Warm Air Intake

[fifteenwindow]

Last week I installed a crude WAI. Its a double-walled section of 4 inch dryer duct, wrapped in the reflective backing from a piece of duct insulation. It runs from the intake snout to the radiator.

I tried running it back to the exhaust manifold at the rear of the engine, but I didn't have a long enough piece of ducting to get that far.

With the wai running to the radiator, I don't see any intake air heat until the coolant temps reach 195 F and the thermostat opens. This weekend I was driving in 13 degrees F, and my intake air temps stayed at 90 F traveling at 60mph.





I plan to insulate the rest of the intake snout and airbox when I find more material.

[kalifornia]

good job, how does that snorkle appear to be attached to the air box?

[Daox]

Looks interesting. You'll have to let us know if you notice any benefit from it.

[live4redline]

Edit.... This will be just for sub-temperature conditions right?

For a more permanent fixture you could always use a water to air "intercooler" with the water routed from the throttle body and back as its one of your better sources of early heat.

[fifteenwindow]

how does that snorkle appear to be attached to the air box?

I didn't remove it so I'm not certain, but it seems to be clipped on, with a sleeve going into the airbox, and its attached to the (resonator?) box behind it, which is bolted on.

[zefke]

Nice installation, but what is the benefit from having warm air coming into your air inlet?

[m4v3r1ck]

Warm air intake is known to burn easier than cold air. So if the air that getting into your engine is already warm, it will burn faster and better which may also reduce the fuel consumption.
There's also aftermarket warm air intake with heating elements.

[fifteenwindow]

And here's more on the idea behind a WAI, via Wikipedia:

Warmer air is less dense, and thus contains less oxygen to burn fuel in. The car's ECU compensates by opening the throttle wider to admit more air. This, in turn, decreases the resistance the engine must overcome to suck air in. The net effect is for the engine to intake the same amount of oxygen (and thus burn the same amount of fuel, producing the same power) but with less pumping losses, allowing for a gain in fuel economy, at the expense of top-end power.

See it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warm_air_intake

ecomodder.com and gassavers.org have more discussions on this topic.

[zefke]

COOL Can you measure the difference when you install the WAI like you did?

[fifteenwindow]

Yes, you can run fuel mileage tests by driving the same route with the wai installed, and then without the wai. Try to eliminate as many variables as you can (different temperatures, traffic, wind speed/direction, weight of your carload, etc.) as these will affect your mpg. Multiple tests will yield more valuable results than a single test.