| TECH INFO | V1 AIR INTAKE w/ DROP-IN FILTER UPGRADE: VOLVO SPA ENGINES

| TECH INFO | V1 AIR INTAKE w/ DROP-IN FILTER UPGRADE: VOLVO SPA ENGINES

January 09, 2020

The V1 Air Intake is a bolt on replacement that goes directly in place of the stock rubber intake piece on the T5 and T6 engines for Volvo SPA platform vehicles. 

 

THE V1 SILICONE AIR INTAKE:

Our V1 intake is designed of high quality, heavy ply silicone material with multiple layers of kevlar reinforcement for rip-stop protection and durability. This combination allows for extreme durability, handling vacuum and boost pressures with ease. It also reduces the conduction and absorption of heat massively. 

 

 

Internally, the smooth design and interior walls improves laminar flow, increasing air velocity while maintaining high flow volume. The stepped design on the inlet and outlet is designed to create seamless transition of air movement from the airbox outlet to the supercharger/turbocharger inlet. This decreases turbulence and maximizes ram air pressure.

The centrally located hump is designed to act as a velocity stack to maximize air movement, while also offering flexibility to the intake piece in the event of engine movement.

 

 

SPRINT HI FLOW FILTER; A simple drop-in upgrade:

A Sprint Filter is no ordinary filter. Unlike other filter companies using materials like cotton with porous fiber or sponge that is inconsistent under pressure, they utilize a patented and innovative polyester material that allows air passage to be constant and calibrated. They're also waterproof and repel dust/dirt second to none. Italian designed and manufactured, the Sprint polyester membrane filter consists of a fabric of polyester threads starting from ø 22 microns for superior filtration.

These filters are serviceable, and apart from the time required for disassembly and reassembly, cotton and sponge air filters demand downtime for washing, drying and oiling the filtering element, none of these operations are required with a Sprint Filter air filter.

This preserves the life of MAF sensors and more.

 

TESTING:

The stock intake system and filtration is of sound design, but there are some improvements to be made in certain areas.

The stock filter is fairly restrictive, and stifles air flow volume into the intake system when compared to our high flow filter.

The factory corrugated rubber intake piece is also not doing the system any favors. It's internal corrugation and oblong internal shape disrupts laminar flow, which not only lowers velocity of the air going into the system, but also decreases the ram air pressure and volume as it passes through. 

 

The improved intake piece and higher flow filter not only restore unrestricted flow and velocity, they also increase its effectiveness across the system, adding better throttle response and stabilizing the torque curve as a result. This can be seen in the flow bench testing and dyno results below.

 

The stock airbox and intake piece were removed with the filter in place from the car, and tested on a flow bench generating a desired amount of CFM equivalent to horsepower output. During this test, it was measured for a pressure loss across the system. Then, the Sprint filter and V1 intake piece were installed on the airbox and tested under the same conditions. 

At lower HP of air, the upgrades only slightly outperformed the stock system. As air flow increased, so did the margins. From 320hp to 400hp of air, the stock system was losing a little less than half of a psi of pressure. 

At the same flow, the V1 intake and upgraded filter gained back 83% of pressure loss by the stock system, making this a very simple but effective change.

 

DYNO TESTING:

The peak gains from the V1 and filter upgrade were only slight, as was to be expected. However, the curves show a significant increase in the system's ability to maintain flow and velocity, delivering 12-15+ more torque in certain areas of the curve and stabilizing these gains much better than the stock intake system. Throttle response has also been improved.