Go faster with a new air filter?
Thursday, November 27th, 2008 | Places
When car makers design air filters they are concerned primarily about ensuring the air reaching the engine is perfectly clean, and that air induction is quiet. Well, that is not quite true, because on high-powered models, they do allow some noise to build up with speed – because people like this noise.
These days, there is a big market in air filter kits and inductions kits for sporty cars like Subarus and Mazda 3s. Of course, if you buy a real muslce car like a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X or Ford Focus ST, you don’t need these kits.
Most of the companies selling these air filter kits To be sure, it depends on the car and the induction kit. Most air filter kits consist of a pipe from the engine to a conical or cylindrical filter with no enclosure – this results in less air resistance. And that is what these filters are all about - less resistance.
Actually, an air filter kit of this type should give a little more power. My guess is about 2-3 per cent. We actually got a gain of this type by altering the shape of the air intake mouth of a filter housing before it went into production.
Need to get cool air to the filter
The difficulty with a filter of this type is that it is in the engine room, which is hot. When you drive fast it gets hot. When it gets hot, the air temperature increases, too, which reduces power. To overcome this, you want cold air. You can take an aluminium pipe from the filter housing to the front of the engine bay, where there is quite a flow of cool air. This keeps the air cool.
Be careful: make sure that when you take the pipe out behind the grille, ensure that the tube has a bend near the front end, so the entry is high but sideways. This way you will avoid getting insects into your air filter in warm weather.
The ideal arrangement is an air pipe from the front to a BMC carbon dynamic airbox that houses the filter to keep it cool also. This way you can get the best out of your {air intake system|air induction kit|engine.