Air Intake System

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » November 26th, 2006, 3:34 pm

Closer inspection inside the cavity of the drivers side wheel well will reveal that there is a larger than 1" hole that acquires fresh outside air from behind the bumper. Also keep in mind that at speed there will be a certain air flow that is created with the air passing through the rad and back out through the rear bottom of the engine bay. I believe enough of an air flow that may create a negative pressure within the wheel well forcing air to be drawn through accesses in that wheel well which have to pass by the cone filter and negating the possibility for it to draw in ambiant engine bay hot air.
By looking at the MX specific CAI's for the I4's on ebay, you'll see that there is also a sealing plate for the fender well area that's in 2 pieces and seals around the cone filter tube just above the cone filter. This will indeed ensure a much better CAI by sealing the fender well compartment. Those that take the time to do a reasonable search will already see that I've already posted this exact same info with links, pics and prices.
Please people, try to make an effort and be responsable enough to do your own research.

mazdaspeedmx_3 · Post by **mazdaspeedmx_3** » November 26th, 2006, 4:05 pm

the real test would be how cold is your pipe b4 it goes into the TB mines always cold
i put some pictures up of my CAI for you guys to check out http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2513931

ruthless_mx3 · Post by **ruthless_mx3** » November 27th, 2006, 10:11 am

mazdaspeedmx_3 wrote:the real test would be how cold is your pipe b4 it goes into the TB mines always cold
i put some pictures up of my CAI for you guys to check out http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2513931

anyone thirsty? how bout a heater blowing in your face.

Always cold

cut a hole in the front of the box/cavity for more airflow. There once was a post showing the fender cavity to hole-in-bumper sort of ram air intake. Used to use that setup but no longer. I just have the filter in the fender cavity now. The hole in the bumper and hole in the front of the fender cavity gives more that enough airflow. Its actually cold air not heated by the radiator or rediculously hot header.

When the car has been running a while and the fans are on, hold your hand where your filter is and hold your hand in the fender cavity and see where its colder.

mazdaspeedmx_3 · Post by **mazdaspeedmx_3** » November 27th, 2006, 12:32 pm

i know you guys just like to sit there with your cars parked staring at them i'm sure having the filter in the fender probably does stay a couple degrees cooler at a stand still...i gues the only real gain would be you make a 1/2 hp more when your sitting with all your buddy's in a parking lot ...but once you get on the highway who's gettin more air ....you with your couple of little holes with a big hole leading right to the engine bay or me sucking up all the cold air the is rushing under my car????.....show me some results 14.43 @ 96.9 mph with my set up UDP kl07 ECU and ebay chip, and HEI module... you have quite the list of parts what did you run with that set up

I drive my car...and at 140 - 160 km/h with that big open space there how much of that hot air do you think i'm really taking at the bottom of my car???

I'll get under my car and take a picture of the crappy little ractive filter with the heat shield around in and only holes at the bottom

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » November 27th, 2006, 7:02 pm

mazdaspeedmx_3 wrote:i know you guys just like to sit there with your cars parked staring at them i'm sure having the filter in the fender probably does stay a couple degrees cooler at a stand still...i gues the only real gain would be you make a 1/2 hp more when your sitting with all your buddy's in a parking lot ...but once you get on the highway who's gettin more air ....you with your couple of little holes with a big hole leading right to the engine bay or me sucking up all the cold air the is rushing under my car????.....show me some results 14.43 @ 96.9 mph with my set up UDP kl07 ECU and ebay chip, and HEI module... you have quite the list of parts what did you run with that set up
I drive my car...and at 140 - 160 km/h with that big open space there how much of that hot air do you think i'm really taking at the bottom of my car???
I'll get under my car and take a picture of the crappy little ractive filter with the heat shield around in and only holes at the bottom

Stop and think what the MAZDA engineers designed to bring air into the engine. An airbox completely sealed save for a small oval openning to which a similar oval tube was attached. That tube was inturn routed so that it would make a seal with the hood and that a natural cavity from that hood space ran provided a straight path to the front of the car to take in outside air. Pretty ingenius I would say.
Now how could we possibly improve upon that similar concept?
Provide a larger filtered area to draw upon first. next, ensure that the supplied air was not going to be tainted by the ambiant engine heat. Best solution - fender well.
Any air entering the engine bay is going to be heated by either passing through the rad and/or by the ambiant heat from the engine/headers. Ensuring that the cone filter is not in any proximity to these places only makes sense. If it's percieved that the cone filter will be starved of air in the fender well because of the small inlet hole sizes, that would not be realistic thinking. Like mentioned in a previous post, take a drive for a while and quickly go and feel the temperature of the cone filter. That should be evidence enough that it's not getting the coolest available air possible. Remember hat having the cone filter placed deep down low behind the rad can also be subject to getting wet from driving in the rain. I've been there, done that and that's why it's where it's at - in the fender well.

mazdaspeedmx_3 · Post by **mazdaspeedmx_3** » November 27th, 2006, 9:07 pm

you would have to be an idiot to suck up water with that....i've never seen water splash forward of the tire...and if you submerged the filter you would be submerging the engine in water too and if you did that you deserve to have your block crack to teach you a lesson.i've been runnin this set up for over a year now through a canadian winter and out to the east coast twice one time it was rainin for 2 weeks straight in new brunswick
at high speeds how hot is the air gonna be comming up under the car you really think the amount and the speed of the air goin in is gonna even have a chance to heat up...
my intake doesn't take the air from behind the rad it takes it from below
FILTER HAS HEAT SHIELD
i'm just sayin the volume and speed of air circulating around where my filter is alot greater than in the fender if you want to look at it technically

max kl · Post by **max kl** » November 27th, 2006, 10:14 pm

mazdaspeedmx_3 wrote:you would have to be an idiot to suck up water with that....i've never seen water splash forward of the tire...and if you submerged the filter you would be submerging the engine in water too and if you did that you deserve to have your block crack to teach you a lesson.i've been runnin this set up for over a year now through a canadian winter and out to the east coast twice one time it was rainin for 2 weeks straight in new brunswick
at high speeds how hot is the air gonna be comming up under the car you really think the amount and the speed of the air goin in is gonna even have a chance to heat up...
my intake doesn't take the air from behind the rad it takes it from below
FILTER HAS HEAT SHIELD
i'm just sayin the volume and speed of air circulating around where my filter is alot greater than in the fender if you want to look at it technically

holly crap dude stop embarrassing your self

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » November 27th, 2006, 10:19 pm

max kl wrote:
mazdaspeedmx_3 wrote:you would have to be an idiot to suck up water with that....i've never seen water splash forward of the tire...and if you submerged the filter you would be submerging the engine in water too and if you did that you deserve to have your block crack to teach you a lesson.i've been runnin this set up for over a year now through a canadian winter and out to the east coast twice one time it was rainin for 2 weeks straight in new brunswick
at high speeds how hot is the air gonna be comming up under the car you really think the amount and the speed of the air goin in is gonna even have a chance to heat up...
my intake doesn't take the air from behind the rad it takes it from below
FILTER HAS HEAT SHIELD
i'm just sayin the volume and speed of air circulating around where my filter is alot greater than in the fender if you want to look at it technically
holly crap dude stop embarrassing your self

Perhaps it's best that he experience's his folly first hand. Some choose or have to learn the lesson the hard way. To each his own, I tried.

mazdaspeedmx_3 · Post by **mazdaspeedmx_3** » November 27th, 2006, 11:33 pm

the hard ways puttin down some good times at the 1/4 tho

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » November 28th, 2006, 2:49 am

mazdaspeedmx_3 wrote:the hard ways puttin down some good times at the 1/4 tho

That's good to hear. Unfortunately, driving to work or into London isn't a 1/4 mile away, Nor is it always bone dry, nor is it under 15 seconds away.
But you could be absolutely correct. My only experience comes from owning it for nearly 12 years and putting 220,000 kms on it - on the road, not the track. I have no experience on the track, but then again the purpose of my car is for road use and not track use. Perhaps if it was mentioned that your intake config was suited for or dedicated for track use, it may have alleviated some missinterpretation. Since you won't be driving at sustained speeds on roads or highways, in the rain, or stuck in traffic jams or have to drive through the occassional pooling on roads, then your config obviously suits your particular needs. The average MX owner on the other hand uses their car for commuting.

mx3autozam · Post by **mx3autozam** » November 28th, 2006, 3:16 am

I didn't know there was a company taht actually make sintakes for the V6 aside from PRM.
http://www.cosmoracing.com/productinfo. ... 3&pid=1548

Thats sick. but my integra CAI does teh trick for me

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » November 28th, 2006, 1:01 pm

mx3autozam wrote:I didn't know there was a company taht actually make sintakes for the V6 aside from PRM.
http://www.cosmoracing.com/productinfo. ... 3&pid=1548
Thats sick. but my integra CAI does teh trick for me

There wasn't a CAI made for the V6 that I'm aware of. The one I was referring to was one that was specifically made for the I4 that was offered on ebay some time ago for a lengthy period of time. That particular I4 CAI also included 2 plates that would sandwich around the tubing that went into the fender well. In doing so, it created a semi type sealed enclosure for the cone filter residing under those 2 sealing plates. I contacted the vender to see if they could make those sealing plates available by themselves to this BB and they were not receptive to doing that. I haven't looked in a long time to see if those ebay CAI's are still available for the I4's.

mazdaspeedmx_3 · Post by **mazdaspeedmx_3** » November 28th, 2006, 8:57 pm

i don't care about the performance of it while driving through town....
like i said before i drive my car i am only concerned with how it works at the 1/4 or when some punk civic tries to fly by me on the highway
i guess if i wanted to race grandma to the next stoplite on the main street i might go with that set up so my intake stays a couple degrees cooler in town
i'm looking for performance the only thing you guys can say bad about my intake is it might be suckin up wamer air in the city....but really that is not a concern for me.
take em out on the highway and let em go.....have you guys even revved out 5th gear in your ze's or are all their miles from goin to the timmys parkin lot and back

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » November 28th, 2006, 10:52 pm

It may be more acurate to correct the sig block to read HAI and not CAI. There's a very good reason why it was called and designed as a COLD AIR INTAKE. I don't don't drink timmies. I don't take short city drives. Most of my trips are usually to MX3 meets (400 to 500 km round trip) where I get to share in the commaraderie of other MX3 allumni. Perhaps it may be enlightening to actually see what we do some times during our meets. It's not unusual to have the speed limiter kick in routinely while enjoying spirited drives from a A to B. Perhaps the differences lie in the fact that I don't abuse my car and don't treat it as a disposable comodity.