CODE:RED Cold air intake TDCI

[Franco Cozzo]

Hey guys, I've got a code red cold air intake here for my Focus, but the instructions are in german, I know one of the other guys here with a TDCI Focus has one, if you could help me out here that would be great, thanks much lol.

How do I turn the intake pipe around? It just kinks in the ribbed part, I can't slide the other part of the pipe down to the right.

Just for lols I ran it with just the filter part, which is a foam pod filter, jesus the turbo sounds real loud.

[FOCUSonTHIS]

Did you try google translator to see what it translate to? Won't be the best but maybe could help

[Turbodiesel]

You have to undo the stock hose clamps, once it's off you can pretty much turn it around however much you like. Since the stock clamps are one use only you'll need to replace them with proper ones.

[Franco Cozzo]

Managed to get it on without touching the stock hose clamps, fits in the factory position but I had to dodgy up the mounts, and its held onto the main mount with a few cable ties haha.

Here is the end result:



The turbo spooling up is loud now, and the engine seems a bit louder, but its kinda droning loud.

[Nolz]

haha cable ties, only second to duct tape.

Any more pics? What are your thoughts on it so far?

[Franco Cozzo]

It doesn't really seem to drive any differently, but I've only taken it for a spin around my neighbourhood, It'll be going to and from work next week but it makes more induction noise and the engine seems more noisy.

Probably wasn't worth like $200+ when I think about it now, but maybe it might have a difference with the intercooler and exhaust done and a tune?

Haven't got any more pics yet but I can take some more if you want.

[In Focus]

Have you got a flexi-hose attached to it, Damo? When I tried the K&N Apollo on my petrol, I couldn't get the hose to sit right, so I left it off. The set-up performed the same, or worse, than "our" snorkel-less intake, so I have taken the Apollo off altogether and gone back to the standard airbox.

I'm thinking the hose positioned correctly would make a big difference to the results.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by In Focus

Have you got a flexi-hose attached to it, Damo? When I tried the K&N Apollo on my petrol, I couldn't get the hose to sit right, so I left it off. The set-up performed the same, or worse, than "our" snorkel-less intake, so I have taken the Apollo off altogether and gone back to the standard airbox.

I'm thinking the hose positioned correctly would make a big difference to the results.

There was a little silicon hose which goes on the end of the housing but I didn't bother because it just goes straight down about 10cm, didn't really see the point in it.

I think we'd be better off trying to make up our own airbox out of aluminium and our own intake snorkel to go into it, then you could choose which filter to go into it etc.

[Franco Cozzo]

This 15mm bolt is where I put the support bracket under:



I had to modify it because there was a support in there which was stopping the nut from going onto it, I also had to drill out the hole larger as the stud wouldn't fit through the original sized hole.

There is the whole bracket, you can see my cable ties there holding the strap onto the support:



There is a hose clamp, with a nut, spring washer and large flat washer holding on a small strap, which the cable ties go through to connect to the larger support, it moves a bit, but not too much.



Here is a closer shot of the filter housing:



Its a bit odd, the filter has a rubber gromet on the end of it, and the housing sits in the gromet and is held on by a hose clamp.

Outside shot:



There is now a big space where the old airbox used to sit:



The wire with the spiral wrap and inline fuse holder is the wiring for my spotlights.

[Franco Cozzo]

Fuel economy has stayed the same, doesn't seem to drive any differently, just makes a hell of a lot more induction noise, in first and second gear it won't make any extra noise (torque limiter cutting boost i guess?), if you put the car under any load and say 1/4+ acceleration in 3rd gear plud you get really loud induction noise.

[photn]

Big Damo,

there is no point in doing an exhaust unless you want sound. TDCI's do not benfit from exhausts as much as petrol. You wont really see any benefits untill you do a tune. At the moment you are just helping the car get cooler air.

When i modified the missus Fiat Punto 1.3 TDCI i put CAI, intercooler and a tune and i dropped .6 ltr per 100km city driving and gained some torque. TDCI's are not really performance mongurs, you might be able to squeeze some more power and sound out of it, it it will never respond like a petrol would.

I modified the missus' car for better fuel econ, it was never about more power. I have thus since removed the flat spot under 2k, increased its already awesum effeciency and gave it a little more torque.

[Turbodiesel]

I have to disagree with you there photn, with a simple remap a diesel can get a lot more performance than a petrol because of the turbo.

My car would have a good 30% more power and torque over a standard one, and it uses about 10% less fuel so you really can't go wrong unless you don't like noise.

The exhaust will give improve turbo spin up and maybe a bit more puff at high revs, but if you leave the stock cat then you'll have to put up with this sound every time you back off:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDk7A1-i0Qo

Believe me the novelty wears off after time..

[Franco Cozzo]

Since I've had the car I've been doing some research through overseas people with the same Focus (MK2/MK2.5 in the UK) We've got an issue with these cars in that the siemens injectors suck balls, you can only push the fuel pressure up so much to get more out of them, then thats it, they won't flow much more than stock. The only other option is to open them for longer, which creates another issue that the diesel won't burn fast enough and it goes out as a crapload of black smoke from the exhaust.

Then you've got a MAP sensor or something which won't take more than a 2 PSI increase in boost, you need a different one, 3 BAR or something, so it'll cut out on you if you try raise it more.

Then the DPF causes issues when you're at max potential as it is border line catching on fire with all the increases bringing in a lot of extra heat through the exhaust.

Also the dual mass flywheel and clutch is made out of wet paper bags, so you'll kill it quickly if you drive it fairly hard.

The turbo spooling up quicker appeals to me, Turbodiesel you have a turbo back exhaust right? What diameter did you go? Just 2.5" mandrel bent?

I'm just going to do a tune, intercooler, exhaust and we'll see where it takes me. I'm going to ring Turbo Engineering in Thomastown, as the owner has been in the diesel game since the 70s and has been involved in forced induction for many many years, has dyno, tuning facilities etc so I think he might be the guy to go to for in regards to a tune.

The whole siemens injection system is really crap, compared to the Bosch one on the 2.2L Mondeo on the UK one, they've got some crazy power and torque figures out of that engine, which is just a slightly bigger version of the same engine in the Focus with a different injection system.

[photn]

Originally Posted by Turbodiesel

I have to disagree with you there photn, with a simple remap a diesel can get a lot more performance than a petrol because of the turbo.

My car would have a good 30% more power and torque over a standard one, and it uses about 10% less fuel so you really can't go wrong unless you don't like noise.

The exhaust will give improve turbo spin up and maybe a bit more puff at high revs, but if you leave the stock cat then you'll have to put up with this sound every time you back off:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDk7A1-i0Qo

Believe me the novelty wears off after time..

Correct.

if you tuned an NA petrol and put its results up against a TDCI tuned car then yes, the TDCI will have the bigger increase. But turbo diesel vs turbo petrol and the petrol will win. the deisel will never behave like a turbo petrol.

I do agree with what your saying turbodeisel and i can see your point. Adding an exhaust can free up some revs and power. The missus unfortunately doesnt like noise (and neither do i in a TDCI) so the exhaust was a no go. my opinion is that intercooler, intake and tune will net you a decent amount of power before having to touch the exhaust.

Big Damo, Have you considered Tuning Box's? alot of the UK guys for deisels use www.racechip.de and www.tmcmotorsport.com .

These appear reputable dealers in tuning box's for their cars. We have a racehip on the Fiat. Its good and does its job well. By no means is it a tune but it definately helps.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by photn

Correct.

if you tuned an NA petrol and put its results up against a TDCI tuned car then yes, the TDCI will have the bigger increase. But turbo diesel vs turbo petrol and the petrol will win. the deisel will never behave like a turbo petrol.

I do agree with what your saying turbodeisel and i can see your point. Adding an exhaust can free up some revs and power. The missus unfortunately doesnt like noise (and neither do i in a TDCI) so the exhaust was a no go. my opinion is that intercooler, intake and tune will net you a decent amount of power before having to touch the exhaust.

Big Damo, Have you considered Tuning Box's? alot of the UK guys for deisels use www.racechip.de and www.tmcmotorsport.com .

These appear reputable dealers in tuning box's for their cars. We have a racehip on the Fiat. Its good and does its job well. By no means is it a tune but it definately helps.

I thought about it, but considering the Code:RED one is fairly expensive I thought I might as well as just stick to a tune.

[Turbodiesel]

Exhaust is 2.5" press bent, with hi flow cat from the turbo. No DPF so no problems there.

The intercooler is the same as the stock XR5 one so I think it's more than sufficient, it's not exactly small.

I highly recommend Bluefin, sure you can probably tune harder but I haven't had a single issue and the unit is also a diagnostic reader. I figured a tried and tested tune is more reliable than something done by someone with limited knowledge about the engine.

photn, yeah I wouldn't compare turbo diesels to turbo petrols. I actually think these smaller boosted petrol engines are closing the gap with diesels when it comes to performance and economy ratios.

[photn]

Originally Posted by Turbodiesel

Exhaust is 2.5" press bent, with hi flow cat from the turbo. No DPF so no problems there.

The intercooler is the same as the stock XR5 one so I think it's more than sufficient, it's not exactly small.

I highly recommend Bluefin, sure you can probably tune harder but I haven't had a single issue and the unit is also a diagnostic reader. I figured a tried and tested tune is more reliable than something done by someone with limited knowledge about the engine.

photn, yeah I wouldn't compare turbo diesels to turbo petrols. I actually think these smaller boosted petrol engines are closing the gap with diesels when it comes to performance and economy ratios.

completely agree, i enjoy driving the missus fiat 1.3 TDI more than i do the NA focus....more fuel efficient and lots of low down torque.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Turbodiesel

Exhaust is 2.5" press bent, with hi flow cat from the turbo. No DPF so no problems there.

The intercooler is the same as the stock XR5 one so I think it's more than sufficient, it's not exactly small.

I highly recommend Bluefin, sure you can probably tune harder but I haven't had a single issue and the unit is also a diagnostic reader. I figured a tried and tested tune is more reliable than something done by someone with limited knowledge about the engine.

photn, yeah I wouldn't compare turbo diesels to turbo petrols. I actually think these smaller boosted petrol engines are closing the gap with diesels when it comes to performance and economy ratios.

Mine doesn't have any DPF lights on the dash that I can see, so I assume mine doesn't have one either?

[Franco Cozzo]

Want to see something annoying?



Yesterday I noticed the induction noise got REALLY loud while I was driving home, meant to check it out but forgot about it.

Noticed it again driving home from work, so I stopped had a look under the bonnet and the filter and housing where jammed between the gearbox and the body of the car.

So I've basically done 300km on no air filter, I took the sillicon hose off and drove it home about 30km with no filter again.

I'll fix it tomorrow after work, one of the hose clamps has decided to let go and hence the filter in its housing has fallen off, the hose clamp is gone too.

Looks like I'll be taking one of the other cars until its fixed.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Mine doesn't have any DPF lights on the dash that I can see, so I assume mine doesn't have one either?

Damo isn't your TDCI a 2010 model ?? If so it will have a DPF, pretty sure you'll find all diesels sold in OZ as of around late 2008 had to be fitted with a DPF to meet emissions standards in Australia :(

[Franco Cozzo]

Certainly is, I thought they'd have some sort of light on the dash to show if it went into a DPF cycle or something, is it something you can notice in the exhaust?

[Russ]

The light will be there somewhere but it won't actually come on unless you have an issue in which case if it's anything like the VW's it will probably put the car into LIMP mode which would then require a very slow trip to the dealer for repair :( The DPF itself should be just after the turbo as they need to be as close as possible to the hottest part of the exhaust to be able to get the temperature hot enough to do their regeneration (burning out the crap) The biggest problem with the DPF's is that as they stop a very high amount of the soot from escaping and therefore they restrict the flow as well, a lot of this carbon build up ends up in the manifold and associated areas and eventually clogs to the degree that it needs to be physically removed and cleaned out :( There have been quite a few posts about it on one of the VW forums I used to post on (when I had my TDI Golf) before buying the Focus

[Turbodiesel]

That's happened to me plenty of times, if you do the clamp too tight it falls off, too loose and it falls off as well.

I hope you weren't driving through dust!

[DZFord]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Want to see something annoying?

That's very annoying! You've prompted me to go check my hose clamps.

Your intake with no filter would have been bloody loud.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by DZFord

Your intake with no filter would have been bloody loud.

Loud is an understatement, I was worried about being picked up by cops so I was trying to baby it around everywhere.

I put it back on after work, the filter clamp is a massive pain in the ***, if you do it up too tight it pushes the filter off the housing, too loose and it will just fall out.

Originally Posted by Russ

The light will be there somewhere but it won't actually come on unless you have an issue in which case if it's anything like the VW's it will probably put the car into LIMP mode which would then require a very slow trip to the dealer for repair :( The DPF itself should be just after the turbo as they need to be as close as possible to the hottest part of the exhaust to be able to get the temperature hot enough to do their regeneration (burning out the crap) The biggest problem with the DPF's is that as they stop a very high amount of the soot from escaping and therefore they restrict the flow as well, a lot of this carbon build up ends up in the manifold and associated areas and eventually clogs to the degree that it needs to be physically removed and cleaned out :( There have been quite a few posts about it on one of the VW forums I used to post on (when I had my TDI Golf) before buying the Focus

Hmm, I'm looking at getting a turbo back exhaust done at tax time, is it possible to get rid of it?

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Loud is an understatement, I was worried about being picked up by cops so I was trying to baby it around everywhere.

I put it back on after work, the filter clamp is a massive pain in the ***, if you do it up too tight it pushes the filter off the housing, too loose and it will just fall out.



Hmm, I'm looking at getting a turbo back exhaust done at tax time, is it possible to get rid of it?

Not legally, no :(

You should still be able to do a cat back system, but I don't know that the TDCI will benefit as much from it as the petrol models do. It might pay you to do a bit of homework on the exhaust upgrade side of things compared to just going with a remap tune which will definitely give you great results.