Would tapering ldrxn down earlier be a good solution for this problem?

No IMO it indicates a hardware issue.

Something drastic is going wrong at 5200-5300 rpm in all three of my logs today. After a little thinking about it I have a suspicion it might be my air intake tube collapsing. I was trying to see if I could finagle it into a better position to reroute my intake through the hole where the SAI is after I removed it. I never finished the reroute, but I don't think I put the air intake tube back in the position it was originally. All my old logs I've done have a decent wgdc so I believe this could be the problem because I haven't done any other mods. Would this make sense? I'll fix and do another log tomorrow.

I always tell people there is no need to remove the SAI. In my personal opinion, the more little things you keep like that, the less issues you run into down the road. Both mechanically as well as emissions testing (If your required to pass testing in your area)... Anyways this is what I did:







And K&N also makes those mini breather filters with a little shield covering half of the filter to better deflect heat from entering the filter on the side facing the engine. I followed the hose that runs to the stock airbox location and ran it back to where you can see I've placed the breather filter. The SAI hose is a lot stonger more towards the SAI and isnt flimsy and flexible as it is getting closer to the airbox. This allowed me to cut the hose off and pop the breather filters rubber inlet piece right inside the hose! The inlet was like a fraction of a fly turd too small to fit perfectly inside the SAI hose so I wrapped a little bit of electric tape around the rubber inlet piece until it was fitted and secured nice and tight inside the SAI hose. Works great! Ne need to delete SAI imo..   

Working with flowmeters at work, I've found consistency with baffling designs. Constructing a baffle box around the inlet with a 'V' 3" in front of the entrance mouth smoothed out swings down to +-5cfm from+-20 cfm. The qualm is the stock airbox is large and takes up room, perhaps there can be some compromise of flow, space savings and use of a pod filter.

Something along these lines  but larger and with less obstruction.

Anyone have any other ideas to make MAF readings smooth?



Just thinking out loud...

Some vehicles benefit from mortification to various stock parts, however the b6 1.8t airbox has an already very functional design from factory. Although I plan on experimenting a bit more with the air intake just because I like to experiment I doubt I'll see benefits other than removing a huge hunk of stuff from the engine bay.

"smooth" is the wrong terminology. "Linear" and "deterministic" make more sense.

You can't fix bad MAF mechanicals by tweaking a map.

Neither are related to the unsolvable problems introduced by not having an airbox