I've seen on the VWRX conversions that they have been putting the pod airfilters off to the right hand mud-guard with a hole in the guard.

Does anyone think that there would be a benefit in doing this for an aircooled motor, say for example with dual carbs, having a box on each weber for examble, and run pod filters up to guards?

Food for thought, maybe.

The other way to go too, would be to just duct air from the guards area into the enigne bay, kind of an over compliated way of not poppng the decklid!

You can get side pods (where the existing side vents are) that will duct air into the engine bay. I have some of these but never grafted them into the bug. Then you don't need holes in your gaurds!

A gaurd can easily be replaced but for those side scoops that sit above the gaurds to be actually functional would need holes cut in the body to duct air into the engine bay which would be major surgery to undo.

the black plastic crescent vents beside the back windows on post 71 bugs arent actually connected the engine bay, they're part of the cabin ventilation and actually suck air out of the cabin through the slots down the inside of the back window


but to answer the original question i dont think you would see huge improvements on a carbied car
its more for EFI cars which have temp sensors in the Air intake so the ECU can adjust the mixture for cooler temps

most 80s and early 90s carbed cars had a bit of a snorkel on the aircleaner intake which took in cold air from around the headlight/grille area but i think in a single carbed vw it would help promote icing especially in winter

You've got a point there about holes in gaurds vs. holes in body Joel. My super had such bad rust that the holes were already through to the engine bay!

Hi

Just fit hoodjaks.

Steve

Talking about holes in the body, I don't even have the vents, poor old bug isn't as accesorised as you supers!

Cold air intakes are of more benefit for cars that have the engine at the wrong end. The air under the bonnet has passed through one of those silly radiator things and heated up.

I hate pods so I may be a bit biased but

Standard air filters usually have a much much larger surface area as opposed to pods.
This means that they won't clog up as fast and give you longer service intervals.
Because the filter is exposed theres also a much bigger chance of it sucking in water (depending on where it is and the vents around it)

Im not sure where I read this (probably vw resource) but standard air filters deliver air in a much smoother manner than as opposed to pods.
Also VW techs probably spent a fair deal of time working on the best air filter set up, what makes you think you can do it better

Thers nothing wrong with pods if your tight on space, or just need a generic filter.
Its totally up to you and your liking.

Im just opionated........ and dislike the fully sik 'modifications' rice boys use on there cars

I was lead to believe that pods were illegal in NSW as the filter is exposed. My understanding was that filters needed to be enclosed. This was from a friend at autobahn.

Yeah if you have a pod filter in nsw it has be seperated from the engine bay. Like the box can have an open top towards the bonnet but the bottom ans sides need to be enclosed.

The old owner of my brothers car made his own CAI, drilled to holes aboout 70mm in diameter in the bottom of the air filter box. Routed them to infont of the wheel well. Dunno how much performance it gives the 1.3L.

Huh? uh. Crap. An exposed filter would also count the old "performance" style filters like my Scat filter which is pretty much an element between two bits of pressed sheet metal, wouldn't it? that makes things interesting for me.

Now I've got me a problem.

bare pods can severely reduce power in the circumstance of sucking in warm or hot air.

CAI are very important. Regardless of restricting over a bare pod, the cold air is far denser and thus yields more power when mixed with he appropriate amount of fuel.

I'm actively trying to put together a warm air intake. I could surround my carb and runners with an esky to keep my drinks cold!