design flaw : F20A 's air intake gets useless heat from radiator*coolant

jim beam wrote in news:0PadnVa-YJrl1AbZnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@speakeasy.net:

Radiated heat (from the engine) gets absorbed by other things under the hood,including the underhood air.Thus,it's retained.

these are all SHORT RAMs,-not- COLD air intakes(CAI) ;BIG difference. CAIs are longer,and run down through the wheel well to draw cooler air from outside the engine compartment.(thru the original intake's passage.) that is why HT's tests showed only 5-7 HP for short rams and 20 HP for the CAIs,and torque increases for the CAIs but not the short rams. Air temp was the big difference.

No need to;there's an opening available stock;the Honda/Acura intake is quite complex,and convoluted.the resonator tank and associated plumbing is unseen,hidden in the wheelwell in front of the wheel,you have to remove the wheelwell liner just to see it.(personal experience!)

I have seen where some folks made their own ducting and air box to supply the short ram with cold air.

I don't have the magazine anymore. I haven't found it on HT's site anymore,either.

"Jim Yanik" wrote

The following treats the rams but says the CAI modifications weren't yet available. Maybe you can improve on the search and turn up your article.

Of course as I'm sure you know, Jim Yanik, colder air means more dense air, which means for the same volume of air flow into an engine cylinder, more fuel may be admitted. So of course engine power can increase and substantially. (OTOH, as has been discussed here in the past, this does not necessarily translate to more overall fuel efficiency for the car. For one thing, if the air is cooler because of lower ambient temperature, then the car sees more wind resistance.) Certain industrial size diesel engines, for one, have an air cooler built into them to increase power.

Whether these seemingly popular (according to the makers who have plastered the net with their claims?) aftermarket CAI devices do anything meaningful is still not clear without more information. I see the ads claiming up to 15% more power.

I'm sure this subject is beaten to death on Usenet...

I do not see how leaving the screws loose on the air intake cover affects air intake temperature in any meaningful way, though. Maybe Beam has backed off this assertion.

That one was hard to top, at least without a tinfoil hat.

Mike

dude, the engine's at 78C. that's warm to the touch, but it's nothing from a radiant heat standpoint. what you're feeling is convective heat, primarily wafting around from the [very hot] exhaust and the radiator.

they're all /sold/ as cai's:

like every single item on that page.

respectfully, i disagree. the effect being observed is dynamic supercharging. otherwise the length of the tube would make no difference, it would be purely air temp. seriously jim, the effect of airflow dynamics are huge. you're right, a lower air temp helps, sometimes by a noticeable amount, but it's chicken feed compared to a mismatch between a given intake tube's resonance and rpm's. that's why you'll find variable-geometry intake manifold systems on a fair number of modern un-turboed cars, but air cooling only on turbos where air temps can increase significantly. and even then, intercoolers are more to help reduce detonation effects of inducing hot air than they are to increase air density.

i know about the resonator. my first civic had had it's resonator removed for some reason i never figured out. performance sucked until i replaced it.

sure. and integras take air in from under the front bumper. but that's still better than the products sold as "cai" because they have nothing to do with cold air!

well, i looked online and finding any article that mentions actual air temp readings, let alone one from a moving vehicle, takes /way/ more patience than i've got.

LOf*ingL! I'm going to save this one! :)

Anyone give me odds he also drains the windshield washer to reduce weight? Doesn't mount the front plate (if his state issues 2)?

Does anyone know Chea's country of origin ("petrol", "felt", etc.)?

And does he have a pet? ;)