air vs. cold air

[bear108]

Would like to know if any one can tell me if the big cone air filter under the hood, is worth keeping or to go with the hole in the fender and running it that way? Not opposed to either, just wanted to know if the hole in the fender way is that much better or noticable? Thanks you all for your help in advance.

 

[bubba-dough]

I personally would go with the fenderwell mount. Cooler air. Less turbulant air. One that just sits under the hood out in the open is drawing hot air from under the hood. As well as air that is being aggrevated by the fan and whatnot.

just my opinion though.

 

[Foxfan88]

its not grabbing "cold" air. its grabbing normal air as opposed to the hot air under the hood. But yeah the fender would be cool and it looks good.

 

[Euphoric306]

hmm... i wonder if it would bide any well to rigg up a system that cools air like an a/c unit and then routes it to the air filter... for a real cold air intake...

then again a supercharger might be cheaper and produce better results

 

[DMAN302]

look great..don't do a damn thing for performance.

 

[Got N2O]

look great..don't do a damn thing for performance.

People always say that. I got 7 rwhp from mine, and that was over a K&N panel and C&L76mm inlet tube. I wish I had tested the little stock ripple tube, because I know the gain would have been even greater! On a stock car a K&N panel is probably the way to go, a good (big) CAI looks good, and might make some power for you.

 

[sgarlic]

I think Kenne Bell said it best in their "tech info" PDF file.

"Let's all sit back and take a deep breath of fresh air (cool air.) Now, crawl under the hood of your vehicle, lay across the engine, close the hood over yourself, and take a deep breath of all that hot air from the radiator fan (160-200 degrees,) the engine (160-220 degrees,) and headers (up to 1000 degrees.) ...Why do you think that for the last 25 years every vehicle manufacturer on the planet avoids hot underhood air and fan wash like the plague, and instead draws cool dense air from the fenderwell, cowl, or hood scoops?"

 

[Foxfan88]

that reminds me, at long john silvers where i work we have this -7 deg freezer and whenever i go in and i think to myself. "Man its so easy to breathe, i bet a car would run AWESOME in here."
Oh and a question. Since people put intercoolers on a tubro setup. i know turbos make air hot so they use the intercooler to cool the air. Is it just making it less hot or is it actually making "cold" air??

 

[Got N2O]

less hot unless they use some sort of cryo spray bar or something.... then they might get cold/below ambiant

 

[Euphoric306]

think about it this way foxfan... the intercooler has outside air (room temperature or above usually) running through the intercooler, which cools a hot coolant that takes heat from the intake (supposing an intercooler works the same as a radiator right)

so theres no possible way that the coolat would ever get below the outside temperature

now if ur running in alaska at 2am then maybe itll cool the intake down a bunch, but ur in oklahoma and i doubt temperatures see the 40 degree range anytime of day

 

[Daniel50]

nitrous gives out really cold air....

 

[Euphoric306]

thats because nitrous is room temperature at very high pressure, so when its released, it expands very much and loses a lot of energy doing this... the energy is lost in the form of heat

 

[88 Fox GT]

at this thread.

An intake system sucking air from under the hood will kill your power, period.

Mount it to the fender so it sucks in air from outside the engine compartment.

No CAI is going to give you much of a seat of the pants feeling anyway. The best advantage you get is that it looks good and you will hear a much louder intake sucking/growling noise from under the hood.

 

[Allforspeed]

i fixed most of my hunting idle by going to a march ram air system over a big cone filter under the hood, i think the fan was blowing hot air on the maf and causing it to freak out, i see cheap as crap cold air kits on ebay for 20$ by the hundred, get one of those and put your cone K&N filter on it and your set, i know replacing that corrugated elbow with the C&L elbow is worth about 3 rwhp, ive seen it dynoed with my own eyes, you can find used march ram airs cheap on ebay, i got mine for 27$ shipped

btw: i think its pretty hard to tell anything less than 10hp or so by seat of the pants, but every HP adds up and you totally see it when you race your buddy who used to just edge you out, or why does that car with basically the same set up run faster than everyone else? every little bit counts....

 

[Got N2O]

be carefull with the CAI's too. When I tried the C&L meter on my CAI it went so lean that the dyno operator had to shut it down by about 3k RPM. Clocking/bumping fuel pressure wouldn't help. Throwing on the Pro-M fixed it. C&L will tell you there meters are designed to run through the stock airbox. Using one on a CAI without checking the A/F ratio is russian roulette.

 

[QDRHRSE]

.....a long time ago at band camp we debated this same issue. My friend Mike Yount had nothing better to do so he got a thermometer and stuck it under the hood of his Volvo and drove around.....then, still with nothing better to do, he took the same thermometer and put it in the fender well and drove around. I don't remember the exact readings but the difference was so dramatic that it was clear that a fenderwell air is much cooler. A cold air kit is by no means a waste of money. Come on Mike! I know your out there. Back me up.