Intake Manifold upgrade

Well Being as I'm just starting down the slippery slope of moddin' my 03 TDi golf I bought a new intake manifold and wanted some opinions on what every one thinks of my purchase.

The manifold is off a 89' or 90 (89 build year) Cabrio with digi I plan to install this intake along with a large FMIC later this year so I fiugred since I have my head off for some work I'd mock everything up and getting it setup for a direct drop in later on with no surprises.

First test fit and it looks really really good. I had to remove the top stud of the EGR, but since this manifold would require an EGR delete a short cap screw could be fit with removal of the large fin on this intakes back side

EGR boss clearance


Biggest issue with this manifold is how small the intake ports are. They are in a place that can be made to work on the TDI and it's almost a straight shot out of the runners down the intake port so it should flow some serious air. I'll have to weld some material in on the flage area of the manifold to give me enough material to have a flange left once this thing is hogged out to gasket size. I know there are a few manifolds like the G60 people like better, but this thing was CHEAP and fits pretty good right out of the box.
Ports:



and a look into the Plenum which looks to have some nice big rediuses on it for good flow.




My current plans are to get the manifold cleaned then bead blast the thing clean. I'll then use a series of flew hones and flexible paper flap sanders to polish the entire runner before hogging the flange area out to gasket shape since the current shape is easier to hone. I'll then polish the end back up with a similar process and make an adapter plate to go from the stock TB shape to a 2.5" round for the inter cooler piping. My goals for this car are to take the stock turbo as close to 150HP as possible and I think a much freer flowing intake will greatly help this. I know it will make removal and install a little tricky, but I have dealt with similar issues on my other project car where I am dropping a 4.2L v8 in a Audi coupe it makes everything harder.

Since youre welding the manifold anyways why not make it double plenum while youre at it? I used 50mm alu tube flattenned to around 20mm and cut to taper off towards the end of the manifold. Easy and working solution.

The 1Y manifold is very similar but a factory diesel item with the correct d-shape ports:



The 'race pipe' is 2.5" as standard, That has a 2.5-2" reducer on it!

the 1Y manifold opens on the wrong side of the engine bay for what I want to do for piping.

I did consider a dual plenum, but IMHO the gains would be minimal for the effort to do it.

That's the 1X shown below. What I am using. It is too bad the 1Y/1X don't seem to have optioned a driver's side inlet...

Since you're going to be welding anyway though...wouldn't be much of a task to swap the inlet to the other side, right? But the price is right on those 8v intakes to say the least...cheap.

Good luck.

ryanp said:

The 1Y manifold is very similar but a factory diesel item with the correct d-shape ports:

The 'race pipe' is 2.5" as standard, That has a 2.5-2" reducer on it!

Click to expand...

I agree... if you are going FMIC...a manifold with an inlet on the passenger side makes no sense. Having an the manifold inlet on the drivers side makes for shorter FMIC piping and less degrees of bends= less lag and resistance to flow at higher rpm.

I just finished a FMIC system with a D24 manifold modded to inlet on the drivers side. It works really well.

my turbo outlet came from the other side as i'm using a custom 1y manifold too! so it made more sense!

Ryan