first let me say i'm excited to see velossatech's new ram air big mouth intake snorkel finally made available and believe this is definitely a step in right direction towards improving intake system efficiency and particularly for those folks with enclosed intake airbox systems installed....i would expect to see better results than those i've seen with my diy snorkel approach...
and yes, this is the updated pic (below) which i recently added to my original post....i wanted to be sure it was clear to others (since i was referenced a few times earlier today in this thread) that my snorkel approach was indeed a closed duct system feeding directly into the intake box...the high density foam block, which was added during my initial install (forgot to take pics of), was to ensure that when the cover plate was reinstalled there would be a good seal around the new grill duct into the oe snorkel...
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here was my initial write-up...
http://www.fiestastforum.com/forum/...red-build-thread?p=81119&viewfull=1#post81119
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with respect to the "hole in shroud" (with no snorkel) approach outlined by modbargains...i initially did this as well but quickly observed that intake temps rose far greater with just a hole punched in the shroud as compared to not having a hole at all and as such did not bother to test any further...i'm assuming this was primarily due to the heat radiating off the front face of the radiator being drawn up into the intake airbox causing temps to nearly double that of the conditions seen without a hole! I have not seen any other heat soak or cruise condition tests or actual results posted for just the "hole in shroud" approach...
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shown below is my original snorkel evaluation based on before and after comparisons of "ambient" / "intake" / "charge" temps logged during both a 20 min idle soak and again at hwy (70mph) cruising speeds...note that this was performed with cobb's cai installed and since then i replaced my cobb cai with cp-e's cai system...
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***on a side note... With this intake duct modification my primary focus was towards improving intake airflow efficiencies while keeping the airbox flushed with ambient air...i had no unrealistic expectations that this mod would in any way produce measurable gains in hp...
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also interesting to note since there always seems to be quite a bit of discussion on intake temps not necessarily affecting performance in a turbo system where an ic plays a key role (which for the most part i do agree with)...however, keep in mind that within our ecu programming there are compensation multipliers for iat where max allowable loads and closed wastegate (boost) compensations are dependent on intake air temps....
"max. Load at wot and closed wg comp." (iat)
"this compensation is applied to the result of the max. Load at wot and closed wg (table 01-15 / optimum power) tables as part of the calculation to create the load max. Achievable monitor."
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