Intake Air Temperature Help
 

Gentlmen,

First off, before people go crazy with the “search the topic” response, i did a thorough search but couldnt find this topic in the same aspect of what i am about to ask.

I chose a ram air system on the fact that no studies were able to prove an actual cooler engine intake temp. On track running at 4500-7500 rpm for 20 minutes i am running an average of 85 degrees to 98 degrees. On street i see 68 - 72.

Has anyone actually seen there intake temp readings off an OBD reader or dyno while running actual cold air intakes? Im not looking for “my engine feels better” or purly non data proven answers. Just factual evidence that a cold air system actually is producing a serious diffrence in intake temp.

Im asking because the heat soak seems to be my biggist issue right now but i cant find any applications that can validate the upgrade will in fact produce lower intake tempretures.

Anyone with experience on the topic that can help me out, it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Doesn't directly address your question, but, FWIW, you can't eliminate heat soak but you can minimize it by insulating the duct work. There are many products available for that purpose. And exhaust wrap works well, also. Anything to slow down the transfer of heat from the engine compartment to the ducts. The ducts will heat up slower and cool faster.

I tune the 370z platform on ecutek. There is a table in the ecu that compensates for intake air temps and pulls timing based on the temperature. The factory implementation does similar things but relies more heavily on knock correction in real-time. PM me and we can chat more.

Your temps are irrelevant without an ambient temp. Right now in the middle of summer, with my Stillen Gen 3 intake, my intake air temperature is 8-9 degrees (Fahrenheit) above whatever the outside temp is as long as I'm moving.

No tape or anything on my intakes, but my hood is vented.

I don't have any applicable data to show you since my intake system is completely different (tt), but the issue isn't IAT over ambient at speed. The short rams have their heat issues at lower speeds, or when the radiator fans kick on and blast hot air on the filters. So on track or when you're moving, you'll see those IATs closer to ambient. Once you stop, then the temps shoot up and it takes a little while for the temps to come back down when you start moving.

Edit - didn't notice you were using Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. Now that I've converted them, those temps seem pretty high. Even if it's 100F where you live, you're seeing 54-61 degrees over ambient on the street. That's dramatically higher than an intake system that moves the intakes out of the engine bay. (I've seen the results here, but I can't figure out what search keywords get me back to them.)

Have you tried putting the stock intakes back on and logging your temps? The factory setup pulls air from outside the engine compartment. I'll bet you a six-pack that you'll see lower IATs with the factory setup, and that's less efficient than a long tube intake.

Logic would dictate that unprotected, metal tube, short ram air intakes are going to heat soak worse than the plastic OEM intakes or any other cold air intake option on the market. No study needed.

And I agree with Option. IATs don't mean a thing without some context - you should be comparing your temps relative to ambient air to determine how much heat sock you are experiencing. Also, as Chuck mentions, the big problem with heat soak in this car is the increase in temps while stopped (i.e. at a light or in traffic) - you shouldn't have too much problems at speed.

Also 85-98 degrees on the track is an excessive range for something you claim to be average temperatures.

:iagree:

That's 185-208F. That's pretty damn high, especially since I would assume you're moving pretty quickly at that point.

I went to the track last Thursday and the ambient temperature was about 82° and very high humidity. Sitting on grid before the session began, my IAT was in the 118° range. Once I started rolling, the temps dropped to about 90° and stayed there for the entire run.

Typically, I see about 9-10° above ambient in normal day-to-day driving. See my signature for CAI information...

Really appreciate the constructive feed back actually, i wasnt expecting this much!

Never thought of comparing to base line outside ambient temps, very good point. When i pull the historical weather for one of the days where i actually tracked it, it was 82.4F outside and that was the time i was running 98 on the track. Roughly a 10 - 15 diffrence from ambient.

Just another feel out, is a 15 degree increase in intake temp about the average everyone is Experiencing from ambient to engine? If that is pretty standard then i would feel pretty confident im running about normal temps for my set up then.

In coles notes terms....

I was more concerned my intake was allowing to much hot air into the system, but if 10 - 15 degree increase is standard throughout all systems, then i think i would be right inline with standard

My Stillen G3 with Jet Hot inside and outside coating, runs 8 degrees over ambient when the car is in motion.

Heat soak when stopped is a serious issue. When I am at the dragstrip between runs in the pits, I point the car into the wind and open the hood. Then I just wait until AIT is close to ambient before running it again.

On the last dyno session, the ambient was 86F and the AIT was 111F. This was with no fan in front of the car after three runs. I think that there was a big power penalty since the AIT was so high.

There is some AIT research out there, but it's not condensed. I haven't double checked these numbers and am just going off my fairly poor memory, but my recollection is that G3s and cold air intakes with air filters not in the engine bay generally experience intake temps about 8-10 degrees above ambient air at speed. Stock intakes see around 10-12 degrees above ambient, and metal short rams without heat shields see upwards of a 15 degree temperature increase above ambient. These numbers increase when the car is hot and stops moving - the metal tube short ram temps skyrocket.

Insulating your intake pipes is a waste of time. The air is moving through it too fast for the pipe to transfer its heat to the charge. Been there don't that comparison without a noteworthy change other than your pipes looking like trash.