Cool air intake ideas?

[Scooter311]

I was just thinking (there I go working without tools again)....
It's been hot and muggy around here lately, and for whatever reasons I started thinking about some kind of cooler air/ram air intake - maybe something under or on the lower sides? Just to funnel air into the engine compartment or into or close to the impeller or carbs when you're toolin along? I was working on somebody's car and saw that the air intake was a wide, flat looking piece that mounted behind the grill, and I remember thinking "Golly, that looks like it would be ideal to put under the teener, maybe betwixt the flaps under the body...." ( I didn't actually think all that, I just saw a picture of it in my head - I only think in pictures )
Would something that would funnel air in be a good idea, has it been done, etc etc. I need to do a junkyard run for another car, and I have to pretend I have a reason to rummage through junk afterwards.

[robinaube]

I saw a 914 at a PCA club race that had a unique cold-air system. The guy had an openning at the front bumper and it fed directly into a 12" pipe which ran thru the trunk and passenger area and directly into the cooling fan intake. It wouldn't be practical for a street car but the guy said it help keep his engine cool.

The piping looked like the ducting used by heating/air condictioning in houses.

[mustanggtboy]

My 2 cents, why not make some air scoops on either side of the rocker panels,there seems to be plenty of room there and loads of possible scoop/ ducting combinations , plus the rockers come off easy to tweak the design.

gtboy

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Rob, that's the well-known "sewer pipe" cooling system. EP 914s use that, as well as Production-class 356es and 912s. The rule was originally intended for Brit cars, and allowed the headlight openings to be ducted to the cooling fan. The 356 guys saw that and were very happy to have a steady supply of cool air going to their fan--I think it allowed them to run a differerent fan pulley ratio or some such?

On 914s, it allows most or all of the cooling impeller blades to be removed. This lets the engine make more power, because very little power gets used to push the cooling air through the engine. You'll also note that the engine tin was extensively trimmed, likely for weight saving? This is because all of the cooling air comes from the front of the car, so re-ingesting "used" cooling air will not happen.


GTboy, Charlie Davis has built a fiberglass duct that fits on the sail panel and pushes some cool air into the engine bay. He did this more as an aid to reducing engine temps than to get more power. He also experimented with a few other things for this purpose... http://members.rennlist.com/chuxter/TempTests.htm

John Rogers (one of the members on this site) made a deflector for his race car that went all the way across the back edge of the roof. It was a simple piece of curved sheet metal (looked only a couple of inches wide, but went all the way across the roof) that would push air down toward the engine lid. A GT-style lid (all mesh) let that air into the engine bay, which helped the engine stay cool.

Scooter, I've seen several things done over the years. Most of them, frankly, have looked rather hokey. The easiest one was something a local guy did, which was turn the bottom of the 2.0 air cleaner around backwards so the intake snorkel was sucking air from the left side of the engine bay rather than the middle. It seemed to work pretty well for reducing the intake air temps. I've seen other solutions with dryer hose and such, but I wouldn't be surprised if the benefits were too small for a dyno to measure... And there is also the problem of water ingestion. If you never drive your car in the rain, and can manage to never drive through a puddle, you might be OK with some of those setups. But most of us will get caught in the rain at some point. Hydro-lock is not a good thing when it happens at speed... It's a way to bend your rods and destroy your motor, in fact.

If you can come up with a good way to let cold air in and keep water out, that would be pretty neat stuff. But don't expect a noticeable extra shove back into the seat when you're done.

--DD

[Jake Raby]

Air temp makes a huge difference in performance. The temperature of the air charge into the intakes dictates efficiency in many ways. I see this on the dyno many times a day as the temp rises in the summer... The best RAW power is amde at 6Am, with heavy air and dew still on the grass.

[Brant]

The local colorado race cars built by AJRS, use a naca duct in the roof... They feed through a clear plexiglass hand build square tube (does not block visibility as much as a non-clear tube would) through the back plexi-window and onto the top mounted electric fan.. (kinda a DTM fan that AJRS has been building for 5 years now.. maybe Jakes for all I know)

This of course would not work for a street car... but adds less drag than a roof scoop or a side scoop...

AJ of AJRS swears that this ducting and the cool air that it provided were absolutely key in allowing his TIV motors to be built to last in full race trim.

brant

[Scooter311]

Maybe it's best to get the cooler air into the fan, to be blown over the heads and cylinders? I wasn't thinking about the horsepower benefit, just getting the temps down a bit - that has to help I s'pose. I'm gonna go the the yard on Friday and scavenge some kinda intake scoop and hose, and diddle around with different placements, keeping in mind the water intake as well, and making it look sano. I dunno, I should be working instead of thinking about this anyhoooo.....
Keep the ideas comin'

Jeff

[Scooter311]

Oh yeah, I like the rocker panel ideas - anyone wanna donate a set for science?

[Jake Raby]

Don't look for high pressure... Just feed the engine cooler air and let it asperate on its own.. Feeding high pressure changes jetting in carbs and effects the atomization..

[SGB]

I have wondered about using a small ducted fan to pull air in next to the engine lid in that little rectangule of grid. Just something really simple and light. It seems like it would be easy and light, and also potentially usefull for low speeds or stop and go situations. No real dusting, just maybe around the empeller. Make some water resistant type housing using a plastic boox, etc. It might also look kinda homemade, but could be small enough for that not to matter as much...

[John Rogers]

I used the air deflector at the rear of the targa top and it lowered the oil temp in my 220 HP stroker four by about 15 degrees. I took it off when we put a six in as it has a much larger oil cooling system. The deflector was thought of by Charlie Wallace in San Diego and has been used on several other hot running 914's with great results. The deflector need to have about 1.5 inches of height above the top and should be fairly wide, about the width of the rear window. I would never draw air from under the car for a street driven 914 as it will be terribly dirty and of course that all will go all over the engine. The rocker panels might be a little too low and that area tends to really grab road junk too. There are a couple of 914 2l race cars that have ducts in the rear part of the rocker panel but they are not driven on the street. Good luck.

[sean_V8_914]

there was a man with an oragne 2.0 at the QDE last month. He had a similar air deflector than John and we discussed similar results in oil temp reduction . about 15 deg. his deflector was similar in height but only spanned 2/3 of teh rear window

[sean_V8_914]

my V8 car is street driven daily. It draws air from under the car and teh engine gets FILTHY

[John Rogers]

But just think, if you draw air from under the car, you have a "sucker car" and are getting more down force!!! There is a famous yellow 914 IMSA racer that had the bottoms of the side boxes cut out and the air sucked out the top for the engine to add a little more down force!!

[sean_V8_914]

Oh, that must be why I was so fast

[Tidybuoy]

I like the scoops on the side of this car:

[mustanggtboy]

exact-o-mundo

That's a nice looking car, the picture looks a few years old.

gtboy

[Tidybuoy]

I found this shot on the internet some time ago. It's definately one of my favorite pics & if I ever go red - it will look like this one.

[Special K]

Yep, those are Fiat X1/9 side scoops. Got a pair myself, not installed yet.

Nice looking car!

[mustanggtboy]

You think those are ducted for additional cooling air (engine, brakes?) or air for a oil cooler or just for looks?

gtboy