I saw where the concept of the next generation Lightning had a device that used freon to chill the intercooler. It was only good for a run down the track before you had to let it cool off again. The intercooler functioned as normal before and after chilling it. It would never run out though, like a bottle of spray. It was said to be almost like a hit of nitrous too. It took about 15 minutes or so before it was ready to go again.
Other then sucking in HOT air off the headers or whatever, there isn't much more power in sucking in air from the fenderwell area or whatever. Lot's of muscle cars came with ram-air, or some other method of sealing the air breather to the hood. Then there were vents of some sort pulling in the cooler-then under-hood air into the carb. Ram air etc. hoods in the 60's and 70's helped sell more cars, but didn't make them go faster then their their non ram-air counterpart. At least with Mopar and Ford. GM's cowl induction actually did add power, but it wasn't due to the temp of the air. The scoop facing to the rear had air forced into it by the windshield. More air was being pushed into the engine then vacuum alone could pull. I will admit the fact that non underhood air will make more measurable power on a very warm day. Not all cold air kits are created equal though. Some actually hurt power by wreaking havoc with the MAS.

 

We used to run C02 before a run. The only problem (both the freon and C02) is condensation. If a track marshal sees water dripping from under your vehicle you will get a size 12 on your rear bumper. It's happened.

 

I had stumbled across a website for a guy who was diverting the air conditioning system into a secondary condenser and routing the intake air through it. It was good for something like a 90 second blast of cooler air before the air temperature overtook and heated up the secondary condenser. I think this might have been on a turbo'ed car. He was selling a kit for it and claimed he could make a kit for just about any car. I tried to find the website later, but couldnt' find it again.

Here is some discussion on the subject though.
http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/air_2..._20intercooler

 

I think that you would be much better off if you could rig up a funtional ram air induction. ambient temp air and lots of it.

 

Are you saying that doing a CAI is actually drawing warm air from under the hood and really not doing anything at all?

The reason I ask is because I'm about to install CAI on my 05 F150 with the slow.6! I have already done exhaust and I thought CAI would be a good 2nd step. After that I figured either headers or a programmer.

Since you guys seem to know about 135% more about this stuff can you give me some help?

 

Just like I said, "Most vehicles are fitted with a cold air intake already that draws air from the front of the vehicle. Unfortunately many people remove them and draw in hot underhood air instead." The factory setup draws in air from outside but some people remove the airbox and put on open filters that draw in hot air from under the hood instead. This is not good for performance.

 

Funny, I just noticed where the intake on my Ranger was today. It's a hole in the front of the truck behind the header panel, covered by a fiberglass "box" sort of thing open on all sides. Would it be beneficial to just cut the box off, allow all the air to travel into the intake?

ON ANOTHER NOTE: I am a student pilot myself, and we notice performance increases in cooler air. But remember our engines are usually at max throttle for takeoff and are also air cooled. It would seem as if the cooler air higher in the sky would allow the planes to in effect provide more power, but alas the cooler air up high is less dense and power actually falls as you climb. Hence on a hot day it takes much more runway to get flying.
Just my two aeronautical cents.

 

Cooler air up high is less dense, because the atmosphere becomes thinner as you fly higher. At sea level, cool air is always more dense then warm air.

 

That's exactly what I said...

 

Keep the outside air flowing to your engine. Do NOT dismantle the plenum box.

 

I actually tested a "ram air" scoop once. Did it on my 65 mustang with some microchip based pressure sensors. Very accurate. Think of it this way... a mustang supercharger kit claims about 35% hp increase for about 7 PSI. I measured a maximum of .078 PSI at 70mph. That equates to a 0.39 percent pressure increase. Lets say you have a nice high torque truck engine with 250HP. You would gain almost 1hp at 70 and about 1/10th a hp at 35. How much money and effort are you willing to expend for 1 hp? And don't forget you have more aerodrag and weight now. You would actually lose ground.

Now the effect of cold air... I don't know. But I think 2-10 hp is a good guess range. Assuming you are careful about pipe diameter, restrictions, insulation, etc.

 

wouldn't a cowl induction hood be a lot mroe desirable than a ram air hood because of the high pressure area there, but on the other hand if it is such a waste of time and a loss of speed due to worse aerodynamics to have a ram air hood then why do funny cars use them?

 

Ram air systems are not actually intended to create inlet pressure and supercharge the engine. Ram air was designed to insure an adequate supply of ambient temperature air to maximize your engine’s performance potential. A good ball park number is that you loose 1% of the available HP for each 10 degree rise in inlet temperature. Think of it this way, if your under hood temperature is 200 degrees and the ambient temperature is 70 you loose about 13% of your available horsepower. This is why open element under hood filters are not good for performance. Ram air systems are intended to flow outside air to your filter to prevent this loss.

 

uuranium: No, pressure wise the cowl is worse maxing out at .047 psi. The mustang may be slightly better aerodynamically then an old F150, so I'd guess .060 maybe on a 77 f150 for example. Ram air, the kind 2" or more above your hood, in order to get above the boundry layer, is still better at .078psi. The low shelby type scoops pretty much match cowl pressure.

As sigma said, it must be about cool air. Also funny cars hit what, 300 mph now? Air pressure goes up exponentially with speed. So they probably do see a noticeable...well, measureable anyway... hp improvement at the end of the track. Us normal people never go fast enough and while 1 hp may win a race, you'll never notice it on the street.

Were I going to do a cold air kit... Well, a short hood scoop looks good on a mustang or tapping into the cowl vent could be done cleanly without obscuring the engine on an old F150 and the performance results should be about the same. For absolute maximum performance... a 7 inch insulated tube to each headlight opening. (Removing the headlights and drilling out the pan behind them naturally.) Some of the SCCA mustangs do just that.

 

either way you said yur self derherr that the goal is to get colder air in order to get better horsepower and by adding a hood scope you do get better horespower. if you want to facto in drag coeficient then you are changing the system that you are looking at. thats why i made the post. as far as on the street goes there is no ammount of cold air setups or ram air hoods or cowl induction that is really gonna net you a gain in horsepower. a better filter might but i really have my doubts on spending the kind of money that these companies want for mabey 2 rwhp.