hi team,

can somebody speak to me about the safety of having a ram air system with our fd's?
i can easily route a pipe from one of the openings in the front of the stock bumper straight into the center of my cone intake( intake was designed for attachment of ram air tube.

my concern is about water being pushed straight into the intake and being ingested by the engine.
is this a valid concern?
or does it not matter atall.
i am only worried about heavy, heavy rain in FL, and not about driving through deep puddles.
thanks for the experience/input.

 

My understanding of ram air would be that it would be pretty pointless, or at least would not have any effect, on anything other than a normally aspirated engine. In effect, ram air is just hoping to slightly pressurize your intake charge (which worked great on the bike I had), but a turbo far exceeds any effect that you would see from ram air. However, you may see some benefit from the cooler air.

Water injestion should not be a concern. Small amounts of water are actually intentially poured into rotaries by some to steam clean them, and water injection is used by others to allow more boost without the risk of detonation. But I might be a little concerned if it was a true scoop that could catch a huge splash of water like if the road was flooded. You might want to allow a way for the water to get out before it gets to the intake.

But take all this with a grain of salt...just my opinion!

 

i agree with the better benifits on a N/A rx. but, im looking for the much, much cooler air charge..
the inlets of the pipes have to bend up, so im not worried about a huge puddle making its way up it, my concern is still with the heavy rain. there is a GUARANTEEDamount of water to make its way in.



so ive got one opinion, water wont effect my engine.
still need more input, thank you tailhappy.
anyone else?

 

I agree with TailHappy. I doubt you'll ingest enough water to make it an issue (unless you drive the car into a river or something).

 

BTW, I guess you are thinking of doing something like the RX-7.com car?

 

thats exactly right.
but they dont have to worry about everyday driving.

alright, ill do it, because i think mahjik always knows what he's talking about.

but, if there is anybody that has had a bad experience please post it.
thanks, rajeev

 

You wouldnt believer how many hondas i've seen with seized engines because of their cold intake that is placed inside their fenders. Weird things happen when you try to compress water, especially in high rpms. I
've see one engine with a hole in the block where the rod broke off because of the ingested water. The effects of ram air are misleading because it usually incorporates cold air into the equation. In my opinion the cold air is more beneficial than the ram air. Why not just buy one of those tornado things and put in right infront of the turbo, this way you get twice the power and three times the gas mileage. Jk

 

You don't need to worry about the water..

but what you do need to worry about, is the bugs, rocks, dust, sand, etc that you will suck up if you are doing it like the rx7.com car.

 

I would assume he is still going to filter it (or I would hope) if it's going to be street driven.

I've actually thought about doing something like this for a winter project.

 

That is not just your opinion, it is fact. Ram air is complex physics because it is wave based. You need to find the volume of the intake track and factor it with the area of the outside (of the car) opening to determine at what rmp the positive air pressure wave will get to the intake port. Even if you do, to pressurize the air enough to give a 3% power gain you will need to be going about 150 mph. Because it is an exponential gain you would only see <1% gain at 75mph. The real benefit is not pulling hot air from the engine bay and they sound awesome.

KneeDragonR1

 

If you notice one thing about the people that have posted to this thread, its that they don’t live in Florida. I lived in Tampa for 13 years before moving to So Cal and I can say that afternoon "monsoons" are a common occurrence. I had an acquaintance I worked with who did just what you are considering rajeevx (on a 5.0 mustang - this is going back about 8 years) and he had to replace his engine when he made a right turn into low lying water and flooded his block. Bottom line is that it’s up to you. However, being that you live in semi-tropic conditions and it pretty much rains every day in the summer means you may or may not have a problem down the road.

Just my .002 cents.

 

thank you all for the valuable insight.
i did notice a couple posts that didnt pick up the fact that i'm not looking for the compressed air factor, but the colder intake factor.
i have two pipes to each intake, one goes through the little gap to the left of the radiator and the other leads to a small funnel that i placed in the mouth opening in the very upper left corner, discretley mind you.
so ....
i wont connect the one at the underbelly straight into the cone, but i will run a direct pipe from the one in the mouth. thanks guys.
ps...why would i need to filter the incoming air? im going to hook it straight to the turbine!

J/J

 

you could also put an Air Bypass Valve from AEM.

here is the link

http://www.aempower.com/induction.htm

 

Did you ever think about the differences of an air intake on a N/A verses a turbo-charged car?

Sure, if you dump a ton of water directly into the cylinders it's not going to be good for the engine. However, the air is going into his turbos first. I seriously doubt he'll get enough water all the way back there to cause any damage. At most, with the temps of the turbos he might get a little steam action if that happens but I doubt it will happen at all unless he submerges the car...