******Runs around house looking for that darn flame suit. Yells: "Where's that damn flame suit!! Damn damn damn! I should have put that on to begin with!"--bonks head******
I said this is a non-issue for
most of us. I'll stand by that (have donned flame suit)
I've read every post on this issue in this forum and I am convinced that it is overhyped and overblown for
most of us.
That is not to say that
some people haven't had what can only be reasonably characterized as "extreme" clogging of thier intakes.
I understand all the rationales proposed for having a clean intake, and I get the percieved benefit as well.
I just think no one has yet shown a quantifiable result, such as bench flow testing results of dirty and clean intakes--in combination with real-world flow values.
IOW: yeah, I'm sure flow will go up with removal of crud, but based on the facts that mileage and performance are 45 and snappy, respectively,
my car seems to be doing just fine and dandy. I strongly suspect that our cars are not affected by clogged intakes, even at WOT, because they are under positive pressure from the turbo boost under WOT!!!
Everyone seems to be missing this obvious point: when flow is most likely to be restricted (restriction rises as the square of the air velocity) is at high throttle and WOT settings. However, it is precisely during these times that your turbo is delivering a sustained 15 psi of boost pressure, negating whatever restriction there might be.
Conclusion: I strongly suspect that cleaning your intake will probably increase peak power a wee smidge, but that's about it. Now if you're going to flame me, post some dyno numbers of before/after or some bench flow numbers of before/after with relative values (relative to what kind of flow the Tdi's
actually achieve in real world driving). Or flame for the sake of flaming if that makes ya feel better
I don't follow any specific driving tips, although I am in broad agreement with the DBW break-in techniques. I just flog it when I feel like it and baby it when that feels right too.
My car has 3-4 millimeters of soot at the EGR, which means it is probably thicker farther in according to the observed trends of others--and I'm
still getting 45 mpg at 77+++ miles per hour . I drive like a bat out of hell half the time.