Lowering intake air temp, Heat sinks?

[jerg_064]

This is something I've been thinking about lately, And the biggest question is going to be: Is it really efficient? Would the hot underhood temperatures already present significantly reduce the heat sinks ability to do their jobs; dissipate heat? Since there are such things as "air cooled" engines, I believe this is a viable option even though most are not in an enclosed engine compartment. So I'm sure most of you know what a heat sink is(if not, you can Google), thus I will not explain. Heat sinks would surely reduce the inside temperature of an intake manifold. I also feel that this may work best on the tubular GT40 intake(or similar sorts). Then again as the thin tubes will not retain as much heat, perhaps it would not be needed and would work better on a cast iron manifold. Either way simply allowing the heat to be disapated into the underhood compartment would be somewhat counter productive, so it would be beneficial to have some type of heat extraction or cowl hood to pull/push this heat out. I feel that a real world experiment would be needed to try this, and I think I may know how by using a graph. Let's say I nearly completely covered the tubes and the TB with scientifically researched efficient heat sinks. Have the intake mounted on an engine of your liking, Measure the temps simultaneously, in real time, with the hood closed, at say 6 different points from the exit port of the lower to the TB. Now take the intake manifold off and put it in a controlled environment/container that exactly(or closely) replicates the conditions it is in while mounted on the engine(with similar underhood airflow). Measure the temps simultaneously, in real time, at the front of the TB[X] and at all 8 exit ports of the lower and use the average of the 8[Y]. - If you made a graph given [X=(ambient IAT)], [Y=(intake lower output temp)] would it be a linear or exponential? No matter if it's linear or exponential, from this we should be able to tell the difference in air temp(charge). Of course the graph from this study and the equation taken from it will only work for this environment. Meaning different factors such as ambient IAT have the ability to lower or raise underhood temps as well, which would in effect lower or raise the intake manifold temps, which would decrease the increase or increase the decrease of air temp as passes through the manifold(try saying that 3 times fast). However, if it is linear then we can still use the same slope and only need to add or subtract values to the right side of the formula to compute [Y] in different environments. Those "values" may need an equation to be found themselves. Can anyone shed some light on what may need to be done to find [Y], when [X] is given in different environments; how would I find/calculate the [values]? After we find out how to find these "values" we can attach our heat sinks and adjust from there. I have a feeling a linear graph will not be the case as it is the easy route and there are so many factors. Can anybody shed some light on how one might use an exponential graph to make calculations in differing environments or if you could at all? Now I know this may be too much time and effort, but let’s just assume we want more exact temperature numbers instead of just different ETs or Dyno numbers. I've never seen or heard of an intake like this and I'm sure it has been thought of and maybe even tried with minimal results. With that, I honestly assume it's not very efficient, if at all. I don't hear it talked about either and I don't plan on doing it, but I would like to know. Thoughts?

[Lead Head]

Heat sinks can only cool down something to the ambient temperature which in this case would be the engine bay. If anything, lining your intake with heatsinks would transfer engine heat better into the incoming air charge. Most cars and trucks pull air right from the fender wall or behind the grille, then pipe it through a bunch of plastic and rubber tubes which conduct less heat then metal tubes. The air charge virtually remains the same the same from the time it enters the intake to the time it gets to the throttle body. Which is why those cold air intakes with metal tubes and air filters open to the engine bay are kind of a joke. Often they pull in much hotter air then the stock system.

Your idea may work if you had something heating the air up past ambient, such as a turbocharger - but you might as well just stick a big ol' air-to-air interooler on the front of the truck and not even bother with a finned lined intake tube.