Which cold air intake to buy?

[OllieVRS]

Looking into getting a cold air intake for my 06 tfsi Octy purely for the cool sounds.

Any recommendations?

Preferably can be ordered from the EU as I live in Ireland, with the only exception being Amazon UK.

The easiest one for me to buy would be the Ramair one off Amazon, either the normal or oversized one.

Cheers

[FatWelshBoy]

I've got the Revo intake on my Ed30 and it's loud, a bit annoying to live with tbh. The Revo is known as the best intake for these engines and ebay often have 10/15/20% off coupons that bring the cost down, I paid something like £240 for mine when there was a 20% off deal running.

[LC5F]

The unfortunate thing about intakes is they are a good chunk of cash, few people have tried different types, difficult to know what one is best. 
Plus I've not found any same day/dyno back to back testing of multiple intakes on the Mk5.
A few before and after YT vids, but they tend to US based...where their dyno figures are optimistic!

I have a Neuspeed one I got used, one continuous diameter of alloy tube with silicone at the turbo & a cone at the intake, I am happy with, especially as it got rid of the engine cover & the price was right!

Personally, I am not keen on one of the Ramair kits that is a meccano kit of multiple parts, with a reduction in diameter just before the MAF, high potential of turbulence where you don't want it.
That kit looks to me like it's designed more for convenience of postage than performance - but as mentioned there is no back to back testing to confirm or disprove this.

[ljc19630]

i've got an MST Part enclosed unit for sale. Great bit of kit, not LOUD when poodling around, and a lovely ROAR when on WOT.
Was over £300 and only on my ED30 for 1k miles, but i removed it for a Revo intake due to going STG3 Hybrid Turbo and needed the Revo kit for the additional MAF scaling required. Selling for £120 

https://mst-performance.co.uk/mst-vw-mk501-air-filter-induction-intake-kit/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpfyhts_h9gIVkO7tCh0k-gAKEAQYAyABEgLXffD_BwE

[GilesWoodward59]

I have the Revo kit on my Ed30. Pleased with it (sound and quality). Only downside was lack of mid- point support bracket (otherwise a lot of weight resting on the intake silicone hose and a single bolt to the cam cover et). I ended up fabricating my own mount braced off the rear engine cover bracket. IMO it’s only worth buying on discount / Black Friday deal etc.

[breeze]

I posted this a while ago for the RamAir intake. Was surprised that the improvement was that much, although some of the comments question whether the bonnet was closed for the first run.

I have the standard sized RamAir intake and am happy with it. To me it looks much better in the bay than the oversized kit. Stage 1 GTI, doubt the bigger intake would give me more power.

[GVK]

That kit looks to me like it's designed more for convenience of postage than performance - but as mentioned there is no back to back testing to confirm or disprove this.

Is that the one that has 14 jubilee clamps or whatever?

[breeze]

That kit looks to me like it's designed more for convenience of postage than performance - but as mentioned there is no back to back testing to confirm or disprove this.

Is that the one that has 14 jubilee clamps or whatever?

I suspect that is the RamAir oversized kit. I count 9 clamps. This is the kit with the big step.

The standard RamAir kit has 6 clamps and a much smoother flow. I think one of the silicone sections (2 clamps) could have been removed, which would definitely have made for a cleaner look. That probably was a packaging decision.

[rich83]

Evoms.

3 jubilee clips..
Fuelling fine..
No hard engine mount to snap.

[OllieVRS]

Wow way more replies than I expected, thanks guys!

i've got an MST Part enclosed unit for sale. Great bit of kit, not LOUD when poodling around, and a lovely ROAR when on WOT.
Was over £300 and only on my ED30 for 1k miles, but i removed it for a Revo intake due to going STG3 Hybrid Turbo and needed the Revo kit for the additional MAF scaling required. Selling for £120 

https://mst-performance.co.uk/mst-vw-mk501-air-filter-induction-intake-kit/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpfyhts_h9gIVkO7tCh0k-gAKEAQYAyABEgLXffD_BwE

I'd definitely buy it off you, were it not for the fact I live in the Republic of Ireland meaning shipping it here would be a nightmare, correctly declaring the value, customs duty, and probably stuck for 3 weeks in customs etc.

I posted this a while ago for the RamAir intake. Was surprised that the improvement was that much, although some of the comments question whether the bonnet was closed for the first run.

I have the standard sized RamAir intake and am happy with it. To me it looks much better in the bay than the oversized kit. Stage 1 GTI, doubt the bigger intake would give me more power.

I love the turbo flutter in this video. 90% of the reason I'm considering buying an intake is for the sound, the other 10% is for a remap down the road.

Since you have the standard sized one, does yours still sound similar to the one in the video?

[breeze]

Yes it sounds very similar, I really like the noise it makes. You can drive around the noise by changing early if you don’t want to make too much noise.

[Shoduchi]

I've gained 12-20 bhp just by replacing my stock intake with a VWR/Racingline panel filter with a VWR/Racingline intake. Same dyno with very good cooling, so very similar results between runs. When I added an octane booster I made +20 bhp than with the octane booster with the stock airbox.

[OllieVRS]

I've gained 12-20 bhp just by replacing my stock intake with a VWR/Racingline panel filter with a VWR/Racingline intake. Same dyno with very good cooling, so very similar results between runs. When I added an octane booster I made +20 bhp than with the octane booster with the stock airbox.

Thanks for the reply 

So let me get this straight: You got 12hp+ comparing the stock intake (already with the VWR/Racingline panel filter installed) and then changing to a VWR/R intake on 95 octane? And then added octane booster for another 8hp to bring the total to 20hp over the stock airbox with the VWR/R panel filter?

I'm asking as in the Republic of Ireland all we get is 95 octane, so I have to add ~75ml of Miller's Petrol Power Ecomax (from the multishot bottle) to bring it up to 98 octane.

Also as for the cost of those two, the filter is €70+ and I can't find the intake kit for under €500. This may be a stupid question, but did the panel filter make the same induction/turbo noises that the intake kit makes? Those noises are 90% of the reason I want to upgrade the intake.

[breeze]

The panels won’t give you the noise buddy. From everything you have said it sounds like you need an intake kit. 

[Shoduchi]

I've gained 12-20 bhp just by replacing my stock intake with a VWR/Racingline panel filter with a VWR/Racingline intake. Same dyno with very good cooling, so very similar results between runs. When I added an octane booster I made +20 bhp than with the octane booster with the stock airbox.

Thanks for the reply 

So let me get this straight: You got 12hp+ comparing the stock intake (already with the VWR/Racingline panel filter installed) and then changing to a VWR/R intake on 95 octane? And then added octane booster for another 8hp to bring the total to 20hp over the stock airbox with the VWR/R panel filter?

I'm asking as in the Republic of Ireland all we get is 95 octane, so I have to add ~75ml of Miller's Petrol Power Ecomax (from the multishot bottle) to bring it up to 98 octane.

Also as for the cost of those two, the filter is €70+ and I can't find the intake kit for under €500. This may be a stupid question, but did the panel filter make the same induction/turbo noises that the intake kit makes? Those noises are 90% of the reason I want to upgrade the intake.

I get 98 RON in Portugal. The octane booster can increase about 2 RON. I got my intake for about €450, during sales periods it has been sold cheaper. Nowadays everything is more expensive, so I don't know what's the current price. The panel filters won't increase the intake noises, just a cold air intake, more if it's an open intake.