intake air temp mod

[kir_kenix]

Well I finally decided to go ahead and complete the WAI mod that some have praised on this site. In my 1997 s10 I have been tracking my intake temp while driving on the highway, and in traffic for quite a while. It was very uncommon for the FIA setting on my scanguage II to ever raise beyond 3 degrees of the ambient temp outside. Frequently it would even read 1-2 degrees BELOW the outside temp.

Instead of fabbing up an entirely new box, I decided to take a Dremel to the factory box. I left the opening in the grill intact, but cut out about 50% of the surface area on the bottom and radiator side of the air box. The effects of the new openings was immediately shown on the scanguage, with FIA reading up to 30% higher then previously posted. Incidentally, I also achieved a 39.9 mpg trip where my previous record to this destination was 36.4! This was a 26.7 mile leg of the journey that I drive about 5 days a week.

It did seem to warm up faster (roughly 1/2 of a mile sooner than normal). Water temp stayed below 207*F throughout the entire 150+ miles driven today (averaged around 202). I did notice having to use more throttle to climb a few hills, but overall drivability remained unchanged. I may need to get a stock box from the salvage yard to do some A-B-A testing in the future.

Now for the questions: how hot is too hot? Is there an "ideal" temp that we should be shooting for here, or is every vehicle a rule to itself? Current FIA temps are getting up to roughly 130*F, with the norm being about 120*. It was 90-93*F outside during most of this testing, and I didn't do any extensive city driving. If there is some point of the temp getting high enough to negate any more gains, I'll experiment and close up some of the openings.

Right now I'm pretty happy with the mod. I wish I would have attempted this one sooner, as it only took me about 20 minutes and I posted several personal mileage records on the first attempt out.

[aardvarcus]

I am in a similar boat, only my only WAI change was my upper grill block increasing under-hood temps. I think the ideal temperature will be different from engine to engine. It is very hard to test this, especially since my car’s intake air starts cool and slowly heats up over time as the engine warms all the plastic intake nonsense under my hood. I have noticed I get my best MPG approximately when my warmed intake air temp hovers around the 110 F range. If it gets too warm I am pretty sure my car pulls timing or enriches the A/F ratio. This is all based on my experiences with my gauge driving the same route on different days of different temperatures; take it with several grains of salt.

I have some ideas on making an adjustable WAI by taking a ram air intake and “Y” ing it into a warm air pipe and a cold air pipe. Then run the warm air pipe over near the heat source like your exhaust. Then run the cold air pipe out in front of your radiator, and put a flap on it. By opening or closing the flap you could effectively adjust your intake temperature. Of course you have to include an air filter in there somewhere, and I would also suggest an idiot-proof setting (full cold) that you could leave it on if you had to let someone else borrow the car.

[kir_kenix]

I think that I have seen best mileage at around 115*F. Maybe not 115* exactly, but somewhere between 110-120. Seems if I get much hotter then 120* then I can see the instant mpg begin crawling back down. Been thinking of working on a reliable way to test this observation...but everything seems difficult or expensive to build/test.

[mcrews]

ther word that I got on my KIa sportage post WIA (about 6 weeks ago) is that the scangauge gets fooled and this is not an accurate test.........sorry.....I was pretty bummed.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ted-25895.html

[t vago]

My truck loves hot air. On a recent drive of 30 miles to pick up a door, the ScanGauge showed I was getting about 23 MPG. Out of a V8. In a 4800 lb truck. Intake air temperature was about 135 F, and reaching 150 F during in-town driving.

The Karen-Mobile loves hot air, too, but I can't get temperatures up as high as I can with the truck. I'm lucky if I can crack 120 F there.

[kir_kenix]

I haven't finished a tank yet since completing the mod. Weather has been way too nice to ride anything but the motorcycle. I think my scanguage is not doing a very good job of measuring intake temps, as I am getting reading all over the map lately.

If all goes well this tank will end somewhere above 35mpg. Several trips have netted me close to 40, and I only had 1 trip where I was hauling stuff in the box.