So I installed the K&N Typhoon, and it was a very straight forward install with minor surprises. I will post up detailed pictures of the install sometime soon when I have more time. But all in all, it turned out great. The fitment and construction of the unit are excellent! It's a very nice piece and was a great choice for what I was looking to accomplish. I have recently ditched the idea of the turbo inlet hose due to some of the installation directions. They appear to require cutting the factory unit and then rerouting things. I'm not too fond of that considering the potentially small gains to be had.
After installing the K&N, I reverted back from my 233/334 custom map to the stock mapping in order to prevent any problems. Are there gains? Absolutely. But those gains are felt in the mid-range to upper mid-range... On the stock mapping the turbos exhaustion at high revs is more apparent than on my customer tune. But also note that, as expected, power did drop off quite significantly in the lower end of the spectrum. Lugging the car around at low revs then wanting to spring into action doesn't feel as immediate as before. It feels heavier at lower revs. Not by a huge amount, but it is noticeable. I have no major problem with this as the new tune will certainly take advantage of every last drop this intake has to offer, so I'm at peace with a slight loss of grunt down low.
The sound is pretty intoxicating. It sounds like you're in your own personal air craft
. If you have no music on, spool up begins as an wide-spread "shhhhhh" sound, but climbing in revs with load will narrow the sound to a focused and sharp "hissssss" as the turbo spools up quicker. Once off the throttle, the bypass valve is very noticeable with an easy-to-mimic "tishewwwww". It's kind of funny if you break it down... People will commonly call it a 'sneeze', but at least it's polite enough to ask for a "tisshhheewww". Get it? Tissue.
Some things to note about it's performance. The car has an easy time figuring out the AFRs and running properly when you're heavy on the throttle. It clings to 11.1 and won't let go. But there must be some reason the stock unit had an air straightener in the pipe. While the K&N has a built-in velocity stack, it will cause the car to stumble and figure it's timing out if you get on it after an initial light throttle. In other words, if you're cruising along say at 2500 rpm, and give the throttle a squeeze, it will need to sort itself out with a little lumpiness in power delivery. Now please note, I'm being really picky, it's not like something that's a disturbance or a massively upsetting feeling. It just doesn't feel as smooth as the custom map. And I can't quite speak for the car in stock form, as I don't remember it's build up of power too well. It could have had the same lumpiness in stock trim (I don't remember). But in the ECUs defense, I am running an Intake and Turboback on Stock parameters. That's never a good combination to run for a long period of time.
In short, the gains were a bit more than I expected from the intake. It certainly feels more robust and willing in the mid-range (compared to stock mapping) but that feeling could be amplified by the loss in power down low. But all in all, I am very satisfied with the intake and can't wait to see if the sound changes at all once the new turbo, tmic and bpv are installed next weekend. We are scheduled to drop the new parts in on Sunday the 11th, then get a new custom tune done on the 13th! Wish me luck in hitting 290+ whp
SOME PICTURES:
ENGINE BAY BEFORE K&N INSTALL
OEM RAM AIR INLET OUTLET WIDTH
OEM RAM AIR INLET OUTLET HEIGHT
OEM POST-MAF EXIT TUBE DIAMETER
OEM POST-MAF TUBE INTERNAL CORRUGATION DETAIL
Linear Mode
