but with the metal fitting inside, it actually slows down the air flow... intake pipe should be continious flow. just an FYI

Exactly - that's why the stock intake pipe is one piece. But as he said - no HP gains were expected. Hopefully he didn't lose anything either...

[JHaag13]

I tried that alcperformance please to get some of that material and they dont distribute to the U.S. I tried to get my shop to get it for me and they couldn't. Guessing they distribute to Austrailia?

[Sanjman]

Hey who wants a test pipe for 15 bucks???

http://www.siliconeintakes.com/alumi...ipe-p-286.html