Intake tube finished

Finished up the custom stainless intake tube , now some road and heat testing

 

It looks nice but what is it supposed to do better then the factory tube?

 

Looks very nice but I would wrap the tube since you will be picking up more heat from the engine since the heat transfer coefficient is alot higher for SS than plastic/rubber.

 

sweet!

 

Pshh! Negligible difference compared to the badassery given to the look of the engine bay.

Plenty of high HP cars run SS intercooler piping. No one wraps it because it wouldn't look as cool.

I'm pretty sure I read an article once about the heat transfer to an intake charge, and that very little can be done to lower temps of metered air post airbox due to velocity. The gain is virtually non-existent compared to bringing in cold air from outside the engine bay.

 

Cool man! Is that one piece or two pieces welded together? The weld is super clean if it was two pieces.

 

^^ this.

I can see adding a cone filter to it and making it a RAM intake of sorts, but with the stock airbox, what are the benefits other than looks?

awesome weld job btw, I saw your other post before the grinding.

 

There is no 'ram' on an EFI throttle body car at atmosphere. It requires mechanical boost.

The best you can do with natural aspiration is draw ambient air as opposed to under hood air. 10* of temp drop is about 1 hp of gain. So if you can draw 90* air instead of 140* under hood air (as an example) you have about a 5hp improvement.

Changing the airbox to intake pipe is very cool looking.

 

Dont get me wrong its badass for sure but I was thinking of real world situation using the truck to offroad and builds up more heat in the engine bay and slower intake velocity feeds where this truck is already hurting on power. Yes the lose would be next to non but I guess Im more of a functional guy rather than just looks. Each there own but that weld is real nice though.

 

Very nice! One question though, is there enough movement on the joints with full engine movement?
I have seen this done in the past and people never realize that they suck in dirty air because one of the joints slide off with repeated movement. This solid tube method doesn't allow as much play when hooked up to a solidly mounted air box, but they do fine with the cone type filters that allow more float.
I'd buy one of these for use with the stock CAI box. I'd probably end up insulating it though like everyone has said.

 

Yeah, velocity is a big factor. There's not much way for efficient transfer to happen if the molecules are just "blowing by" too quickly for it to make a difference.

I'd love to see something like this for the 4 cylinder too, maybe a silicon hose to replace the goofy S-shaped accordion between the silencer and airbox. Just for looks, really.

 

Read on a mustang forum a while back some one calculated the intake pressure gains for a functional hood scoop at 80 mph would only gain you like 1/2 hp at best.

 

Thats a good point... the engine does rock back and forth with torque and the airbox is fix. Is there enough wiggle/ flex for the clamps to hold the pipe?

 

These motors rock side to side more. Transverse motors rock back and forth.

 

For the old GTOs with functional scoops Pontiac claimed somewhere around 10HP and coined the 'Ram Air' moniker. Cramming the Q Jet carb.

While I'm sure we were providing more air volume over just engine vacumn, I still think the biggest gain was the ambient air. As race night at the strip got cooler, the car got faster. Ram air is practically impossible to prove on a chassis dyno, and even ambient air changes can be quite difficult to accomplish for testing purposes.

I did find via thermo coupler testing on my street legal little racer that I could get enough intake temp drop to allow me to run advanced timing in the summer and avoid detonation, while still using regular fuel. That alone was worth the 'build' I did to create an intake.

I have a friend on the Ford engineering team (Fords engineer of the year in 2013) of the Mustang family. Formerly a Roush engineer. Like you, he says don't bother with 'ram air' in a modern setup.

 

Upon some road testing there is a very noticeable difference in acceleration , sound has also improved to a slight growl , the heat is actually no different after the drive 75 degree ambient temperature 20min drive the plastic tube was at 130 bottom and about 80 on top . Stainless was 73 top 125 bottom and after 30 min dwell time under closed hood was 108 at bottom 71 top . Using the air box and the supplied cool air from outside the engine bay opposed to a cone filter is pretty self explanatory ( difference between a ram air and cold air intake...)

 

It is a two piece , the ccv was done by hand and I had the luxury of orbital Welder to do the seam

 

On a side note, going back to the temp difference between ss/plastic. Im not smart by any means but by running that in ss it will get hotter thus making the air traveling through the tube into the engine hotter. Making combustion less efficient? I thought the whole point was to have colder air/more air. Not warmer air. Just asking... Go easy on me if im out to lunch!

 

I just tested it as explained in an above comment it was actually cooler after driving and heat soak was minimal . Also while at idle the fan blows a stream of cool air right up on it

 

Sub'd...really interested in seeing more from this