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Mishimoto’s MK7 GTI Intake Development

Mishimoto1

Ready to race!
Location
DE
2015+ GTI Induction, Part 1: The MK7’s Stock Intake



We’ve got hot hatch fever! One of the newest vehicles to grace our garage, which happens to be our 3rd hatch for intake development, is the new 2015 VW GTI. Although Volkswagen was far from the first company with a hot hatch in its lineup, it was one of the first companies to really push the popularity of the design. VW is synonymous with the term “hot hatch” to most automotive enthusiasts. With the emergence of VW’s newest GTI, it’s time for us at Mishimoto to design our own intake for this turbocharged 2.0L engine.


Our GTI upon arrival!


Goals
Newer GTIs can either come with or without a Secondary Air Injection (SAI) pipe. Basically, this is a system that forces more air into the exhaust during start up and acceleration, which creates a richer air-fuel mixture. With more air going into the exhaust, the byproduct is less concentrated, and this is generally good for the catalytic converter. For this MK7, we will have two systems – one for SAI cars, which will include a breather filter, and one for non-SAIs.

Our air box will have to be a fully enclosed piece that makes use of VW’s efficient fresh air duct. This duct is located behind the front grill and dumps directly into the stock box, so it’s beneficial to utilize this feature in our design.

This design will have a one-piece aluminum tube running from the air box all the way to the turbo. The tube will measure a full three inches in diameter the entire length, ensuring a high amount of airflow. Sizing is also important because this MK7 does not include a MAF , which puts less restriction on the overall design of the intake tube and will make power gains safe on a stock tune.

Stock Intake System


Stock MK7 GTI intake


Stock MK7 GTI intake

The stock intake system on these hatches is not that complex, especially because VW is not using a MAF on the intake. The routing of the battery cable is an interesting aspect of this design. As you can see above, part of it is underneath a section of the box and then attached to its terminal box.


Stock MK7 GTI intake SAI connection


Disassembly of the MK7 GTI intake system


Air filter coming out of the stock MK7 GTI intake


Empty MK7 GTI parts


Turbo inlet, if you look close you can see a piece of the turbo!

Now that we have the intake removed, we can take a good look and understand how Volkswagen designed these MK7 GTI parts. Here you can see how the fresh air duct is directed into the box from the front grill.


Stock MK7 GTI parts inspection


Stock MK7 GTI parts inspection

If you look closely, you can see a small tube attached to the bottom of the box, underneath the slope on the right side . This drains any moisture that can finds its way into the box. We all know water is the last thing we want in an intake box.


Stock MK7 GTI parts inspection

Take a look at the accordion style tubing for the turbo piece. A lot of stock intake systems use this design to dampen the torqueing the engine gives under acceleration. This releases the stress put on the tube and allows it to flex with the engine.


Factory turbo outlet tube

Here are some other shots of the front grill showing the direction of the inlet duct that attaches to the air box.


Factory air scoop inlet


Another shot of the factory inlet

And here is a shot of the stock system completely removed!


Everything removed

Coming Up

We have some interesting stuff in store for this hatch. The next step is to get a working prototype ready to show everyone. Keep your eyes peeled for our next post!

Cheers!
 
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BravoMike

Go Kart Champion
Location
Indianapolis
Looking foreward to seeing what you guys come up with!

Also, do you have a bolt on oil cooler in production for the MK7?
 

BravoMike

Go Kart Champion
Location
Indianapolis
Why chose a rigid aluminum intake tube that will heat soak in the engine bay over a flexible, heat-resistant tube like a Samco?

Why would aluminum heat soak? I though aluminum transfers heat quite well. There are heat sinks made of aluminum. In fact, you can grab aluminum right out of a hot oven without getting burned.
 

Universal_Remonster

Ready to race!
Location
USA
Why would aluminum heat soak? I though aluminum transfers heat quite well. There are heat sinks made of aluminum. In fact, you can grab aluminum right out of a hot oven without getting burned.

You just answered your own question. Aluminum transfers heat very well and the hot air trapped in the engine bay (remember that turbo back there?) will heat the aluminum very quickly. The only cooling air that will touch the aluminum is INSIDE the pipe and is the last air that you want to use to cool the pipe because you're preheating your intake air.
 

MK7Joe

Ready to race!
Location
WT
aluminum will cool fast, the big issue with heat soak isn't with the intake its the intercooler.
 

Universal_Remonster

Ready to race!
Location
USA
aluminum will cool fast, the big issue with heat soak isn't with the intake its the intercooler.

Read post #6. There's a reason why you want to draw the coldest air possible into the intake.

The intercooler is certainly more important but we're talking about intakes here.
 

MK7Joe

Ready to race!
Location
WT
your concerned about heat soak, your problem isn't with the intake. 95% of intakes are made of aluminum. other 5% are carbon fiber and guess what those heat soak too. if your wanting to keep power, get a bigger intercooler
 

Mishimoto1

Ready to race!
Location
DE
Great info, thanks

You're quite welcome, thanks for reading!

Looking foreward to seeing what you guys come up with!

Also, do you have a bolt on oil cooler in production for the MK7?

Awesome! Thanks for reading, updates coming soon!.
Unfortunately we currently do not have an oil cooler in production for this MK7, but let me mention it to one of my project managers!

Why chose a rigid aluminum intake tube that will heat soak in the engine bay over a flexible, heat-resistant tube like a Samco?

Thanks for the input! We have seen comparable IAT's to stock applications with our other metal designs, aluminum tends to handle the job quite well. So in this case, we expect to see minimal heat soaking effects, if any at all.
 

BravoMike

Go Kart Champion
Location
Indianapolis
You just answered your own question. Aluminum transfers heat very well and the hot air trapped in the engine bay (remember that turbo back there?) will heat the aluminum very quickly. The only cooling air that will touch the aluminum is INSIDE the pipe and is the last air that you want to use to cool the pipe because you're preheating your intake air.

Hmmm... You might be right here. I was thinking of an article I read about intercoolers, but that is a different story since the heat dissipation goes from inside the pipe to outside. In this case the "fresh/cool" air would be inside the pipe. Although, i would be curious how measurable of a difference there would be. Shouldn't be too hard to measure the difference between the two.
 

Universal_Remonster

Ready to race!
Location
USA
Hmmm... You might be right here. I was thinking of an article I read about intercoolers, but that is a different story since the heat dissipation goes from inside the pipe to outside. In this case the "fresh/cool" air would be inside the pipe. Although, i would be curious how measurable of a difference there would be. Shouldn't be too hard to measure the difference between the two.

Correct. The only airflow around the intake pipe is occurring INSIDE the pipe and it's the cool incoming air that's cooling the pipe from the inside out. How much of a difference it makes, I'm not sure.

What I do know is that anyone claiming that 95% of CAIs for the MK7 use aluminum intake pipes and the remaining 5% use carbon fiber is 100% wrong. VWR, Forge, APR, AWE, USP, Spulen, Unitronic, Roc-Euro, MST, ARMA and many more do NOT use aluminum intake tubes, FWIW.
 
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