Warm Air Intake

[Ford Man]

My '88 Escort has the old heat riser system where there's a duct that goes from the exhaust manifold to the breather (explained for you youngerns) and opens to let warm air into the breather during cold starts to help warm up the engine and help vaporize the fuel. I recently got the idea to block the door from the exhaust manifold to the breather in the open position all the time to act as a WAI. Since doing this I've been seeing considerablely better mileage. MPG since doing this have been 46.478, 41.976, 44.198, 44.2 and 42.853. Some of these mileages are in line with what I usually get during summer months when the weather is warm and have summer blend gas.

[dupree]

I wonder how it will do in the summer. Are you planning on keeping the riser open in the summer. Also is it a gt or regular escort ? I have a 1989 escort GT with a 5 spd manual, best I have gotten so far my best mileage has been 40 mpg. One more question what is your winter average, how much is it up.

[Ford Man]

I really haven't checked my winter average although it will be higher than the winter average of many people because I live in an area of the country that has pretty mild winters for the most part. I have a mileage log if you'd like to compare my winter fillups to my summer fillups.

I plan on trying to keep the riser open during the summer if I don't see it affecting the engine temperature too much. I have an aftermarket temperature gauge with the actual temperature readings not just a cold and hot so I can monitor it pretty closely.

Mine is an '88 with a 1.9L 4 speed manual transmission.

[Ford Man]

The WAI is working really good on the '88. I've had several fills with 46-48 MPG since trying it. Looks like I'm going to have to take a look at my '96 Contour, '97 and '02 Escorts and the wifes '87 Chevy Celebrity and figure out a way to rig up a WAI on them.

[brucepick]

Good going!

My '97 Civic has a wai that I set up and it's a good thing.

[Arminius]

Just did a WAI a few days ago, and the difference is much more than I had expected.

[Daox]

Hey, its Arminius. Nice to see you around again.

You got an updated fuel log with before and after the WAI?

[Arminius]

Originally Posted by Daox

Hey, its Arminius. Nice to see you around again.

You got an updated fuel log with before and after the WAI?

Hey, good to see you, too.


No, but it appears to be a minimum of about 10% improvement in weather that averages 38F.

I know, I know, I've been bad with my fuel log. I'm so busy that I"ve neglected nearly everything. Things should slow down soon, and then I'll get back to my normal pace.

[Christ]

I'm still considering something I mentioned awhile back about the Warm air intake thing: Here's what I'm thinking about:

Most cars these days have air filters which are contained in a box, usually a rectangle shape.

Heater cores are rectangle shaped.

Cable controlled water valves are easy to come by on older Japanese cars.

Install the heater core in the air stream of the air box, so that all air coming through the box has to pass through it, but leave the original cold air system in place.

Stick a thermal sensor in the intake tract, set to (insert good temp for your engine's intake temp).

Connect the output of the sensor to a small actuator which controls a water valve from a small Japanese car. (It doesn't have to be Japanese, but it helps. ).

Set it up so that the temp sensor will actuate the valve at your pre-requisite temperature, closing the water supply, which will allow the intake temp to cool slightly, until the valve opens again. Sure, it will open and close several times a minute, but it's a crude setup at best... would be great for testing.

For the hardcore, you could also just set it up on a hand control, and you could manually control it based on a gauge. Once the engine is warmed, there shouldn't be too much adjustment necessary, but it also makes it easy to drop the intake temp if you're experiencing problems going up hills and such.

true power on demand :P