Air Intake Temps

[Flametail]

Has anyone actually tried taking readings of intake temps with different intake setups? I have found only one thread by searching "air intake temp"(or something to that effect). Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't a CAI simply take ambient air in? The only way to get true cold(er) air in would be run an intercooler just for the intake but that would be pretty redundant for a N/A engine. Correct? So the closest to "cold air" would just be ambient temps, which depending on area could be to some benefit when under the hood temps could get to +100* and an ambient temp of (say) 70* would be much better.

[Xenocide]

I am sure it can be done, but many on this board say it over and over again and no one seems to listen. You don't make much if any power from an intake. Yes the closer you get it to ambient temperature air the better, but being in an engine there are only so many places you can locate an air filter. Once the engine gets heatsoaked its six of one half a dozen the other.

Just put it as far away and as isolated away from the engine as you can without excessive bends or restrictions in tubing.

If you want to take measurements be my guest, your wasting your time for 2hp.

[Flametail]

I'm not necessarily looking at HP gains. Just curiosity mostly. Could colder air provide more things than more HP? Like better MPGs, although small i'm sure since nothing on the M42(or 44) provides much in HP or MPG gains.

[tiFreak]

I've got the Cosmo Racing intake that comes out behind the bumper, I'm thinking it gets plenty of cold air down there, but it doesn't provide much, if any, horsepower or mpg improvements, it does making a sucking/whistling sound at high rpms though, you might be able to fool people into thinking it's supercharged :lol:

[Xenocide]

You may be able to convince a ricer, but no it sounds nothing like a supercharged engine.

[gimp]

An intercooler could never lower the air charge to a temperature below ambient. DO NOT put an intercooler on a N/A car. All you are doing is adding a restriction and looking like a fool.

The best you can hope for is ambient, and when that is compared to the temp inside the engine compartment, that's pretty good. Just find a fresh air source and be happy.

[bullmand]

Yes. I've taken intake air temperature readings. In fact, I do it every time I drive the car. There's a thread I put up here somewhere about it. I'm using the stock airbox with the M42/M44 dual intake mod as detailed in the Notebook section of this site. The reading I see is from the factory intake air temp sensor located in the top half of the airbox assembly. With this mod the temperatures are normally within a few degrees of ambient while the car is moving. For the record, I also put some Dynamat on the surfaces of the airbox that face the radiator and coolant hoses, but that didn't appear to have much affect on the temperatures. When the car is not moving (idling in traffic, parked with a hot engine, etc.) the air intake temperature can get quite high (mid hundreds depending on the weather). Short of removing the driver side headlight and running some dryer vent hose directly to the outside I can't imagine you're going to find a setup that gets all the way down to ambient air temp. There's just too much heat under the hood. Two to three degrees (which is what I normally see) is probably the best you could hope for.

Update: here's the original thread I posted about all this.

http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=13903