Wed 15 Apr 2009
Cold Air Intake Installed
We now have an oxymoron: a tricked out Escort. Andrew installed a cold air intake, something he’s been wanting to do for a while and finally finished last night. How it works, I don’t understand, but it’s supposed to increase power and fuel efficiency by bringing cold air to the fuel injectors instead of the usual warm air that plastic intake pipes provide. Either way, it’s a cool mod to the Escort.
April 21st, 2009 at 9:44 pm
The colder the air, the higher the density. The higher the density, the less work required to compress it.
There was a fellow at work who would drag his ’55 Chevy. He ran his air intake through tubing that was wound inside a a coffee can which he would fill with ice.
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:26 am
Ah, that helps! Thanks.
Now, given the picture, how would the air coming through that metal pipe, which sits in the hot engine compartment, provide any cooler air than the plastic tubing which basically occupies the same space and draws air from the same location? Wouldn’t the metal conduct heat faster than plastic? It seems like this would be a good setup for pre-heating the air coming into the fuel injectors.
Any other insights?
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:51 am
If you just replaced a plastic duct with a similarly shaped and sized aluminum duct, and they were both drawing air at the same location, then I agree with you, it will heat the air more, not less, as the plastic would conduct heat less.
However, if the cross-sectional area of the new intake is larger than the original, then it will not cool the air but would provide less restricted air-flow, especially if the aftermarket intake filter is larger.
They may also be smoothing the airflow inside the duct, as well as sizing it so as to be tuned to particular rpm ranges of the specific engine.
Or….there were originally such kits that actually did move the air inlet location away from the engine, thus providing cooler air, but were followed by aftermarket performance kits that just look good and are labeled “cold air intakes”.
I drove that car once and was quite impressed at the peppiness of the engine and the close-ratio transmission. It appears to have dual overhead cam.