Lots of us have looked at the block off plates by the fangs and wondered why. They are a perfect high pressure area to tap for some cooling. It's not hard, takes about $75 in parts and a few hours of your time. Why run fresh air to your airbox? For one reason, the cooler the air and the lower the IAT's (Intake air temps which are sampled at the MAf), the more timing advance the ecu will allow and more performance will result. Notice how your car feels sluggish when it's hot? That's because, on a 90 degree day, sitting at a redlight for a few minutes, your IAT's may rise to 150 degrees or more. The hotter the air the greater tendency for detonation so the ECU dials things back. Forcing some cool air in there brings temps down quickly and effectively. Here's how to do it:
Remove the front bumper
Remove the blanking plates:
Mount 1 pair of 2.5" aluminum flanges over the holes:
Mount a second pair of flanges to the Airbox pass through:
You can see my custom airbox through the pass throughs:
Route your hoses on bothe sides:
Hook the flanges together with your hose:
Bolt it all back together. I need to tidy up the hoses a bit but you get the idea!:
Results: I've noticed as it gets hotter this summer, it is more difficult to keep the IAT's down. They typically run 15-20 degrees hotter than ambient in average driving at this time of the year. With the forced air set-up I'm seeing pretty consistant 6-10 degrees over ambient for a solid 10 degree improvement. It will probably be better in cooler weather and come very close to ambient. IAT's also cool down within seconds of the car starting to move after sitting in traffic. I've always maintained, cool is good. Today on average, my car ran at 180 degrees water, 195 degrees Oil, and 92 degrees IAT's on an 86 degree day. Not to shabby. I also have an oil cooler as well as a sump cooler in place..She's a COOL cucumber...
This mod will be particularly helpful for those of you running an open element filter (Tanabe, Nismo, Stillen G2 etc) as the filter will be bathed in forced outside air. Stock airboxes will get a direct shot, and Stillen G3 guys can re-rout the feed hoses a bit to point at the filters.
BTW, I use a Scangauge for all this data reporting (more on that in my albums). Showing here, Horsepower, Long term fuel trims, Intake temps and water temps. A Very handy tool!
There is a parts list in the Fang vent album as well as more pics for those interested. Throw me a rep point if you found this helpful!
More pics of this, part numbers and sources in the Fang Vent album :
Here!