Very cool find! If it's just as well to machine out the damper would a replacement [perhaps aluminum] piece be just to make the concept modular and returnable to stock? I'd love to see any data logging you do, just for fun.
Cheers,
Ryan
Indeed, just makes it and easy bolt on/off part. Also, it might improve airflow slightly as it's really hard to get a smoothly polished plastic surface with a Dremel. To be honest, I'm tempted to just rip out all the intercooler ducting and just replace it with metal tubing and silicone. It may not help, but it can't hurt, and it's not that expensive.
At the end of the day, we really need a before/after dyno of this mod on the same dyno (obviously). We can speculate and theorize all we want, bottom line is if it makes more power then great. If not, it is a potential waste of time.
Honestly, I doubt it would make any more power by itself. Diesel engines are, by design, lean running engines. Adding air leans them out more but does nothing for power in and of itself. Since mine is already tuned, rather aggressively at that, maybe I'm noticing a bit of more difference because it's leaning out the engine closer to where it was designed to be originally, maybe I'm imagining it, whatever. The one performance related thing I have noticed is a slight improvement in my instant fuel millage, but that much can be explained away by higher quality fuel, since I filled up while out of town, only time will tell. The other changes, and they are not really practical to quantify, are that I enjoy driving the car more because of the sounds, and it feels like there's less lag. Neither is likely to show up on the dyno, however, to me, either by itself is an improvement in the vehicle and, therefore, not a waste of time to me. It may not be your thing, in which case, leave it alone, or "worry less, drive... whatever". Less lag does suggest, however, better flow. The results of better air flow on a Diesel engine are lower EGT's, lower cylinder pressures and temperatures, and better fuel economy. Again, not something that will show on a dyno. We're talking about a piece of plastic tubing 3" long here, it's not some magical modification that will add 25hp either way!
I really would like to do some VagCom logging and see just what's going on with the engine. Since I didn't run before logs I can't tell you what the difference is numerically, especially since mine's not a stock tune to begin with. So, how about it, anyone in Houston interested?