Im using the Apexi kit with the large front mount intercooler. Living in Louisiana, the intake air temperature before the cooler is around 160 and after the cooler is around 90-100.( i know that these temperatures are no that extreme) but, Question, Has anyone tried to make a "Cold air intake pipe" on a single kit to move the filter away from the front of the radiator to try to drop the intake air even before it hits the turbo, or is this a waste of time and not really worth the effort??? Will Moving the filter away from the inlet of the turbo cause air volume loss, or will this be offset by the cooler denser air??? Just wanting to see if anyone has tried this. thanks!!!!

 

People are reading this , ANYONE!!!!!!!

 

Do any of you "single" guys even monitor you intake air temperature???

 

The only car that I have seen something like this on is the Rx7.com car. It has like a 4 in. flexible tube run down to the opening on the front passenger side of the car. I think that finding a way for this tube to run up to your intake would be a pain in the ***. Try using some sheetmetal from homedepot to shield the air coming off the radiator from hitting your intake on your turo. Also you could put a cold air head light cover on to drop the temps some more.'Good luck
Ryker

 

Routing cold air into the intake will definitely increase volume going into the turbo. The hose from the passanger oil cooler opening to the turbo is *easy* to run, that was the first setup I did, and you can easily figure it out in an hour or less. If you've got the second oil cooler, you can route a hose from the front passenger corner of the radiator opening. The space there between the rad and the frame is narrow, however, so you're going to find you can run 2" hose max in that space. What I did was run 3 x 2" hoses from the front of the rad to the intake.

I don't have air temps at the intake for you, I only have manifold air temps from the PFC, which are about 37C on a 70F degree day on the freeway, stock twins running 13psi, Greddy SMIC, driving with moderate boost. I know there are so many variables in there that the temps are useless to you, but it's what I've got...

 

A longer intake runner will not cause a volume loss, but it will cause a slight pressure drop, which will end up as a density loss, and possibly a slightly slower throttle response. Yes, the cooler air temperature should make up for this, depending on how you route the air. The main thing is to not injest air that has come directly through the radiator, and the before-mentioned shield will do this. You have probably noticed that the temp rise isn't so bad once the car gets moving because the engine heat is not much of a factor at this point. If you are thinking of building a ram air type intake, note that the high-pressure air is located only on the lower half of the front end. The bottom line is what you can crank out on the dyno, not the individual reading on a pressure or temp gauge.

 

Here is what I did and why + the results.

I have a (to4s equiv) 13B street port

With my intake I did not want any pressure drop due to ducting to the front of the car, so I brought the cold air to the turbo !

My K&N 4" inlet (very big, largest they make) bolts straight onto the inlet of the compressor housing, due to custom exhaust manifold design I pointed the turbo away from the radiator and the filter sits in cold air stream. I ducted more air to the filter via a scoop in the radiator side support and also by drilling a 4" dia hole in the front wheel guar so to allow "heaps" of air to get to it, the compartment where the filter sits is shut of to engine bay heat via heat shielding.

test results for run in 3rd gear 150kph average speed, test time 5 seconds

Ambient temp 20 degC
Temp at Air Filter 20 degC
Temp at throttle body (after IC) 27.5 degC
1 Bar boost (14.5psi) 500BHP

 

Now that's a efficient set up!

Only 7.5º C increase over ambiant is pretty good I'f you ask me!

Hey Rice, I'm intrested in your I/C set up that you have. I saw the one that you sent to rx7passion and it looks pretty damn good.

PM me with a price if you have the time to build one.

 

Hi, Chris from England UK here, we spoke on the phone a while back, happy new year! This brings up an interesting point. You say you bored a 4 inch diameter vent hole in the front wheel guard. I was toying with REMOVING the front plastic arch liners on my 3rd gen to allow hot rad and I/C air a better route to get OUT. My thinking being every road car I have seen in wind tunnel testing has had the front wheel arches as low pressure areas and I was hoping that (despite the risk or water and grit entry to engine bay) this removal would help air from the rad and I/C escape easily, even be drawn through more than stock. Are you saying your filter sees this as high pressure "hole" and sees air FROM the wheel arch coming into the bay Have you ascertained in any way which way air is flowing (not easy with the bonnet on...)? Curious as to whether my scheme is sound in principal. Thanks.

 

RICE RACING: do you have any pictures of that setup? If you don't mind letting your setup out to the semi-public

 

I have a foot or two of 90mm Santoprene hose from McMaster-Carr on my RX6 setup. This hose fits perfectly and is up the task of surviving in the engine bay. Myself and several other people have used this hose in a smaller size to replace a collapsed primary turbo inlet pipe. It lasted a year or two before I went single and looked fine when I took it out. The only less-than-perfect part is the fact that it has a spiral wire in the hose to hold its shape, and you have to clamp over the wire when you affix the hose to the turbo inlet and the air filter flange. This isn't a big deal, but I don't want you to be surprised.

I haven't gotten to boxing in the intake yet, but that is on my list of things to do. I strongly believe in the benefits of cool intake air.

Pics here:
http://www.maxcooper.com/rx7/gallery/mycar/index.html

McMaster-Carr - http://www.mcmaster.com/

-Max

 

steve kan uses a setup bringing the filter into the middle portion of his body kit. if anyone has a semi-recent engine shot of his car on a site somewhere post it up. i have it on my computer but not anywhere online. you could make a similar setup via home depot racing

 

I have been interested in this as well. Keep the replies coming guys!

 

This is what I plan to do , use a stainless steel mesh for the filter,attach a 45 or 90 deg. elbow (from TURBONETICS) angled upwards toward the bonnet, CUT !!! a 4"-6" hole in the hood and coover it with a great looking scoop , sort of like the KENNY DUTWHEELER set-up,Ihavent finalised every aspect but it should be pretty simple to do This can also be done another way by putting the filter on the turbo suctoion and attaching the elbow to the hood so that when it closes it fits directly over the filter and feeds the air directly to it.