AVO Intake Review....

I finally received my AVO Intake:icon_bigg , and had a chance to install it. Now I don't have it completely dialed in just yet. But I started with my AEM CAI calibration, and worked a bit from there. It was late so I called it quits, and will get it in the next day or two...

 

First Off, the intake came very well packaged from Rallitek, and my first impressions of the intake are very positive! I like the venturi cone filter, along with a nice cast aluminum MAF housing. The silicone connector's are blue, and the 45* pipe is a grey/silver color, nice.

 

Install:

 

Couldn't have been any easier! Once you have the stock airbox out, it really just takes minutes to slap this intake in. Avo already pre-assembled the MAF to the 45* pipe, and all that's left , is to put on the filter, tighten clamp, and then connect it to the inlet tube. There is also a bracket, to help support the filter, which uses some factory pieces(bolt, grommet) along with a supplied bolt & washer to attach to the maf housing underside. Done.

 

Con: AVO, you should have used std 8mm hose clamps, instead of goofy non-std 7mm. Especially since the air filter clamp is 8mm! Had to find something to pick on....

 

Impressions:

 

Looks great, although it appears it will not suck in as cold of air that the AEM did. It is defintely more audible than the quiet AEM, but not annoyingly so. If you are looking for a super quiet intake the AEM is still king! This doesn't make any difference to me, but I thought I would mention it.

 

It drives very smoothly, and what can I say, it's an intake! It makes some nice turbo sucking/whooshing noises, and you hear the BPV. I got this mainly to gain some breathing room for the 5.0 volt MAF limit.

 

Initial Performance:

 

Well, tonight was an especially cold night(14*), so keep that in mind.... I quickly did a couple of half pulls, to see how far off my MAF settings were. They were off a few %, but not too bad. I made some adjustments and then.....

 

I did a quick 3rd gear pull to only 6k...and Hit 4.92v:! Yowsa! When I get a chance to rev out to 7.2k, this will still creep up some more. This Maf is bigger than the AEM, imagine what the AEM would have read! This was also a NON-alky run, but the boost was steady at 22psi, with it tapering to 20.5psi at 6k rpm's.

 

So far, I have needed to add roughly 10% to the idle volts area, and about 4-6% across the board. This is over the AEM, which was about 6-8% over stock. Now I am just slightly rich of target afr's, so there will be some trimming, but it doesn't appear to be more than a 1-2% in certain areas.

 

Inlet temps have been within 1-3 degrees of the temp readout on the dash. So it is a touch warmer than the AEM, but still cooler than stock airbox. It also quickly cools down once underway...

 

Overall:

 

I give this intake 2 thumbs up! It looks nice, is built well, and performs! Price is very attractive as well. It also makes it a bit easier to run fmic's with it, as opposed to the CAI. Not that it can't be done, just saying that the AVO doesn't hang into the fenderwell, thereby making it easier to route the piping.

 

I know you all want to see pics, but that will have to wait til tomorrow. It was really cold & dark, so I'll snap some pics tomorrow and post them up.

 

Update: Finally got pics! And a little [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJn9NfLEoQ8]video[/ame] for sound.

thanks for the quick review man.... looking forward to the pics!

 

Mike

Nice to see it finally came in..........

 

Told ya you'd be impressed;)

 

Here's a pic

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=21043&d=1152877919

are you going FMIC? is that why you made the switch?

thanks for taking time to write about the intake

 

If you are running into MAF saturation problems, you might consider shimming the MAF "stick" (for lack of a better name) so it sits more off center in the air flow.

I currently don't have any plans on going fmic. I do have a bigger tmic going on real soon:icon_wink .

 

With this real cold air we have had recently, has really shown the stock Sti tmic to be a restriction at my current power levels. I am able to gain a fair amount of MAF volts, from a 38* day to 22*. We'll see how the new tmic works out, but I think it will do nicely! Especially with the alky:icon_bigg !

thanks for taking time to write about the intake

 

If you are running into MAF saturation problems, you might consider shimming the MAF "stick" (for lack of a better name) so it sits more off center in the air flow.

 

Good idea! But with the oring sealing design, it doesn't lend itself to shimming, unless the MAF body was designed with this in mind? How much of a shim are we talking about? 1mm-2mm

 

Sean was claiming 10-15% lower MAF readings....so far I don't see that much, but to be fair, I have will wait until I can test in some warmer air, say mid-upper 30's, so that I have a apples to apples comparison. This cold air really makes a difference....

it would depend on the distance from the pipe inlet to the sensor. if the flow pattern in the tube is laminar and fully formed, the distribution should be roughly parabolic with the max at the center. i think the rule of thumb is that the flow formation happens at D/25 * RE away from the inlet where D is the tube diameter and RE is reynolds number at the flow rate in question. if I'm not mistaken the rule of thumb is good up to ~ mach 0.3-0.4

 

I'd imagine 1/10 to 1/20th the radius of the pipe would do the trick for you.

 

this is part of the reason I'm hesitant to mess with the intake till I have time (and the weather lets up) to do some tuning with a WB02. at low flows, flow formation may not happen so the scaling factor will vary both as a function of pipe diameter change and absolute flow.

^^^ What language is that?^^^^^^

 

 

 

sorry, it's Friday and I've been in a lab all week what it boils down to is things never work the way one expects so tuning is key.

 

I think it is time for some BEvERages + rock climbing.... probably not in that order

any updates Edmundu? Looking forward to more info!

 

 

mike

What my initial impression stated is holding true! This intake can flow about 5% more air than the AEM. I don't think I have gained any power, as I wasn't being flow limited by the AEM.

 

What was happening was that the AEM would touch the 5v MAF sensor limitation in real cold air. So then the ECU would not calculate any additional fuel for the added air.

 

The AVO intake is a high quality piece, and a great buy! Easy to tune, and relatively quiet.. a bit louder than AEM. It does run a bit warmer IAT's than the AEM< but I plan on adding a heatshield of some sort, to combat this in the future.

awesome review, I think you just made my mind up on which intake to go with. Thanks

edmundu, have you completed scaling the MAF table? How does it compare to the AEM. Some of the other reviews implied approximately 8% leaner scaling than stock which was less than what you had reported for the AEM.

 

Could you generate the other numbers similar to the ones you did for your AEM vs panel filter review? That would be a good comparison since all the numbers come from you.

 

I bought the AEM, but still interested in the AVO. it looks like the AEM won't be compatible with most FMIC and won't allow me to install a IC sprayer tank in the compartment formerly occupied by the intake silencer.

 

Thanks in advance.

Added pics & video!!!

 

Mickeyd2005 - I will get to a comparison soon. It has been very cold out, and to compare apples to apples, I need at least 28-30 degree air temps.

would this intake make similar power to the aem on a stock turbo?

Yeah, I would say so. It does sit higher in the engine bay, so it heats up quicker than the AEM w/filter in the fenderwell. But I will be looking into fabbing up a heatshield for the Avo to combat that...

too bad AVO doesn't make a heatshield for it. I wonder if the SPT one could be modified to fit with it.

too bad AVO doesn't make a heatshield for it. I wonder if the SPT one could be modified to fit with it.

 

Exactly what I was planning to do....however.....patience. Avo has one in the works, and should be out in the near future:icon_wink

How are the temps in your part of the world Edmundu? Warm enough yet?

 

Also, what TMIC are you going with?

Anyone have a comparison of this intake VS the K & N?

Anyone have a comparison of this intake VS the K & N?

 

I've had both. The AVO one is a little quieter but sounds a lot better than the K&N IMO....K&N is very loud so you hear a lot of wastegate flutter etc and it just gets annoying.

How are the temps in your part of the world Edmundu? Warm enough yet?

 

Also, what TMIC are you going with?

 

Still cold...Not yet!

 

I currently have an XO2 Racing TMIC.(Note the currently;))

Still cold...Not yet!

 

I currently have an XO2 Racing TMIC.(Note the currently;))

 

is it more betterer ? or rather, how much betterer

is it more betterer ? or rather, how much betterer

 

It is better than an oem STI tmic, yes. But it isn't a big difference. I have been testing it, and it can only handle .5-.6psi more boost. And in my testing of acceleration (40-120mph) it has just barely squeaked a .03 sec advantage. Now, it was able to do it in about 15* warmer air, so with the same air temps, it could stretch that small margin to perhaps .15-.30, or about 12-15whp.

 

This was about what I figured it would do, so for a small investment, it was worth it. If I had to pay for the install, & another tune, not so much...