Cold Air Kit

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Dan the man

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When installing a cold air kit, I understand that it's best to mount the air filter outside of the engine compartment, but with the air duct still being in the engine compartment wouldn't it be a good idea to insulate this as it's exposed to the heat of the engine compartment? Seems to me that even though the filter would be picking up cooler air that it would be almost as hot as if the filter was still under the hood.
 
67Dart273 said:
?WTF
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Just asking a question on this topic as I'm trying to learn. If the inlet tube is warm from under hood temperatures, what temperature difference would there be by just placing the filter outside of the engine compartment? I've heard that it helps to improve performance, so I thought that if the inlet tube was insulated that it would be even better. Why knock someone who has never done this before and is trying to find out what he can?
 
The filters are still in the engine compartment...
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junkyardhero said:
do yourself a favor and don't try to understand; he posts in a stream of consciousness.
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Have you had experience with cold air kit for a early A bodies? I heard that they can be good for a easy 20hp increase, is this true
 
Dan the man said:
Have you had experience with cold air kit for a early A bodies? I heard that they can be good for a easy 20hp increase, is this true
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20 hp increase from a cold air intake?!
:rofl:

Cold air intakes can be helpful, but usually they provide a small improvement in efficiency more than anything else. Maybe a couple hp, maybe slightly better gas mileage. On modern cars the improvement is usually due just as much to improved flow in the tube (larger diameter, smooth bends) and reduced filter restriction as it is "cold air". But it does depend on where the air box is located to begin with and how long/restrictive the air tube is, on a car with a good airbox design they're pretty useless. It's splitting hairs to put the filter outside the engine compartment or insulate the cold air tube. The air itself spends very little time in the filter or the tube, so there isn't much time to transfer heat from the filter/tube to the air. Plus the filter and tube are usually insulating type materials to begin with, cotton filter, plastic tube etc so they aren't usually the same temp as the engine compartment air anyway. Could insulating the tube make a small difference? Again, it would depend on how long the tube is and how much time the air is spending in the tube. For a street car? Waste of time. For a race car? Maybe.

And have you bought an early A now? After all the threads whining about how hard it is to find parts for A-bodies you decided to buy the A body style that has the LEAST amount of aftermarket support?

And on that note, who makes a cold air intake for an early A? Pretty sure it would all be generic stuff and cut to fit. You're not gonna find anything that puts the filter outside the engine compartment unless you build it. There are these, but clearly the filter is in the engine compartment (not a big deal really). Clean, cold air from behind the grille with this set up, but this is a race car (Red Brick). And at track speeds of 160 mph like the Red Brick could do an intake set up like this would be a lot more effective. Cruising around town it's just extra stuff and holes in your radiator support.


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Yea, you could get 10-15 hp from a cold air setup like the Moroso pictured above. Racers do it all the time. For every 1 degree reduction in temp going in, creates more power.
 
My old school freshair, jeep 4.0 breather, battery moved to the trunk

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Dan the man said:
Just asking a question on this topic as I'm trying to learn.
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I can not figure out from your post what you are talking about. Explain yourself. What car, engine is this referring to. Just "what is" this "cold air kit?" In the world of old Mopars a "cold air kit" would be more like a hood scoop. Are you working on a modern front wheel drive, or what? No idea NONE
 
Dan the man said:
Just asking a question on this topic as I'm trying to learn. If the inlet tube is warm from under hood temperatures, what temperature difference would there be by just placing the filter outside of the engine compartment? I've heard that it helps to improve performance, so I thought that if the inlet tube was insulated
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So you want to drill a huge hole in your hood and have an air filter jutting out of it? Common sense would expect a more thought-out question rather than a general one. I'm thinking car application but have no idea what vehicle you have in mind.
 
It's too bad every "cold air kit" out there looks like ***. If you're after cold air, install a scoop and seal it up with foam.
 
Chrysler has been using Ram Air setups for years. The earliest one I think of is the Ram Charger cars. "Max wedge cars"
Then you had the 68 Hemi darts and cudas with their big scoops. Then you had the twin scoops on the a bodies in the 70s and the Dual snorkel scoop in the seventies and in 1970 my six pack Roadrunner had an air grabber hair tooth and Nails scoop. The only purpose I can think of was to get cooler under Force into the engine. Then let us not forget the Dual snorkel setup on the little red expresses.
And somewhere in there you may find or not a functioning hood scoop on an AAR Cuda or Challenger TA.
So Chrysler has used both a snorkel setup and a direct hood scoop in order to get cool air into the engine.
Crap I forgot two cars the 69 and 1/2 440 6 pack roadrunner and the Super Bee had the six pack hood scoop on a fiberglass Hood.

Double crap I forgot the Hemi shaker hood scoop.
I'm bad I'm bad please forgive me.
 
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Dan the man said:
When installing a cold air kit, I understand that it's best to mount the air filter outside of the engine compartment, but with the air duct still being in the engine compartment wouldn't it be a good idea to insulate this as it's exposed to the heat of the engine compartment? Seems to me that even though the filter would be picking up cooler air that it would be almost as hot as if the filter was still under the hood.
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I installed this on my '68 Barracuda. It sources the cooler air from the high pressure zone at the cowl. I had too much stuff in the way to route it to the grill area, so I used the cowl to access cooler air. It did feel like it increased performance, but my previous air filter set-up was probably a restriction in and of itself.

If you've ever opened one or both of the fresh air vents and felt the blast air into the footwell area in these cars while doing freeway speeds, you can understand why engineers have used the cowl as a source for outside the engine compartment for cooler air.

The middle of the hood is a low pressure source to grab cooler air at speed. I remember reading somewhere that a hood scoop would have to be around 2 feet tall to position the opening into higher pressure air. The airflow that is displaced by the front of the car flows up above most hood scoops and then crashes down on the cowl before being forced upwards again by the windshield.

Regardless, the air is often significantly cooler from a low hood scoop than engine compartment air.

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jbc426 said:
I installed this on my '68 Barracuda. It sources the cooler air from the high pressure zone at the cowl. I had too much stuff in the way to route it to the grill area, so I used the cowl to access cooler air. It did feel like it increased performance, but my previous air filter set-up was probably a restriction in and of itself.

If you've ever opened one or both of the fresh air vents and felt the blast air into the footwell area in these cars while doing freeway speeds, you can understand why engineers have used the cowl as a source for outside the engine compartment for cooler air.

The middle of the hood is a low pressure source to grab cooler air at speed. I remember reading somewhere that a hood scoop would have to be around 2 feet tall to position the opening into higher pressure air. The airflow that is displaced by the front of the car flows up above most hood scoops and then crashes down on the cowl before being forced upwards again by the windshield.

Regardless, the air is often significantly cooler from a low hood scoop than engine compartment air.

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The under the a/c cover illumination has to be worth 1 or 2 hp.
 
A56 said:
The under the a/c cover illumination has to be worth 1 or 2 hp.
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At least. Look at all the late model cars especially with al the LED lights. They must be getting 1000 horse out of a 2 liter.
 
A56 said:
The under the a/c cover illumination has to be worth 1 or 2 hp.
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Coolness can come in many forms, so don't forget to add the chilling effects of the under-hood mounted, downfacing spot light LED'sthat are shining on the top of the motor.
 
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