nice write up.........look forward in seeing your results...........I just installed the drop in K&N tonight...............feels nice to actually hear the turbo..........
Review: PTP Inlet pipe + K&N filter
There was a site supporting member, that had a couple of things on their catalog that interested me and they where the only one to offer this solution. So, I recently ordered their PTP Inlet Pipe kit.
The whole idea of changing the air intake on a car is to relieve the suction strain on the engine. It doesn't magically give you more HP. Rather, it frees up HP. This is achieved by using better components than stock disposable filters (aka, recurring income for dealerships).
This is what K&N offers. Typically, you could drop in a K&N filter and gain performance. The usual gain is 4%.
On the SRT4, dyno-ed results show 10.5 HP gain which is the most bang-for-buck gain and the first thing to do when moding for performance.
Some companies sell a whole replacement air box and inlet tubing. AEM is one of them, but that solution, while perfectly valid, is a bit more expensive than it needs to be: the stock SRT4 air box is just fine and doesn't need replacement.
The factory stock inlet tubing (from the air box to the turbo) is somewhat restrictive, and rubberized.
The rubber has a sound damping effect and can actually flex on high suction, further restricting air flow. If you're looking for a tad more sound, flexible rubber isn't what you want on an intake
The AEM setup also replaces the inlet tubing, so that's a good thing.
What PTP proposes is an inlet tube that connects to the standard air box. The result is a similar setup to the AEM product, without the added cost of replacing the air box. The kit includes a metal tube, 4 ply coupling rubber tubes, 4 worm gear clamps and a K&N filter. All for the low price of 139.50$.
Installing is not complicated, but not as easy as I would have imagined. For one thing, the standard inlet pipe is clamped to the turbo with the screw head face down so while lifting the car would probably be easier, access still looked restricted.
I decided to not lift the car and once I removed the air box, I resorted to wiggling my way around all the tubes and cables with a box screwdriver to unfasten the clamp. Removing the original equipment took me nearly half an hour
Next, installing the new inlet and the couplings required a bit of trial and error. Because the kit is not one piece, you have to tweak the angles a bit so you get the setup aligned with the air box properly. The difficult thing is that to align stuff right, you need the air box in place, but to fasten it, you need the extra room provided by removing the air box. The most complicated piece is the turbo coupling: it's a 30° angled conical bend. Getting it's position and angle just right was not straight-forward and required a couple of trial-and-errors.
Once installed, I thought it was a bit of a tight fit and I might actually try to wiggle it another 1/4" away from my break lines. Too close for comfort to my taste.
Total install time: about 1.5 hour. Finished result
It was raining when I installed this so the test drive didn't provide much in terms of sound and performance. This morning, on my way to work, I could tell the difference. And what a difference it makes!
Once I got to the highway, on the on-ramp, I could open up the throttle a bit more. I got a bit worried from that point on. When in WOT, windows down a bit, I could distinctly hear a whistling sound: the turbo spooling up. Loud as I had never heard it from this car. And then, quite an audible Psshhh! Almost as if I had a BOV (which I don't).
I thought for a moment that maybe a fastener let off and that my turbo was sucking raw, unfiltered air. Fortunately, I had brought a long screw driver just in case. It turns out everything is still quite solidly in place
So, the car sounds superbly and performance wise, we'll only know with a stopwatch. But it feels nice. The turbo seems to spool up faster.
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The whole idea of changing the air intake on a car is to relieve the suction strain on the engine. It doesn't magically give you more HP. Rather, it frees up HP. This is achieved by using better components than stock disposable filters (aka, recurring income for dealerships).
This is what K&N offers. Typically, you could drop in a K&N filter and gain performance. The usual gain is 4%.
On the SRT4, dyno-ed results show 10.5 HP gain which is the most bang-for-buck gain and the first thing to do when moding for performance.
Some companies sell a whole replacement air box and inlet tubing. AEM is one of them, but that solution, while perfectly valid, is a bit more expensive than it needs to be: the stock SRT4 air box is just fine and doesn't need replacement.
The factory stock inlet tubing (from the air box to the turbo) is somewhat restrictive, and rubberized.
The rubber has a sound damping effect and can actually flex on high suction, further restricting air flow. If you're looking for a tad more sound, flexible rubber isn't what you want on an intake
The AEM setup also replaces the inlet tubing, so that's a good thing.What PTP proposes is an inlet tube that connects to the standard air box. The result is a similar setup to the AEM product, without the added cost of replacing the air box. The kit includes a metal tube, 4 ply coupling rubber tubes, 4 worm gear clamps and a K&N filter. All for the low price of 139.50$.
Installing is not complicated, but not as easy as I would have imagined. For one thing, the standard inlet pipe is clamped to the turbo with the screw head face down so while lifting the car would probably be easier, access still looked restricted.
I decided to not lift the car and once I removed the air box, I resorted to wiggling my way around all the tubes and cables with a box screwdriver to unfasten the clamp. Removing the original equipment took me nearly half an hour
Next, installing the new inlet and the couplings required a bit of trial and error. Because the kit is not one piece, you have to tweak the angles a bit so you get the setup aligned with the air box properly. The difficult thing is that to align stuff right, you need the air box in place, but to fasten it, you need the extra room provided by removing the air box. The most complicated piece is the turbo coupling: it's a 30° angled conical bend. Getting it's position and angle just right was not straight-forward and required a couple of trial-and-errors.
Once installed, I thought it was a bit of a tight fit and I might actually try to wiggle it another 1/4" away from my break lines. Too close for comfort to my taste.
Total install time: about 1.5 hour. Finished result
It was raining when I installed this so the test drive didn't provide much in terms of sound and performance. This morning, on my way to work, I could tell the difference. And what a difference it makes!
Once I got to the highway, on the on-ramp, I could open up the throttle a bit more. I got a bit worried from that point on. When in WOT, windows down a bit, I could distinctly hear a whistling sound: the turbo spooling up. Loud as I had never heard it from this car. And then, quite an audible Psshhh! Almost as if I had a BOV (which I don't).
I thought for a moment that maybe a fastener let off and that my turbo was sucking raw, unfiltered air. Fortunately, I had brought a long screw driver just in case. It turns out everything is still quite solidly in place
So, the car sounds superbly and performance wise, we'll only know with a stopwatch. But it feels nice. The turbo seems to spool up faster.
.
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