Melted Air Filter - Solution
 

Last week I pulled off my air filter to find this!! Obviously the rubber K&N isn't designed to be mounted directly to the turbo. It melted..


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Anyways, I looked for silicone air filters and found one that fits a 4 inch turbo intake and seems to be of great quality.

I am in no way affiliated with these guys, but just thought I'd give them credit for making a great product. They cater to BMW's but this air filter was the perfect size and quality for my needs.
BMS Silicon Single Turbo Filter 4.5" 3.75"- BurgerTuning.com

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It nestled in quite nicely onto my Precision 6266 using a-spec manifold. This one is the larger of the two. The silicone is nice and thick. The filter is very solid. Please excuse the somewhat messy vacuum hose routing. One day I'm gonna clean that up....

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Great find! I had that issue once on my old 40r. Don't worry about the vacuum lines, at least your car runs ;)

I had the same thing happen on a Holset, but it melted the entire ring off!
It makes a great pen holder now, though.


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...7eb4d8327d.jpg

I never understood why people went through all the hassle of all these mods and their turbo intake tube is right behind a radiator... :lol::scratch: Relocate a few things in the engine bay and get the turbo a cold source of air. You'd be amazed at the result. Oh hey, no melted filters either!

I agree and will likely do that at some point, but the argument goes on and on when it comes to getting cold air doesn't it?

Front mount intercooler blocks air to the radiator and creates lag yet keeps the intercooler nice and cool.

V-mount intercooler supposedly overcomes that but are you truly getting a lot of forced air into both the radiator and intercooler to keep temps down?

Air filter way up front might get rain soaked which may or may not cause the engine to run rich.

Not to mention, what do all of these configurations do to air turbulence. So now everything has to be ducted.

IMO, there are always small compromises, but my configuration blows my hair back so I'm happy. :cool:

This pretty much sums it all up.

There is always compromises of FMIC, VMIC, SMIC.

From battery sizes and relocation, intake filters, AC condensers, running hot, vented hoods, it is defiantly not one size fits all.

I don't think you understand what I'm telling you. This is the TURBO INLET pipe where the filter is that could use a colder source of air to compress and continue out INTO the intercooler (whichever setup you prefer) later. The compressor opening = turbo inlet = where your filter is melted.

The air doesn't pick up very much heat going through the radiator at speed. Lots of air needed per BTU. My air inlet is on top of the engine and I measure IATs within a couple degrees of ambient. Of course it's best to do everything you can for cold air, but this isn't a world ender.

The OP's damage looks consistent with folding the ring over when trying to shove it on. I wouldn't have thought that the turbo, which sees a constant supply of fresh air on the inlet and only heats the air up to 200-300F, would damage silicone.

A rain soaked air filter makes your engine run DEAD. If you get an oiled cotton/foam air filter wet, it is no longer an air filter until you wash it and re-oil it. Getting an oiled fitler wet with the engine running will make the dirt on the outside flow through and get pushed right into the engine, too.

BT, DT, killed five engines in quick succession until I figured it out.

Dust getting into the engine will get trapped between the side seals and oil seals, destroying your side housings, and then your side seals and oil seal holders. Of six core engines I bought over the winter, ALL of them had side housing damage from poor filtration to the point where they are no longer usable without reconditioning.

It's sick when you pull apart an engine and the rotor housings are pristine and the side housings are garbage! Feels like Charlie Brown getting a box full of prizes and only one Cracker Jack :)

Per my data logs, (in my FC) an intake filter on the engine results in 10F higher than the same filter mounted outside of the engine bay (under the passenger headlight)

From a heat transfer standpoint, if you start with an ambient temperature and feed it through a turbo to compress it vs. +10, +20, etc ambient temperature and feed it through the turbo to compress it, you DO see a difference. The change in turbo outlet temperature from the compressor is MUCH LARGER than that small +10, +20F inlet.

Your logs also likely show you that under acceleration, IAT drops dramatically, then heatsoaks, and can change incredibly quick. Imagine all those quick transient throttle applications where you're able to essentially cut the heatsoak back to some degree... It adds to the driving experience, no?

I doubt many people do this, but if you're really going to try and optimize systems of a vehicle, you could run a IAT sensors at the filter located 2+ft away from the turbo inlet at the fender well, a post compressor IAT (pre-intercooler), a post intercooler IAT right at the exit of the intercooler, and an IAT closest to the throttle body.

From the first two sensors, you can really see what building a turbo inlet does vs. just slapping a filter on your turbo. The best things in life are never easy. :)

Ford uses two IATs on the Ecoboost for a reason :)

These might just be glorified air pumps, but it sure is nice to know how to compensate for certain devices falling out of efficiency parameters and compensating for it correctly.

Im thinking that kind of rubber-melting heat is not so much the compressor as the heat radiating up off the exhaust manifold...

Nah, my turbo manifold and downpipe are wrapped. You can literally touch either one at any time (it will be hot, but you will not INSTANTLY burn your finger); on the other hand, the compressor cover gets so hot (specially in summer days, or after WOT pass), that touching it equals an instant skin burn.

You may very well be right. All of the damage was on the bottom half of the filter.

Agree with everything you said, and I currently need to figure out a solution to the heat soaked IAT problem. What I noticed was that it takes longer for the IAT sensor to heat soak, and the 10f difference under max boost. As you stated, I dont have the tools to see the actual overall changes in temp.

I understood what you were saying which is why I agreed with you :)


Installing the filter on the turbo is probably the lazy way. I was just pointing out that there are always compromises. The car is still very good right now. To your point however, it can be better.

Most likely caused by a poor single turbo setup by the installer, and the type of front mount IC.
Blitz middle front mounts allow some air to go around the sides of their IC. Then you can cut out the side of the radiator ducting like
was done with the M2 cold air boxes. This allows cold air to flow directly towards the filter, turbo, and exhaust manifold.
Plus making and installing custom ducting there helps more.

I remember at Deals Gap people complaining about hot air temps. Not my single tubo FD.

Still running pre turbo water injection? (sorry for the off subject question OP)

Originally I ran only water injection with about 25% pre-turbo and 75% post IC- pre throttle body. I'm still running the same ratios but with 50% methanol - 50% water.

I sort of base this on Tom94RX7 experiment with running 100% water either pre-turbo or post IC.
Pre-turbo gives the most high end power but weaker mid-range.
Post IC gives better mid-range and weaker top end.
Thus 50/50 would be best.

But too much pre-turbo can lead to impeller wear.