Heat Sink?? for the M20 intake manifold

[Fusion]

I've pulled the high beam and did ram air. Certinly a difference on the highway stomp.

That's what I was thinking. So the HFM coped well with the (theoretical) pressure difference? I think if you put a nice short but wide shroom right behind the removed high beam or even outside of the engine bay (infront of the car - if regulations allow), and a straight circular aluminum duct up to the HFM, you should be getting more pressure in the intake than with a box, thus making it easier for the engine to suck air, and of course getting the coldest air. Possibly offering some more torque under 4000rpm?
This is important for me because I run the straights on track at over 100mph. Probably wouldn't be much of a difference on slower courses / auto-x.

[nando]

Does the air heat significantly as it passes through the IM?

The M20 has that TB preheat thingy running off the coolant. Wacky.

ugh. ALL cars have those (maybe not old ass muscle cars and shit from the '70s). It probably contributes 1 degree or less to the intake air temp. The surface area is too small in the TB for it to heat up the air.

the stock manifold is a lost cause. If your engine is internally stock, there's no point in upgrading it really. extrude hone is the best thing you could do. and if it's seriously modified, you need something else entirely.

and there is no ram air effect! if you actually measure the pressure at the headlight, it goes down as speed increases. at best you can cool the filter like the stock airbox does. at worst you look like a retard with a missing headlight. The MAF wouldn't care if the pressure changed either, it's measuring air mass. neither would a MAP or AFM for that matter.

[nando]

And would insulating (wrapping) the intake hose up to TB to keep engine heat away make any difference?

no.

[nando]

Someone said recently that true sealed CAI will drop the air temp in the manifold 50 degrees. I'm messing with pulling the drivers side panel at the lights, directing the air to cool the AFM and intake, on the other side the panel has a closed hole in it, cut it out, put a 3" hose to a good size long, skinny scoop directed to the intake. I've cut out all the holes in the grills to get more air, this is in the K&N set up a BMW for cold air for there round and cone filter. Also working on a full ported M20 intake for less than the std. Extrude Hone $600 BS Will see, Vert. roll bar will be done this week.

what? The manifold doesn't get that hot. go drive at decent speeds for an hour on a 70f day. Turn off the car. the manifold is likely cool enough to touch with your bare hand.

the stock airbox *is* a "cold air intake". Actually, it's an ambient air intake, because you can't cool the air anymore than it already is.

so much nonsense in this thread! :p

[markseven]

ugh. ALL cars have those (maybe not old ass muscle cars and shit from the '70s). It probably contributes 1 degree or less to the intake air temp. The surface area is too small in the TB for it to heat up the air.
.

;)

[Brandon12V]

What Nando said. The stock manifold is a lost cause. problems I see is the runners in the plenum are too long for any hp increase. even if you put a spacer in there to 'lower' air temp, it won't make a noticeable difference in power. not only that but you will sacrifice more length in the plenums changing where your torque curve begins( which will be lower). unless they came up with some superawesome new metal composite that keep heat transfer to a minimum, I dont really see how it could change the intake temperature THAT well. aluminum transfers heat extremely well and the ambient temp in the bay will remain the same after you put in this 'spacer. Oh, and awesome... we get to use ANOTHER gasket in our intake setup. Cool. the only feasable benefit I see to putting a spacer in there would be having your torque come in at a lower rpm for autox/tight turn tracks. on courses with longer straights, you will be hurting your car's top end power. Now if the stock manifold had long runners with ITB's, we'd have a different story on our hands.

[slammin.e28]

This is probably one of those things you shouldn't worry about until you've squeezed every conceivable ounce of power out of your motor. Then get nit picky about that stuff.

[Sagaris]

A phenolic intake manifold gasket or other material which has poor thermal conductivity will mostly help delay the heat transfer into the manifold.

The zeroth law of thermodynamics says that multiple bodies in contact will eventually reach thermal equilibrium. A thermally insulating gasket will slow down the inevitable heat transfer and might help a little bit, but when I have looked into it, I came to the conclusion that the manifold is going to increase in temperature after enough time anyways and I do not want to deal with possible intake manifold leaks from using materials that were not engineered with intake manifold bolt torque and thermal expansion considerations.

I have a lot of interest in reducing intake temperatures since the lower the air temperature, the greater its density and oxygen concentration.

I have no doubt that an intake spacer is a good thing and can help, but like I said, from what I have researched, it just slows the heat transfer to the manifold.

[TimR]

Well, thanks for this the kind of info that ususually missing in threads , I have seen what appeared to be untried cooling and work in the intake so i tried some, i cant read every post. So, the rugby ball intake improvement is over, over done CAI appears done, hope when this mystery heat sink part hits the street it get a correct review. So, is there a reason the pass. HL cover on a E30 has an unused 3" hole cast into it and why would it of been put there??? Another VS, ram air like stock and "neutral" air like E30M3 and the new Miller CAI behind the bumper???

[george graves]

This is probably one of those things you shouldn't worry about until you've squeezed every conceivable ounce of power out of your motor. Then get nit picky about that stuff.

The voice of reason.