K&N Typhoon

[Adi]

Spent a few hours at K&N today getting a Typhoon kit fitted. Originally the R&D dept had got in contact with Mark Y and asked for a GTI. I then rang them and set up the meeting today. In exchange for them having use of my car for a few hours, to check whether the kit would fit......I got to keep the kit. The car was rr'd both b4 and after. The rr was actually reading low as before with the std airbox the car only produced 86bhp at the wheels. Now even with a 25% loss......that only equates to 107bhp. But the most important point was, that with the kit fitted, the car gained between 4 and 10bhp depending where in the rev range you compare. I have got the graph which I will hopefully get to show a little later when my camera stops playing up. But the old story of the midrange loss raises its head again. From about 2500rpm to 3750rpm......the car loses around 4bhp max. But then at 5200rpm where max power is......the typhoon produces an extra 8bhp. Then at about 5600rpm where the previous max power was.......the gains drop to about 4bhp. At 6300rpm, the gain is about 10bhp.
Pictures and graph will follow camera/software allowing.

[Harper]

So i take it your car is a valver then??

[dhampton]

86bhp @ wheels with a 25% loss would be 115bhp at fly? (115-25%=86)?
i would think losses would be around 15-18%.
anyway thats a bit off topic and rr results vary.

well done on the free kit. most noticeable benefit ive found with improving the intake/induction is in throttle response. picks up alot quicker. alot more obvious than any actual power gains.

[Adi]

86bhp @ wheels with a 25% loss would be 115bhp at fly? (115-25%=86)?

You are quite correct. I did a quick calculation when I was there........and came up with completely the wrong figure cry But Dave who operates the rr said he knows it is reading low. The main difference for him......who is a research and development chap......was the power gains and where it happened.

most noticeable benefit ive found with improving the intake/induction is in throttle response. picks up alot quicker. alot more obvious than any actual power gains.

Again you are correct......but in this particular case......since I'm using the car for hillclimbing and the power was dropping of quite noticably above 6000rpm.....then the extra 10bhp or so above 6k is very handy indeed. I've no doubt that when I get around to fitting cams etc, the power will be a lot better higher up. As you'll see from the graph (when I finally get it shown) the power on the std airbox does drop off from about 5500rpm.

[Sam_Rallye]

http://hecticnights.com/tmp/adi/

[Adi]

Cheers to Sam for hosting the piccies guiness

[Sam_Rallye]

feel free to post them using img tags but i was worried they were a little large, didn't want to reszie though incase...

[rallye_matt]

How is that K&N kit any different to the normal one? I can obviously see that it has a 90 degree bend just before the filter on the intake pipe, whereas the normal one comes striaght down. How much is it meant to cost?? I bet its a hell of a lot more than a simota :rolleyes:

[dhampton]

modified our simota on sunday. took off the tiny cone that was on there as it was rusted and generally in bad condition. replaced it with a K&N 306 gti6 cone which is about twice the size but not too much wider. seems to fit really well with plenty of space around it and the improvement in throttle response was instantly noticeable.

[106rallye.co.uk]

you got to remember on these fancy intake systems one of the most important things is the actual materials that the pipe is made from....

some people see them and just think well I can copy that for a few quid without realising that the pipe is made from whatever plastic (sorry dont know the name off top of my head) is constructed specifically for reflecting heat and less restructive air flow and others

Typhoon kits are very big in USA and K&N Uk gradually bringing them across the water....

Like Adi says, with some engine work pushing power higher up rev range, the Typhoon could be a very useful bit of kit to give a few more horses higher up the revs, espically when its free!

Rallye Register will be back at K&N R&D very soon!!

[SLIK]

I think possibly the silver paint is the only thing there for reflecting heat, plastic in general is very non conductive so quite good at teh job, and if you really wanted to insulate it you would create a foam sandwich layer, but this pushes up the manufacturing costs significantly without a hell of a lot of gain.

Nice to see they have slotted it in front of the battery rather than closer to the manifold. Would have liked to see some evidence of ducting to it though, might be worth using a short duct from the lower grille up to increase the cold airflow particularly to the back of the filter. That should further eliminate the contamination by hot air which occurs when teh bonnet is shut and you are not on a dyno... We hav had many a discussion on this topic...

[Sam_Rallye]

Alot of other cars seem to get a "wall" which seperates off part for the bay for the filter, a nice idea but not sure its possible on a 106/saxo bay :(

[James_H]

I tryed to create such a separator a few years back from some galvansied steel. (s1) It did work but was a pain to fabricate from steel, a nice piece of injection plastic moulding would have been better I suspect. This was for a surround for a K&N 57i by the way. It separated the cone from the radiator, Radiatior top hose underneath and the engine and manifold. Space wasnt a problem on the S1, but mounting was. The only realistic bolt I could use was the one the 57i uses its self in the top of the head. This was a problem becasue it stripped easily, due to very soft and brittle alluminium, forcing me to helicoil the hole and just cause lots and lots of agro! Neadless to say it didnt stay on for long before I took it off.

[SLIK]

Wall might work if you did it well, and direct airflow to it, might work quite well..

[Adi]

Apparently K&N take various temperatures when developing and testing these kits. I asked all these type of questions when I was there and why in particular the Typhoon kit was supposed to be better than the Apollo. The Typhoon has material placed in certain places within the intake pipe that effects the incoming air. Again "apparently" by changing the position of this material can effect not only the power curve......but the overall power output. Also the airfilter is placed directly behind the slam panel as this is a good enough position to keep cold air entering the engine. During testing, temps are taken and if they are too hot then shields and/or ducting will be fitted to enure temps are kept lower.
The difference between the Typhoon and Apollo are supposed to be in the midrange and also the amount of noise. But saying that I would have never expected a gain of 10bhp up at the top end. Again that is where the typhoon will be of more use. K&N said the Apollo would be more beneficial if more town work was being done as it would be better in the midrange and quieter.
The typhoon is as quiet as the std airbox during light throttle work. A slight growl is present on mid throttle acceleration.......and is at is loudest on full throttle. It really growls when the power has dropped off in midrange (2500-3500) and over about 6500. Not sure why that is, but I will sure try and find out.