Intake assisting radiator?
 

I had a weird idea that probably is stupid, but I figure I'd post it anyways.

What would happen if you did a partial grillblock, and to assist radiator cooling, you pipe the air intake to suck air straight through the radiator to a normal airfilter box?

Air through the radiator would be potentially warmer, and it would also aid cooling without using the fan.
Could also potentially "detune" the engine by reducing the WOT air intake.

I like it, I had a spare oil cooler in the garage that looked about the right size for the job. That might even be made to fit in the airbox. Your cooling system just got a bit more complicated though, but probably manageable.

Sounds good to me.

I suppose if I were being critical, it might not make sense. I mean you are taking heat from the engine and putting it back in the engine. I don't think it will reduce the need for an external radiator now that I think about it.

my idea was to keep the upper grill blocked, and then pipe some kind of smooth hose to the airbox

My car by default has an incredibly restrictive multipart cold air intake.

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/3310/factintake.jpg

If I take off the bottom piece, and then pipe from the top piece... It may help.

Remember, the large majority of heat that is inside the cylinder ends up going down the exhaust pipe, into the engine block, so that heat thats taken back in would for the most part not heat the engine.

Its kind of like the same concept of straining the engine to use a fan. The strain makes the engine produce more heat, but the fan overcomes it.

At worst it should break even, and be a warm air intake.

If you wanted to get really tricky, you could theoretically build a mini radiator that goes over a metal intake tube, before hitting the normal radiator, and then suck air off the radiator itself.

here's what u do u put a water intake cooler (it's a kit i saw that they run cold water through from a ice box in race cars i think:o) and instead of runing cold water u run the antifreeze through it u cold keep the engine cool that way to but if i remember right they say that for every 60 degrees increase in intake temps is about a 200 degree increase in exhaust temps generaly speaking of course.


p.s the intake liquid cooler i saw was 3 inch intake and exit and about 6 inches in the middle for the added area

Just imagine if car manufactures had front and rear wheel covers, smooth underbody, sealed cracks, insulated exhaust for velocity, leanburn engines, unrestricted cat (not nessessary on lean burn), less than 12 degree drops on back, automatically variable (thermally variable) grill block, smooth wheel covers, self pumping tires, and intake assisted radiator cooling...

It could suck through the radiator, and have the radiator fluid be piped through the intake in small tubes back and forth for direct cooling.
Have it partially replace the electric radiator fan :P

Ugh the engineering makes me giggly

I'm not sure the vacuum of the engine is going to do anything really special to bring more air through the radiator, and the heat from the radiator is going to be no where as good from a WAI standpoint as air from somewhere else in the engine bay.