First impression:

Searched everywhere for the 57i filter and could only find it at K&N Denmark. They where the only K&N company which listed this part for the 206Gti with dyno sheet report. I emailed K&N, UK and they haven't even heard of it! I would trust Demark more than any of the other so called companies which have the 57i for the 206gti. I did see another company selling a 57i kit for the 206gti but when I checked their K&N item code against the K&N catalog, it was listed for the 205 and 306gti. So who do you believe in the end??? If anyone is going to purchase the K&N filter, I brought mine off a Jan Bolvig at bolvig@knfilter.dk. For overseas buyers, he offered to pay half the bank charges at DKK30. I just paid him full amount of DKK60 on top of the filter, power blanket and delivery charges. Total of DKK1735, delivered within a week! Very nice service and the filter was nicely packed with foam inserts.

Filter description:

The filter is a mushroom type, made of mostly plastic with the oiled cotton mesh. Filter size is bigger than I thought from the web site, diameter of around 11-12cm, length of around 15cm. The insert is angled so that the when the filter is fitted, it angles towards the front wheel.

The filter comes with the following parts:

1 pcs of metal piping with mounting frame attached.

1 pcs of flexible rubber tubing

3 pcs of o-rings (correct name?)

1 Danish manual with K&N stickers

Power Blanket:

Came in a rolled large sheet around 60cm x 50cm with around 30pcs of cable ties. Also came with the Danish instruction manual, which was kindly translated by Mogens (many thanks!).

Tools needed off the top of my head:

10mm and 6mm spanner

Razor blade if you want to cut the oe rubber tubing

Scissors to cut off the ends of the cable ties

Screw driver for the o-rings

Installation, removal of oe parts.

What I didn't know before was that the filter is mounted at the bottom of the engine instead of at the top. First you must remove the pipe attached to the filter housing. Then remove the cover of the oe housing and remove the filter which is a paper pleat with a foam backing at the bottom. Looks very restrictive to me when compared to K&N drop in filters. Once removed, you may take out the whole filter housing which is just held on at the side and sits on the pipe below. There is a small clip on the metal bracket which holds some wires, unclip this and reposition the wires on the clutch cable. Now remove the 10mm bolt at the RH side and keep it safe as it’'s used. The whole metal housing may now be removed. Now remove the rubber tubing at the bottom of the metal bracket by taking off the rubber ring first. Then slide the rubber tubing out towards the LD side. The next part I found very tricky, the instruction manual says to remove the rubber tubing you must take out the RH fog light. I unscrewed the plastic cover at the RH side and got the fog half way out by unscrewing the 6mm bolt. The fog light didn’t want to come out so I left it half hanging. I then tried to remove the rubber tubing by pushing, pulling, tugging and jerking at it. The rubber tubing refused to move so with no lunch or dinner in sight for the whole day (it’s around 8pm) I got nasty. I took out a very sharp razor blade and cut through the rubber tubing. You must be careful not to cut anything other than the tubing like wires and so. I got a shock at first when I felt a wire which turned out to be the rubber wire inside the rubber tubing if you know what I mean? I left some of the oe tubing so that it could funnel some more cold air to the filter.

Installation of 57i kit.

Now that the oe parts have been removed, install the filter and tighten the o-ring with it facing towards the front wheel. Then the metal brackets legs go into the oe position and it’s screwed down using the 10mm oe bolt. Make sure it’s nice and tight or it will bang against the car when you’re driving. Now attached one end of the rubber tubing to the metal part and do not screw down yet. Get the other end of the tubing on to the engine and screw down. Then adjust the piping so that there is a 10mm space between the tubing and the radiator pipe. Then you may screw down the rubber tubing at the metal pipe. Make sure the both ends of the rubber tubing are secured and close bonnet to check for clearance.

Installation of Power Blanket:

I cut around half of the shiny silver blanket and turned up around 2cm along the top and bottom and tied down with cable ties. Then I just positioned the blanket so that it covered up the area around the metal piping. I secured it down with one large cable tie around the metal pipe at the top. This was only a quick job as it was raining and I wanted it to be finished. I will most likely reposition the blanket and tie it properly near the filter and around the piping. The blanket should not touch the filter, clearance of around 2” away. Remember the blanket conducts electricity so be careful not to let any live wires touch it. After the above you may close up the bonnet and fire her up! Go for a test drive and listen to that monster induction noise at high revs.

Test report so far:

Driving the car at normally at low revs without any hard driving, sounds very normal. But when you floor the car, the induction noise is pretty loud at 5-6,000rpm! The sound reminds me of “wrx” style exhaust that make the same kinda noise. The car feels much smoother and free with the filter added on. I can’t tell of any noticeable performance gains but the car does feel smoother. I will test the filter with the Gtechpro later and find out the truth. I do worry that the filter could suck in excess amounts of water from the low position of the filter. It’s about 9” off the ground so it should be okay unless I ram into a big water puddle. This would cause the filter to suck in water that the pistons could not compress and finally blowing up my engine! I don’t think that the suction power from the filter which has a 3” piping could suck up that much water. I don’t really want to know so I will stay away from big puddles! One thing about the filter, when I rev it quick, it “gasp” for it’s first spilt second of air. I am not sure why this is so, could it be that the piping is too long and that the air doesn’t reach the engine quick enough? I am open to suggestion, I will get this checked out later. Fuel consumption looks the same, will update later.

That’s all for now, will keep you updated with any further developments. Would I buy the 57i induction kit again? Of course I would, for the money, it’s a cheap and effective way to boost up power even though if it’s very minor. The filter sure does look good under the bonnet!

Cheers

Jim aka jc_333

Further Update: K&N have answered a few questions Jim had, so I'll add them here.

Question - I noticed that the filter is at the bottom of the car, will the filter suck it water? If so, will this not damage my engine?

Answer - No, it will not suck water into your engine, if you are driving on normal road. Only if you drive in high water like sea or river it will take in water.

Question: The dyno sheet for the 57in on the 206gti. Did the car only have the 57i filter fitted with no other modifications?

Answer - No, no other modifications was made..

Is it working to your satisfation, normal you can fell the power from 3500 - 4000 rpm and the sound if lovely.

Best Regards / Med Venlig Hilsen
Jan Bolvig
K&N Filter Danmark