Modification of 6C radiator grille for more airflow

[alaskan]

Hi folks, I recently got an ECU tune for my 90hp 1.2 TSI 6C and I'm pretty happy with the increase in performance especially given the small 1.2 engine.

To complement the tune, I was looking around for some aftermarket intake solutions - that may be a topic on its own, but I dropped the idea of combining MST Performance's turbo intake pipe and inlet pipe due to seemingly poor fitment on EA211 (as seen on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iWoVzWWP5E)
https://www.mst-performance.com/products/vw-mk708
https://www.mst-performance.com/product ... -vw-mk706h
Can't do the full "cold air intake" with the pod filter either, due to legal/TUV issues.

So after looking around some more, I'm pretty sure that my "highline" spec uses "6C0853651A" as the radiator grille (where the badge is) and mine is not perforated (see https://kingparts.co.uk/products/vw-pol ... 651a-g0218 for pictures of the part, the only difference - mine just has a chrome strip at the bottom.

My questions are:
1. I'm trying to confirm whether the air inlet behind the front grille is the same on all 6C's without disassembling mine first. Below is the pic I borrowed from Eduard's 6C post (viewtopic.php?t=70119) (inlet in red) so I would guess so.

front.PNG (1.23 MiB) Viewed 487 times

If true, I don't understand why VW decided to go with unperforated grille on the 90hp 6C highline spec. I assume the R-Line's is full of holes to complement the higher power output?

2. ETKA gave me several options for the perforated radiator grille used on different specs, such as 6C0853651T or AE, AF, AD, AB, K and J. I might be able to get one of these for a fair price but I'm not sure which one would be the best (ideally the same as 6C0853651A, with a chrome stripe, just perforated, I don't wish to put the R-Line or GTI spec grille on)

3. If I can't find one, I've no problem dremeling out a hole in the right part where the inlet is - so my final question, should I be worried about rain/snow getting into the intake and causing any problems (using the stock filter)? I reckon 6R's use some sort of baffles in their intake box to prevent snow/water ingress...

Thanks a lot, I also welcome any other recommendations.

[iichel]

do you feel like your current configuration is limited in performance or cooling by the aerodynamic geometry of your car?

[alaskan]

I sense a bit of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” here but I’m open to experiments, especially if it would mean swapping one oem part for another.