Ram Air/CAI

[djb383]

Has anyone modified their air intake so that the inlet is located behind the grille? It would seem to me that the air pressure (on a moving vehicle) would be much greater at the (almost vertical) grille versus the inlet on a (almost horizontal) hood.Update: click

[MadBill]

"Ram Air" is a great sounding concept, but the reality is the effect is negligible below about 100 MPH. (theoretically 1.2%, or ~2 HP for a 2ZZ, realistically a bit less) It goes up as the square of the speed, so at 140 it is a still modest 2.3% or ~4 HP. Of course any power gain is better than none...

[northvibe]

the ram air hoods could help bluecrush just found the good looking hoods for salehttp://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=19457

[BlueCrush]

I can't take credit for finding it. ArcsVibe posted the link to the Website back at the end of June. Thanks, Arcs!

[northvibe]

well....but u are responsible for finding and make that new thread......

[djb383]

Did my home made Ram Air/CAI last night. I removed the stock air tube and ran 2.5" dia. shop vac hose from the base of the air filter box to the small plastic grill piece located next to the drivers side fog lamp. I cut a hole the same size as the vac hose in the small grill piece and fit the vac hose through it. No more under hood hot air at the intake plus some ram air effect at highway speed and still have the easy to change factory air filter. The (removed) DYNO tells me there is improved throttle response.

[BlueCrush]

Post some pics!

[djb383]

Sorry, no camera - yet.

[northvibe]

bug a friend for one thats what i do....

[mcgusto82]

i've got a ram air project in the works. actually in the mail.

[mcgusto82]

i just got it in the mail today. yay!!!!

[mcgusto82]

Quote, originally posted by djb383 »Hope this is a picture of my Ram Air/CAI in the file attachment. so that cavity goes straight to the intake pipe? or to a difuser adjacent to the filter?

[djb383]

I removed the battery first. this makes it easier to remove the factory air intake tube from the bottom of the filter box and replace it with 2.5" shop vac tube. The 2.5" tube runs from the small grille piece (photo), up through a round hole beside the battery, and then into the bottom of the factory filter box (where the original tube entered the filter box). No mods to the filter box or filter. Now the air inlet is located in a high pressure area (at speed) and completely isolated from under-hood hot air. Another benefit is that the factory system is all plastic which rejects under-hood engine heat. Most of the aftermarket CAI are metal and absorb under-hood engine heat which is transferred to the air inside the tube just before it enters the engine (but they look cool). My cost was $0.00 since I had some tube laying around. If you don't have any 2.5" shop vac hose, it can be purchased from any hardware store for +/- $20.00 for an 8' piece which is still cheap for a cool Ram Air/CAI and gives you plenty of extra if you cut it too short and have to start over.

[mcgusto82]

wow that's interesting. however with a shop vac line. you inherit the ridges. this will cause turbulance. ALOT. it can slow down wind speed. created the effect of a funnel. you pour enough water onto a funnel, water will start spilling and instead of going in with force, it will spill it's force over.see about one of those "tornados"have you tried getting it dyno'd?if you do. take high preasure air and shoot it a few feet in front. kinda like creating the moving effect.

[djb383]

In reality, there is very little turbulence ahead of the throttle body. The turbulence is on the back side (engine side) of the throttle body and is caused by the throttle blade or butterfly, especially when only slightly open. The throttle blade is really the only obstacle in the intake system, but it has to be there so engine speed can be varied. At 70 mph in overdrive the throttle blade is only slightly open. Ahead of the throttle body is a large volume of slow moving air and behind the throttle body is a small volume of fast moving air. Even a small increase in air pressure, ahead of the throttle body, will more than compensate for any restriction in the intake ahead of the throttle body. Again, under most driving conditions, the air ahead of the throttle body is slow moving and when the air inlet is in front of the vehicle cool outside air is packed into the air intake ahead of the throttle body. Granted, some of this changes at WOT but 99.9999% of your driving is not at WOT.

[mcgusto82]

tu che'.

[djb383]

I went to your ride on cardomain.com - you have some really cool mods, especially the scoop!

[mcgusto82]

thanks. i hope you rated it.

[binary]

Quote, originally posted by djb383 »Another benefit is that the factory system is all plastic which rejects under-hood engine heat. Most of the aftermarket CAI are metal and absorb under-hood engine heat which is transferred to the air inside the tube just before it enters the engine (but they look cool). Black plastic will absorb more heat than any painted metal CAI tube... especially compared to the chrome or polished CAI tubes - they reflect radiant heat like a mirror.

[djb383]

You may want to check a little further. Chrome will reflect light, but it absorbs and holds heat like crazy. No plastic will retain heat like metal will.

[Edgar]

How is that low intake in the rain? I thought about a similar mode for a Probe I had a while back, but changed my mind after imagining my ram-air mod turning into a ram-water mod. It looks like water would have to travel upwards quite a ways to get to the air filter, so whether high speeds in heavy rain would create enough force to make it up there seems unlikely. How do the ram air induction kits that use a hood intake keep water out of the engine? Is there some sort of bypass or something?

[northvibe]

with the ram air hoods if you look on the underside you can see they drop down for the scoop and back up a little to the air exit hole.

[BlueCrush]

There is a ridge and weep holes to block and drain any water before it reaches the opening for the air filter. You can see them in this pic:

[racersforford]

well, teamzx2.com did an intake shootout, and they did a ram air just like what you are talking about, and the ram air showed a 3.7hp gain with a K&N filter, while after market intakes such as Iceman had a 2.4 hp gain. These results could kinda fit this topic

[Psychobroker]

Quote, originally posted by djb383 »Has anyone modified their air intake so that the inlet is located behind the grille? It would seem to me that the air pressure (on a moving vehicle) would be much greater at the (almost vertical) grille versus the inlet on a (almost horizontal) hood.Update: click I dunno, a gerbil's just waiting to crawl up into that exposed tube..

[Dezz1]

I've been thinking about establishing a similar project, but I am afraid of moisture, and turbalance problems.

[Sharpeye]

I just finished the mod. I found a shop vac hose for a dollar at a yard sale and it went right in. I zip tied it to the lower portion of the bumper in the opening next to the foglight. It's a foot above the pavement. Water will have to travel upwards through the hose about two feet through four feet of hose, so I'm not worried about that. The grooves of the vac hose also will help keep water from traveling through. I have better throttle response, and I'll have an exact gain to mpg when I tank up. I've gone 100 miles so far and the guage says I'm getting better mileage.As for gain in hp, hard to tell. I started out with 130, if I have a few more, it's hard to tell.

[J-freakie]

Quote, originally posted by Sharpeye »I just finished the mod. I found a shop vac hose for a dollar at a yard sale and it went right in. I zip tied it to the lower portion of the bumper in the opening next to the foglight. It's a foot above the pavement. Water will have to travel upwards through the hose about two feet through four feet of hose, so I'm not worried about that. The grooves of the vac hose also will help keep water from traveling through. I have better throttle response, and I'll have an exact gain to mpg when I tank up. I've gone 100 miles so far and the guage says I'm getting better mileage.Your not really going to find a HUGE difference in HP. Especially if an intake is your only mod. You almost have to get a whole new exhaust system AND a bigger TB. danAs for gain in hp, hard to tell. I started out with 130, if I have a few more, it's hard to tell.

[Sharpeye]

I found an elbow with a 3 inch opening and mounted in the space next to the foglamp to get some more air. It worked, I have a little more power. Mostly above 35mph I can feel the extra. The intake sounds a little better too.Any recommendation on a good exhaust, without getting too noisy?

[djb383]

Post some pics of the elbow and how you mounted it.My system still works very well and since I have the ScanGauge, I can see that my inlet air temp is always within 1 or 2 degrees of outside air temp proving it works well as a CAI.

[Sharpeye]

I think I'll get a pvc elbow that looks better and post some pics of it. The tin one works, but looks cheap if you look closely.Does your scan guage show what speed gives us the best gas mileage?

[Sharpeye]

My mileage shows 29.7mph since doing the ramair mod. Prior to that, I was getting 28mph. These results are from the first tankful of gas, so it may not be exact.

[Sharpeye]

Well, I just returned from Florida (posted this in the other forum also) and got 34mpg at 70-75mph. That's 2mpg better than stock. Most of the time, I traveled at 80-85 and got 30mpg.I also am running new traction ta's, larger than stock, 60's instead of 55's.