Ram Air vs. HAI vs. Warm Ram Air.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Tygen1

I've only just recently started watching the MAF, like Tuesday It seems to be right in line with the GPH readings, they seem to follow each other.

Well, that means that unless you can restrict the intake's volume while keeping the intake cold, you're not going to get an accurate result during the tests to tell if cold air is better than hot air for a given volume.

Not that your test doesn't depict real world circumstances, but I wonder what would happen if you were pulling in the same volume of air at a different temp/pressure?

[Tygen1]

We have a Snow Delay...not sure if I can do any testing this coming weekend.

Woke up to 20" of snow and 100' of driveway to dig out by hand shovel.

Enjoy the pic's for now!

[Christ]

I bet your cold air intake would be effective now... :P

[Tygen1]

Ok, I removed the Cold Ram Air last weekend and have been running underhood air thru this week. Average MPG is pretty much the same. However, as I suspected, with the underhood temps being around 70 degrees vs. outside temps being 20-30 degrees, I have seen much better gph numbers while coasting. .18 to .21 is what I'm seeing now. This has made it much easier to attain the results that I was really struggling with the Cold Ram Air. Test will be forthcoming. It's just too cold right now to do this sort of work on my paito. I hope to test some CAD aeromods while I wait for milder temps....

[Tygen1]

Seems it may take some time for this saga to play out... It was warm this weekend so I took some time to replace a dead engine block heater and figured that while I had the coolant drained I would put the extra heater core in. The placement was very difficult because some AC lines are right in the way, so I just stuck it down in a cavity and blocked off the top with some cardboard with a dryer duct on the end of the intake snorkle routed thru the cardboard. I don't think there is enough air moving thru the heater core because the IAT is only 15 to 20 degrees higher than ambient, or the same as underhood temps...hmm. I beleive this will really need a sealed system to get some heat transfer, Otherwise it is in and working. It was a pain to get the air out of the coolling system with the extra heater core.

[wdb]

Very interesting experiments. Subscribing for interest. I just rigged up a tube on my Fit to pull warmer-than-ambient air into the intake from the general vicinity of the exhaust manifold, and initial results seem to indicate an improvement over the absolutely dismal MPGs I was getting in December with the stock kinda-sorta-'ram' CAI.

If control over IAT is what you are after, how about adapting a heat riser system from a 70's - 80's American car? Basically, they draw air either from a hose connected to a metal box over top of the exhaust header OR directly in via the air cleaner snorkel; a vacuum-operated flap determines which. You could use a cable to control the flap. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about.

[Tygen1]

I am aware of the "heat riser" system and chose not go that route because I tested mine out and found I was only getting 40 degrees above ambient, I wanted more heat. I also wanted to get more radiator capcity so I can run more grill block, so why not use my motor to pull air thru a heater core

The commute to work this morning confirmed that it is only very slightly better than underhood air, I don't think any real heat trasfer is happening in that extra heater core. The only thing I noticed is that the intake temps slowly increased, after an hour they were around 30-40 degrees above ambient. I'm going to have to think of a way to seal this off to use the intake to pull air thru...

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Tygen1

I am aware of the "heat riser" system and chose not go that route because I tested mine out and found I was only getting 40 degrees above ambient, I wanted more heat. I also wanted to get more radiator capcity so I can run more grill block, so why not use my motor to pull air thru a heater core

The commute to work this morning confirmed that it is only very slightly better than underhood air, I don't think any real heat trasfer is happening in that extra heater core. The only thing I noticed is that the intake temps slowly increased, after an hour they were around 30-40 degrees above ambient. I'm going to have to think of a way to seal this off to use the intake to pull air thru...

Funny, I was thinking of playing around with the Storm that I got, since it has a spun rod bearing, instead of rebuilding or replacing the engine, I"m going to pull two opposing cylinders and run it as a parallel twin.

If that works out, with the way I'll drive it, I'll probably remove the entire cooling system and run a heater core and a forced air channel instead! That should be sufficient to cool <30HP, I'd think, especially when part of the engine itself will be acting like a heat sink, rather than producing heat.

If you can find an old airbox that the core fits in, seal the core into the airbox and put it in your intake line with the filter in front of the core (so it doesn't get plugged).

[Tygen1]

I've got more space constaints than I first thought. The only way around this is to relocate the battery and remove the AC lines. I may have to do some radical relocation of this additional heater core and and put it under the front bumper where there is room to make a sealed box. It would also make the ram air part easier to fab.

[Christ]

I see. I look forward to visual updates! (hint, hint).