A better inlet for the transverse engine can translate to BIG HP gains!
By nature of the layout of the transversely mounted 1.8T engine, the turbocharger suffers from a condition called TAID (Turbo Air Inlet Deficiency). Due to the awkwardly placed components surrounding the turbo within the engine bay, the turbo has a very small pipe to inhale with, thus limiting its ultimate performance potential.
With very little room between the turbo inlet and the neighboring engine components, the VW factory is forced to short change the turbo of a high amount of airflow due to the restrictively small inlet elbow.
Even with the smaller packaging of the “stock” turbo, the factory is only able to fit an inlet elbow that measures in at 1.75” ID at its connection point to the turbo while having to integrate a “pancaked” 90 bend (further exacerbating the flow problem) to steer away from the other engine components.
There are many “upgraded” turbo inlet pipes on the market that can offer great promise to remedy this problem. Upon close inspection though, virtually all of them, having to work with the same fixed space constraint, end up having to narrow the critical area of the pipe to an area that is only marginally larger than the stock piece at best.
While it’s a workhorse of an engine, the transversely mounted 1.8T engine, as long as the turbo is placed in the stock location and if forced to work through the stock inlet configuration, will forever be “bottlenecked” by this restriction and will not be allowed to make “good” HP.
Until now...
Enter the 3” Upgraded Inlet Pipe set for the transversely mounted 1.8T engine. The pipe set supports all applications such as stock turbos and stock location “Eliminator” series GT turbos.
No more reduced diameter and no more tight bends
Direct flow into the inlet is critical for high speed breathing, especially in a turbo application with high HP/high boost – inlet breathing is critical and there is no such thing as too much flow at the inlet.
 
No more “step-down” adapter on BIG turbos
The step-down adapter pre-installed with the eliminator series as shipped, while making it easy to integrate to the stock inlet hose work, often chokes down the flow potential of the BIG turbo preventing it from reaching its full flow potential. Especially when the effective opening on the inlet is smaller than the wheel diameter of the larger turbo, performance deterioration can be seen at all RPM’s and peak boost levels can be limited by the bottleneck.
Dyno proven difference
Notice how the dyno chart shows a completely different power/torque curve resulting from just swapping out the stock inlet hose (with step-down adapter) vs. 3” upgraded inlet pipe set with the restrictive adapter removed in favor of a larger bore adapter to connect to the larger 3” pipe. The bigger turbo’s response at all RPM’s was better. The amount of performance “unleashed” by the higher flowing inlet pipe set shows that a good turbo needs to have proper breathing in order to do its job.
How we did it
Eliminate the cause. Think out of the box. Re-engineer.
The cause for the factory having to use a convoluted and restrictive inlet tract is the shifter cable and bracket assembly being placed directly in front of the turbo inlet.
By thinking out of the box and re-engineering a component that combines the two functions, we were able to work within the space constraints to make a solution itself that is “unconstrained”. The inlet bottleneck has been completely eliminated and the turbo can now perform to its full duties without being held back.
 
Note to some of our customers that have been waiting for this product:
We humbly apologize for the long delay in releasing this product. At some point, we decided to switch from a 100% machined part to a cast/machined part due to the large volume production. The tooling process and related steps in the process took a bit of time to do. The end result is even better performance and easier installation.
We will begin shipping this product on Wednesday April 26th. As an extension of our gratitude for your patience on this product, all customers who have been waiting that will be putting in an order for this product, we have upgraded your shipping to 2nd day blue or next day red, whichever is necessary in order for the product to arrive at your doorstep by April 28th (before the weekend).
Tech Bulletin 05/25/06
Regarding this 3" inlet pipe kit:
There have been 2 reports of a fitment issue on the 6 speed model(specifically on the 2002 337 model) when this intake kit is
used on the this model engine equipped with either the eliminator GTRS or eliminator GT2871R.
We will temporarily suspend Shipments of this 3" inlet pipe kit against orders for use on ALL 6 speed models running the eliminator GTRS or GT2871R.
We will resume shipments of this combination again when a proper solution has been put in place.
This effects only the above combination which is about 15% of the total combinations of turbo & intake type used.
This does not affect the other combinations such as:
- 5 speed models running eliminator GTRS / eliminator GT2871R
- 5 speed models running eliminator GT2X
- 6 speed models running eliminator GR2X
To Order: ATP 3" Inlet pipe upgrade for Eliminator Transverse 1.8T Golf/Jetta/Beetle |
