What I built today...

[makenzie71]

I wanted a short ram intake on my car but I didn't like the idea of sucking in hot engine bay air OR buying a $200 shield...so I whipped out the carbon fiber and resin and made my own.







I'll be using this one to build a concrete mold...at that point I'll smooth out the surfaces as it's hard to make a nice, smooth finnish from an aluminum foil mock-up.  I also need to heat up my rubber trim as this stuff doesn't handle 90* angles well.

Here's a clip...

http://www.photoartclub.net/shield/cfbox.mpg

[pantablo]

thats very pretty but isnt the point of those intakes to get to cold air so you're supposed to suck air from the wheel well or some place other than the engine bay....?

[makenzie71]

It draws air in through the stock cold air vent (nearly every EFI car for the last 25 years came from the factory with a cold air intake).  It's under the headlight and draws from right behind the bumper.  You can't see it but it's basically a 24sq/in hole right under the filter.

[pantablo]

but the stock one gets the cold air through the engin bay? thats what you're saying? hmm. then hats off to you!

[CirclesCenter]

Damnit Mak, why do you have to come in here and be all cool and make all of us look like bumbling toddlers with a half set of legos?

[makenzie71]

but the stock one gets the cold air through the engin bay? thats what you're saying? hmm. then hats off to you!

No....the stock intake draws air from outside the engine bay.  Like I said, there's a vent right behind the headlight.  The box seals off the engine bay air so that the new intake only draws through the same vent.

[makenzie71]

Damnit Mak, why do you have to come in here and be all cool and make all of us look like bumbling toddlers with a half set of legos?

get off your butt and build something...that's all I do (I get off my butt...not yours).

[CirclesCenter]

I do, but compared to fracking wind turbines and laying carbon fiber a shelving unit is just lame.

[makenzie71]

nah dude what you do is list specifications...

Instead of saying "I built a shelving unit", say:

Today I was rummaging around walmart looking for a nifty new storage setup because the cinder blacks and plywood at home was getting a bit tacky.  I said what the hell and decided to pick up one of those ready to assembly things they keep in housewares and brought it home.  Putting it together was a pain in the ass becaue the little plastic caps you're supposed to use to hold the bastard together kept breaking if you hit them with a hammer...but it wasn't possible to thumb the bastards in.  Then the 6 inch long screws provided would just rip the caps apart so I had to run to the hardware store and get some nickel plated 2.5" phillips head wood screws.  After a couple hours of assembly time and at least a pickle jar's worth of swearing and a band-aid later I had the thing put together.  The hardest part of the whole thing, though, was getting rid of my cinder blocks and plywood...I'd developed a fondness for them having had the setup since college.  What do you guys think?

(then add like 50 pictures)

ta do...the appearance of having accomplished something.

[pantablo]

but the stock one gets the cold air through the engin bay? thats what you're saying? hmm. then hats off to you!

No....the stock intake draws air from outside the engine bay. Like I said, there's a vent right behind the headlight. The box seals off the engine bay air so that the new intake only draws through the same vent.

so, besides using CF, what improvement did you make?

and what improvement is the cold air intake make in general, since its sold as a upgrade to most cars? I dont think all cars pull air from outside the engine bay.

[makenzie71]

Just about all of them do, actually...I'm not sure what you drive, but if you go pop the hood and look at where the air actually pulls in from there'll be a vent to ambient air.  For example, my RX-7 had a snorkle that stretched out over the radiator and drew air in from the front grill.  My supras' intake went under the passenger side headlight and drew from behind the bumper (a design shared amongst all Supras).  My Focus has a vent that went up in front of the driver's headlight or in the wheel well I can't remember.  My F150 shares a similar setup, drawing from the wheel well.  Etc...

The gain is that most factory air boxes are very restrictive...the S2000 is the only car I can think of that has an airbox hard to improve upon.  Along with being restrictive, they're volumous...something that's done almost specifically to lower a car's powerband (not reduce, but to bring down to a more usable rpm range).

There are two basic means of replacing the factory air box for a performance gain...one is called a short-ram (pictured here) and the other is called a cold air intake (CAI).  Both have benefits and draw backs.

A short ram's biggest benefit is the ultimate reduction in intake resistance without massive redesign of the intake manifold.  A short ram usually replaces everything in front of the air meter.  The drawbacks to a short rame are that it's unshielded and draws in engine bay air and that it raises the powerband.  The first can be fixed (as shown), the latter isn't a hassle.

A cold air intake offers the coldest intake charge, but at the expense of complexity (a lot actually require cutting the car) and intake resistance (they're long).  Cold air intakes also offer the possabillity of hydro-locking in special circumstances due to the filter being located fairly close to the ground.

A short ram with a heat shield as shown here is the best of both worlds and typically offers the best performance gains numerically.

The basics of why having a colder air charge is beneficial I'm sure I do not have to explain.

here's some intake readings drawn up earlier this weekend with my aluminum foil mock-up of the shield pictured above

Intake temps as tested Friday while cruising the interstate...94*f ambient, 34% humidity, 3000rpm (75~80mph), water temps 178*f. Stock box was equiped with a K&N filter and WOT measurements were read in 5th gear with a 3000 to 4000 rpm pull, temperatures noted at 4000rpm.

Stock airbox ~ 101*f WOT 97*f
Ram intake ~ 118*f WOT 124*f
Ram + shield ~ 99*f WOT 96*f

Each temp was taken per mile for 10 miles and averaged. Though many of you might find it hard to fathom, the lowest temps recorded were with the stock airbox...95*f.

[CirclesCenter]

nah dude what you do is list specifications...

Instead of saying "I built a shelving unit", say:

Today I was rummaging around walmart looking for a nifty new storage setup because the cinder blacks and plywood at home was getting a bit tacky.  I said what the hell and decided to pick up one of those ready to assembly things they keep in housewares and brought it home.  Putting it together was a pain in the ass becaue the little plastic caps you're supposed to use to hold the bastard together kept breaking if you hit them with a hammer...but it wasn't possible to thumb the bastards in.  Then the 6 inch long screws provided would just rip the caps apart so I had to run to the hardware store and get some nickel plated 2.5" phillips head wood screws.  After a couple hours of assembly time and at least a pickle jar's worth of swearing and a band-aid later I had the thing put together.  The hardest part of the whole thing, though, was getting rid of my cinder blocks and plywood...I'd developed a fondness for them having had the setup since college.  What do you guys think?

(then add like 50 pictures)

ta do...the appearance of having accomplished something.

You think I'm that rich? AHAHAHAH I found some scrap on a construction site and liberated it. Then I went Hmm, WTF can i do with this?

[makenzie71]

So you whipped something useful up from the crap you had gathered?  That's like alotofgazillion times better.

[pantablo]

The gain is that most factory air boxes are very restrictive...the S2000 is the only car I can think of that has an airbox hard to improve upon. Along with being restrictive, they're volumous...something that's done almost specifically to lower a car's powerband (not reduce, but to bring down to a more usable rpm range).

got it.
97 acura integra. I think there's a cai for my car that does not require cutting. several actually. but, I dont race anymore so I figured I'd leave well enough alone.

[CirclesCenter]

Yeah but shelving doesn't add horsepower.

[makenzie71]

pablo...there's a vent under and slightly in front of your filter box...that's it's air supply.  There really aren't a lot of true CAI's for that generation of the teggy that don't require cutting...most "claimed" cai's simply put the filter over the vent but do not block it from engine bay air.  Big reason to replace the factory airbox on the 94~on Integras is because of the rather small vent the engine has to breath through.

I don't race, either...I just like making things.  Plus this will be a $100~175 addition to Mak's Kitchen.  That's a big reason why I spend so much time trying to come up with stuff like this...I use it as an income.

[pantablo]

funny, I do the opposite. I do kitchens which pay for

wheels

[makenzie71]

haha real work to pay for toys instead of toying with real work to pay bills...rofl

[cuda_06]

Also, there are many more factors to include when thinking about why these improve on the factory airbox.  Some of the other reasons why a factory airbox is restrictive has more to do with design than position.  When manufacturing a mass production vehicle there are many things that take precendence over maximum hp.  One of the biggest of these reasons is sound.  There are baffles, turns and just basic design elements in factory boxes that are not as conducive to maximum flow as they are to sound deadening.  Most of the other reasons simply get into the accountant vs the engineer and we all know who wins that battle.