Installing an aftermarket cold-air intake in your car is a great way to get some cheap horsepower, while adding a bit of performance styling to your engine bay. — The GTI's 2.8L VR6 engine is a fairly easy install for an intake, and took me about 3 or 4 hours.
Express walkthrough:
- Remove battery.
- Remove factory air intake system. (ducting and airbox)
- Carefully raise car with a jack.
- Attach new cold-air intake to engine intake, and secure piping with bolts from above and below.
- Install air-filter at the bottom, and reinstall battery.
- Rev the engine! Feel it breathe.
I did have a weird issue due to a bad grounding-point below the car's battery that caused the windshield wipers and blinkers to turn on briefly at random, but I took care of that this morning. (So, it turned into a bit of a two-day project from that.) 😅
The new system is, essentially, a larger cold-air intake than the stock one… sourcing air with a filter positioned below the headlight and behind a bumper grille, instead of from a duct located behind the headlight.
The only real disadvantage to this setup is that, if you submerge the filter in water accidentally, you're at a high-risk of hydrolocking the engine! — So, be careful out there. 🌊