Aftermarket air intake vs MPG.

[cg1349]

Does a cold air intake or short ram intake, increase or decrease MPG? If it increases HP output, then I'm assuming it decreases MPG. Which one is it?

[pinoyesv6]

optimally, it depends on your foot. i have an aftermarket intake and i can get like 29 mpg highway cruising on a nice spring day. with that said, i can get my fuel economy in the teens a few minutes later by driving like an ass.

[fatal1]

i wouldnt get one if thats your concern, really wont make much of a difference, the hp isnttoo much of a gain either, but it does somd nice, look good and will give you a lot more room in your engine bay, i would stay short ram tho if you go into a deep puddle with the cai you could be in for some trouble

[solofantasy]

i had this question for a long time now. there are 2 sides.
1st. increase air = increase fuel to match up rato. thus waste more fuel.
2nd. decrease the work load for air to go in, more efficent in mixing with fuel. thus increase MPG.

i still dont know which is true. but i think, if you have an Intake, and drive the same as without one (NO WOT) i think that shouldnt affect too much MPG in anyway.

[dknight3]

an intake does not increase the ammount of air, it makes the air more accessible.

[peanotation]

2nd. decrease the work load for air to go in, more efficent in mixing with fuel. thus increase MPG.

that's retarded

[solofantasy]

Does Heat Soak Issues affect a Short Ram that much?

i mean is there any air going into the engine bay at all during highway crusing? or does all the hot air just stay in there?

[dknight3]

"Does Heat Soak Issues affect a Short Ram that much? "
i would say no.

air goes through your grille into your engine bay i think.
so, yes air definatly goes into your engine bay while on the highway.

[mindwerkz]

the location where the factory intake scoops air in at the hood becomes open space when you install an aftermarket one. And the entire bottom of the bay is open. So I'd say there's a good breeze coming in.

Personally I was about to cannibalize my OEM intake and make a ram air scoop for my aftermarket one. I'll let you know if it actually lowers the intake temp at all compared to just drawing from the engine bay alone.

[mapid145]

ghetto intake mod FTW :P :P

[Da_silvagride]

ghetto intake mod FTW :P :P

Theres nothing wrong with that, lol. I was rockin that in the past too! :lol:

[mindwerkz]

You're all gunna make fun of me. lol I attacked the 'new' scoop with heatshield material since it goes right past the Killer Glass mod.

So let's just get it out of the way right now about how it looks like a 70's TV dinner...

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/10/web/826000-826999/826531_186_full.jpg

[Jeffylou87]

hmm tv dinner... 8)

[dronesurfboards]

it all depends on the way you drive. If you want to hear your intake...then it will decrease your MPG...if not...then maybe your MPG will stay the same when it was stock.

Also what is with the heatwrap on the intake pipe? Its not worth the money to do that. Actually i think heatwrap isnt worth it on a daily driver who is boosting cuz at one point or another. the manifolds are gonna crack from the excessive heat its holding, thus costing us more money to replace.

[mindwerkz]

I had some extra HP tape and fiberglass fabric so I figured why not. Good thing too cause the killer glass was all hot as hell, but when I felt up in the scoop it was nice and chilly.

What are you talking about with the manifolds? why would they be holding excessive heat? Are you talking about manifolds with heat wrap? For the MILLIONTH time, there's a difference between heat reflective stuff and heatwrap for exhaust. Heatwrap is designed to hold heat in. Heat reflective stuff as on my intake, are designed to reflect heat from the outside.

It's the difference between insulating your house and covering the outside with mirrors.

[dronesurfboards]

im just stating that wrapping your intake with anything will not do anything to HP since its hot under our hoods in the 1st place. doing that will make no difference in performance. and i mean performance that we can notice. Using reflective wrap or no wrap on your intake will give you the same performance numbers.

The heat reflective stuff that you are using to be honest with you will probably protect your intake from melting if it happens to touch your glass mod

Heat wrap is used on exhaust manifolds and turbo piping to keep temps down in the engine bay. It helps but for someone who is using it on a daily driver. all that heat that it holds in will eventually do something to the manifold via cracking the exhaust manifold. thats all i was saying...

[mindwerkz]

Actually it has lowered my intake temp about 5-10 degrees since I wrapped it up. It keeps the engine from heating the air already in the tube where it passes by the hot stuff. It also prevents the tube itself from getting as hot. And once I figure out this ghetto scoop / cold air box I'm working on, I'll have cut off the intake from all engine heat except where it bolts up to the engine. muahahahahaa!



Really? As I understood it (had it explained to me by a guy who sells the stuff and works in a racing pit crew) the exhaust/turbo wrap is to insulate the exhaust to make it hotter, thus moving said exhaust through the system faster. Although he did say he once had a customer who's only reason for wrapping his pipes was because he'd done some serious work on his Ferarri or something and the exhaust pipes were melting his body kit. lol

[dronesurfboards]

take it to the track and then let me know if it made a difference on your 1/4 mile times. trust me it wont. I tried customizing what you did 10 years ago on my toyota truck...it doesnt do anything. The only time i started to see my 1/4 times drop was after i switched to a celica tranny, went direct port with 100 shot, and upgraded to a lc engineering head and TRD cam. When i was using bolt ons, the best i did in my truck with 16.5 at like 86 mph. after doing 17.3 with no mods. After my upgrades, i finally broke 13's at just over 100mph. and that was a LA county raceway and everyone who has raced there knows that track blows. so 5-10 degree drop in your intake will not do anything because youre still taking in the same amount of air into your engine at WOT.

[anticon]

any drop in air temp results in more condensed air, thus "more" air. what do you think an intercooler does? even if it is not a substantial amount of performance gain, every little bit helps, as we all know in the tuning world.

[Fishboy55]

im just stating that wrapping your intake with anything will not do anything to HP since its hot under our hoods in the 1st place. doing that will make no difference in performance. and i mean performance that we can notice. Using reflective wrap or no wrap on your intake will give you the same performance numbers.

The heat reflective stuff that you are using to be honest with you will probably protect your intake from melting if it happens to touch your glass mod

Heat wrap is used on exhaust manifolds and turbo piping to keep temps down in the engine bay. It helps but for someone who is using it on a daily driver. all that heat that it holds in will eventually do something to the manifold via cracking the exhaust manifold. thats all i was saying...

I've been trying to tell him the same thing, but he wouldn't listen to me either. But i know that my IAT temperature is at least 12 degrees cooler after wrapping it so the intake is insulated from passing my headers. But i'm 100% sure there's no appreciable HP gains. I can't wrap my headers, as they're mild steel, and will crack. It also voids my warranty if I wrap them.

[dronesurfboards]

i hear ya. my point is, with all the thought into doing that, you couldve done something else, like drop in a more agressive cam or whatnot and seen a difference.

every bit helps in the tuning world but if you got only got bolt ons...then you really dont have a chance in a tuning world that has gone overboard with fully built engines, engine transplants etc.

Ive been racing in san diego since back in 93 and that was when we were the capital of racing. My truck was fast back then when it was doing 13's, but now its not even worth it anymore, with what people are doing now. just like Cali's transplant. If i saw him on the street in my truck, i wouldnt even bother racing him, that car probably does solid 12's and maybe low 12's with slicks. and who knows what that car will do if he decided to boost more. And thats is where my point is...if i saw a car with just bolt ons...it wouldnt even be worth wasting gas racing that person...cuz everyone in this world knows what an I4 galant with boltons can do and its not much. so modding an intake so it doesnt take in higher temp air and gaining you maybe 2hp at the crank will not, make you any faster than someone who did the mod. its a placebo affect. you might think it is...but its not and ive lost a few races that way.

BTW I miss those days....short track, firehouse, kearny, morena, general dynamics, L st, 905, convoy, id even go as far as san marcos and ontario to race...if you raced back then...you know the places im talking about. i miss rolling on full slicks and hearing all those pebbles hit your fender wells. now that was some intimidation when people saw you roll up and call fools out to race. too bad the cops destroyed all the fun. okay now im reminiscing...lol!

[mindwerkz]

Ok I'm not really trying to make my engine purr with this stuff guys. I'm just bored, have an extra roll of reflecto-tape and a desire to make things better than I found it.

You guys keep saying I should have invested this energy into something more productive under the hood. You guys are forgetting that I lack two important things for that at the moment. Money and knowledge. lol

Oh and MOST items that provide less than 15 hp are likely not effecting track time noticeably. It's all about perceived gain.

It's like with gun recoil. Two identical twins with equal experience can fire the same gun and perceive the recoil as being completely different. Someone can fire a gun and go "ow" then relax and pull the trigger so slowly that it's a surprise when it goes off and be like "wow that was nothin". If you expect something to have a certain result, you are predisposed to perceiving that result with a bias toward your expectation.

[dknight3]

jeez just let him wrap his shit in reflective tape if it makes him feel better. thats all im going to say cause i dont wanna get banned. lol.

[mindwerkz]

Update on ghettotastic wonder scoop/ cold air box...

Haven't had a chance to work on this cause I've been curing misfire and a messed up CV joint. HOWEVER, just the ghetto-scoop alone (as seen above) is lowering intake temps by 3-7 degrees when over 30mph. That obviously goes to hell when I slow down and the engine heat is able to warm that corner of the bay. As a happy by-product my coolant temp has gone down a couple degrees as well. I'm guessing this is because the wrapped scoop is deflecting some engine heat from reaching the radiator.

[6G72gearhead]

You may be intaking colder air at the box, but since coolent is run through your throttle body it makes no difference until those lines are bypassed as even with colder air its just being heated back up with the TB and the intake manifold. If you want real gains look into bypassing those lines, after 4 autocross runs and not shutting it down between I can still lay my hand on the intake manifold, which I previously could not do.

[pinoyesv6]

bypassing the throttle body is a stupid idea.
the coolant does NOT run through it to keep the throttle warm, but rather to control the manual wax idle element that sits alongside the electronic idle valve.

do NOT bypass the coolant throttle plates, period.


That's right. We had that process here someplace at one time. I track tested it with no noticeable result. Also, I experienced trouble and rough idling in cold weather, so I put it back on. I actually think the car performs better across the climate band without bypassing the hoses.

[6G72gearhead]

Here in Kansas it seems to have woken it up a little, I havent had cold start or idle problems even on single diget days. The way its set up I can go back really easy. But as for now it keeps the upper manifold temp down by close to 30* when autocrossing the car.