Ram air

Darkside

Registered User
I was thinking about fabricating a ram air setup that would utilize the right side fog light hole like some of the Mustang guys do. Would this do any good for our cars? The more air the better right? I'm thinking an aluminum "scoop" that would attach to the foglight mounting bracketts with a 3" scat tube running directly to the bottom of the airbox. Has anyone tried this? Worth the time? I figure a couple of hours to fab the "scoop" and 15 minutes to run the tube to the airbox. Let me know what you guys think, if this has been done before, and if it is worth it. BTW, no cost to me.:D

P.S. If one foglight hole isn't big enough I could use both like the Mustangs do. Maybe two 2" tubes into one 3" tube?
 
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CAI vs Ram Air

What you're talking about is a Cold Air Intake, Not "Ram Air". You're not going to "RAM" anything past the supercharger!

68COUGAR
 
For what it's worth, I made 5 passes at sea level with my '89 auto and removed the passenger headlight for the last two passes. ET dropped 3 tenths on the last two passes. Went from 15.8's to 15.5's, mph up 1 or 2.

All runs made with a K&N 7" cone.

'bird
 
Wrong

A cold air intake "sucks" air from the fender well or engine compartment. When you're not making boost you making vacuum so at normal cruising you would be "ramming air into the intake system with the setup I'm talking about. When you punch it and the supercharger starts making boost it would have air rammed or forced into it instead of just getting what it would get from the fenderwell. Anyway, I thought it would be better to have air rammed into the airbox instead of just letting it suck from the fenderwell.
 
Pressure Sensor

I guess the only way to know for sure, would be to install a pressure sensor between the MAF & Throttle Body. Would have to be a low pressure guage for sure.

68COUGAR
 
Huh?

Getting your intake air somewhere other than in the engine compartment would be the best, I would think. But, I don't see why this topic keeps coming up so often. On the SC's, the supercharger is a positive displacement pump, right? If so, then trying to push more air through into the intake with having a pickup somewhere from the front of the car, isn't going to make a difference. The supercharger is going to positively displace the same amount of air. Now, where you get the air CAN make a difference. Like I said before, get the intake air somewhere else other than the engine compartment (hot), would give you cooler air (even if you routed a pickup behind the car)(silly thought, I know, but just exaggerating I guess). The real advantage for ram air applies to N/A engines. Maybe I'm way off, but we'll see if anyone else can figure out what I'm trying to explain.
 
Re: Huh?

Originally posted by Michael Mattix
Getting your intake air somewhere other than in the engine compartment would be the best, I would think. But, I don't see why this topic keeps coming up so often. On the SC's, the supercharger is a positive displacement pump, right? If so, then trying to push more air through into the intake with having a pickup somewhere from the front of the car, isn't going to make a difference. The supercharger is going to positively displace the same amount of air. Now, where you get the air CAN make a difference. Like I said before, get the intake air somewhere else other than the engine compartment (hot), would give you cooler air (even if you routed a pickup behind the car)(silly thought, I know, but just exaggerating I guess). The real advantage for ram air applies to N/A engines. Maybe I'm way off, but we'll see if anyone else can figure out what I'm trying to explain.

...but if the air that reaches the inlet of the compressor is not only cooler but also denser... ;)

'bird
 
Re: Hot Engne Air?

get the intake air somewhere else other than the engine compartment (hot)

What super coupe injests Hot air from inside the engine compartment?

A thought on the popular shiney chrome intake tubes. Won't that chrome intake tube transfer heat to the incoming air charge? I would think that a plastic intake tube would be less thermally conductive.

While I'm talking about heat transfer, how about a shiney chrome upper IC tube, to help transfer some of the supercharger heat out of the air before it hits the IC?

I think the lower tube should remain stick (thick alum) to (as much as possible) prevent the exhaust manifold from heating up the cooled air.

All of this may just be splitting hairs. Personaly I think that there is a lot more power to be made elsewhere.

68COUGAR
 
"...but if the air that reaches the inlet of the compressor is not only cooler but also denser... "

It's the same basic concept as a bigger MAF, right?. More air is better. Especially colder, denser air. I guess my thinking was, it won't hurt to do it because it won't cost me anything but a couple of hours of labor, and I'm cheap! This train of thought got started because of the air silencer. If more air isn't better than why take off the air silencer on a supercharged car. Bottom line, the more oxygen your car can supply your engine the better, or do I need more oxygen to my brain? :D
 
we did something like this to my son's car. cut a hole in bottom of bumper cover, then 4" flex tube to bottom of air box. we need to put a scoop on the bumper cover. maybe worth a tenth, maybe. i am not done with it yet though.
 
I wanted to do the same thing with my SC. My friend gave me the march ram air kit off his mustang but I have not installed it in my car yet. From what I'm reading here is that it is not even worth putting it on the car?
 
Hey Man

Hey Man,
I kinda had the same idea but I used Brake venting material from a local race shop. I used 3" ducting that routes from the fog light location to the rear of the right headlight. I had to relocate the IRCM. I also have a aluminum spun filter cover that extends to the opening behind the IRCM.
Anytime you can get cool air to the filter you have a good thing.
Laterz,
D Rainer
 
Actually a "ram" air system offers more benefit to our cars than a naturally aspirated car.

Think about the statement "positive displacement" for a minute. Anything you can do to increase the pressure at the inlet of the blower is going to increase boost output and thus performance.

I'm not suggesting that a ram air system will create pressure at the inlet. Rather I am suggesting that a ram air system can help to reduce or eliminate any low pressure or "vacuum" that might occur at the inlet under WOT.

I have tested the removal of the silencer and the fabrication of an air duct from the fog light to the bottom of the air box. None of that made any difference on a stock SC. This leads me to believe that a stock motor may not be creating enough airflow to generate a vacuum at the inlet.

However, on my modified XR7 it was worth a solid 2 mph and .2 in the 1/4 over a more stock type setup.

It certainly can be worth your time, but it is also worth noting that it should be carefully designed or you might just be wasting your time.
 
CAI

Would not my MAC CAI with it's filter in the front bumper acheive the results you are all looking for? or would there still be more to be gained with a cold air scooping type device?

Dave
 
That was the answer I was looking for Dave. If the "Ram" air intake would be negated by the flow in the engine. I guess it still wouldn't hurt. I know I can hear my brothers Mustang sucking in air and I can't hear mine so there might not be enough vacuum at the inlet to make this mod worthwile without doing other mods first. That still makes me question the whole theory of getting 5-15 HP from removing the air silencer. That is one of the first things you are told to do when your car is stock because it is free HP. Why wouldn't forcing more air be even better, UNLESS the air required by a stock engine was maxed out by just removing the silencer. Anyway, I'm sure this could be argued for days but one more thought; while not being overly beneficial to a stock car at lets say sea level, what about a car running at 5800 ft, that's not getting the same amount of good air. It seems to me that it would be a good thing worth a couple of hours of work, maybe level the playing field for us "Mountain Birds".
 
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