how much hp would i net if:

[dash]

all right guys; easy does it. i was just wondering....

i do actually want to do a "true" cold air. if i did, fowljesse could you perhaps offer some help if i needed it?

[_-Night-Shade-_]

The color silver reflects heat, causing the air molecules around the car to be less dense, thereby...
I was kidding.
Here's another one; In Japanese culture, silver is regal, so the workers have a tendency to put more effort into building them...
I'm just making stuff up.

Aaaaaaahahahahahahha!

[fowljesse]

all right guys; easy does it. i was just wondering....

i do actually want to do a "true" cold air. if i did, fowljesse could you perhaps offer some help if i needed it?

Well, you're a little far away but yeah, whatever I could say to help.. I think there's a how-to somewhere on this website.. All I know is; you get the CAI kit for an Integra (I don't remember the year), and cut it a bit so your airflow sensor is still flat, and your air filter (I highly recommend K&N) is in your fender well, below the driver's headlight. You can do some minor cutting to let more cold air into that space.

[Inodoro Pereyra]

Here you have an example for a CAI. Air doesn't get much colder than that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vDq__TYO0U

Notice the free flowing exhaust too...

You're welcome.

[_-Night-Shade-_]

Here you have an example for a CAI. Air doesn't get much colder than that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vDq__TYO0U

Notice the free flowing exhaust too...

You're welcome.

OMG!!! AHAHAHAHAHA that is the greatest thing ever!!!

[wytbishop]

We need to have a brief discussion about the truth about CAI.

Lemme get back to you, I'm on my way to work.

[wytbishop]

Your engine is just a big air pump. The power generation is achieved by mixing fuel with the air and burning it on the way through. The amount of power you can make is directly proportional to the mass of fuel burned. The mass of fuel you can burn is dependant on the mass of air you can get into and out of the engine.

Intake air temperature affects the system in a couple of significant ways...

First, cooler air reduces the temperature of the combustion chamber. This reduces the likelihood of Pre-Ignition (engine knock) especially in higher compression engines. Ours is not a particularly high compression engine, but still it can’t hurt.

Second, cooler air is denser and so has greater mass than the same volume of warmer air. This means that in theory more fuel can be burned and more power can be made. However if you look at the construction of the stock intake system it takes intake air from the front envelope of the vehicle. Probably cooler in most cases than the air in the drivers side fender area.

The Cold Air Intake’s only real benefit is in its simplicity. If you look at the stock intake system again, you’ll see that it has several twists and turns, varying diameters of piping, that horrendous accordion tube and a fairly restrictive paper filter. The typical CAI has only one or two bends, is of consistent large diameter and is coupled to a high(er) flowing air filter of some type or other. This leads us to believe that more air can be stuffed into the engine. It’s designed to make us think that...but it really isn’t true. If you eliminate everything else and consider only the Volume Air Flow sensor there is a finite volume of air which can pass through it. Nothing you do either before it or after it can change that.

There is a benefit though. The path of the air to the VAF and from the VAF to the Throttle Body is smoother and easier and may increase HP at small throttle openings, but the change you feel is nothing more than the fact that when the TB opens, air has virtually no restriction from entering the intake manifold. From idle up to the point where the VAF is wide open the flow rate in the intake system will be improved and that is where you will notice that the engine feels better. But once the VAF is open the flow rate is at max and it’s the same max it was with the stock system.

You’re not moving any more air than you were, but it is moving a little easier. You may see 1 additional HP at peak due to the reduced restriction of the flow of the intake air but you’re not getting any more air and it is probably not even cooler.

Having said all that I have a 3” custom CAI with a 3” x 6” K&N cone filter and I definitely feel the difference. Plus it sounds totally sick.

[_-Night-Shade-_]

Awesome. But there's a limit to the total mass of air/fuel mixture isn't there? I mean, the combustion chamber is only so big. And the mixture can only be saturated with fuel so much before you're running rich, right? Care to elaborate, bishop?

[wytbishop]

The Stoichiometric air/fuel ratio is the ideal ratio of air and fuel BY MASS. It is generally accepted to be somewhere between 13.8:1 and 14.3:1 or so. Chemically speaking, for pure gasoline 14.7:1 is the mathmatically ideal mass ratio in which every Mole of Air and Gasoline would be consumed in the combustion reaction, however we don't put pure gasoline in our cars. More than that ratio and the mixture is lean, less than that and the mixture is rich. Different conditions require different mixtures so the fuel map, especially the stock one, will not always be programmed to give the Stoichiometric ratio.

The volumetric efficiency of the engine is the amount of that mixture which gets stuffed in there each cycle. Engines are not extremely efficient volumetrically. An engine with a compression ratio of 10:1 has a cumbustion chamber which is 10% the size of the cylinder. Most engines only actually fill about 70 - 80% of the total cylinder volume with the incoming air/fuel charge (my knowledge of specific values for volumetric efficiencies are dated...things may have improved on this front).

Forced induction can bring the volumetric efficiency very high, well above than 100%, but at the cost of reliability, driveability...etc.

As far as it relates to the CAI question...the smallest orifice in the system is the limiting factor. The volume of air which can pass through that VAF sensor is limited and well below that which can pass through a high flow air filter or a 3" smooth pipe. Imagine if you had a 3" diameter hose with a 2" restriction in the middle of it. You put one end into an open tub of water and hook the other end up to a huge suction pump. The pump sucks...creates negative pressure in the hose and water is sucked up into the hose. The water will flow very quickly to the small orifice and most of it will stop there. Only a portion of all the water in the first part of the hose is able to get through the restriction so positive pressure builds in the first section and the second section is only partly filled with water. The water analogy is limited because air expands to fill the space it occupies, but basically there is less air in the tube after the VAF than there is in the tube before the VAF...by mass. The fact that the tube is large and smooth is why the throttle response improves and the minimal gains are made.

[Hoodzy]

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