Short Ram Intake

It won't if it ever encounters sub-40°F humid air.

 

Nope its gotten very cold here with high humid once in a while no issues.

 

If you think the warm air coming from the engine through your intake is saving you gas your looney toons. There is already warm air coming through the throttle body after it warms up its heated by its coolant loop.

The throttle body is already heating the air intake. Want to to make the engine warm up fast put a piece of cardboard in front of the rad people on this site have been doing that on a Prius for 15 years now. If i lived up north so would I.

Your point doesn't matter anyway you should be driving the second you start the car.

I got 55 mpgs with a new hybrid battery. You have no idea how an engine works.

Your car is peppier because you have an after market cat. I saw the same exact thing when I sold my G2 cat on ebay for $1400 and used an aftermarket cat. Car ran much much better. The OEM cat is restrictive.

And bottom line nothing will make you car faster but more fuel.

 

I'd have to agree with you. My reasons for switching to a short arm air intake gas to do with none of the above,

As I have stated in earlier postings, it has to do with convenience, engine compartment clearing and accessibility, and the exclusion of rodents,

The nicest thing is that it frees up the OEM filter box area and allows me to put the oil catch can there. I can use very short hoses instead of the long hoses used by many individual installing yje can in the space behind the driver side headlight unit.

 

This weekend, I upgraded and replaced the original K&N that HPS supplied with my short arm intake with an AEM dry filter.

I have uploaded a new current photo of my complete set up wit the conveniently located oil catch can.

 

Run with this to the next step. Why don't you build a shroud for the radiator/fans that will funnel all (or some of) the air that passes through it, into a plenum built around the air filter? That way the radiator preheats all the air going into the engine. It would be pre-warmer version of ram air. Make it removeable so you can pop it out when the weather gets warmer, or leave it in to see if hot air helps mpg in the summer.

 

If you shape the shroud carefully, the radiator fan might act similar to a supercharger while it runs. As the car picks up speed, the fan will turn off, but more air will be rammed into the shroud and into the engine, especially if you enlarge the openings in the front grill a little bit.. It may make it hard for the electronics to control the engine. I guess the am air would eventually cause problems since the stock fuel pump probably wouldn't be able to keep up. You'd probably have to upgrade that to. I think 155lph pumps are fairly popular. That should do the job. The 100lph models may be a bit cheaper, but may not have enough capacity.

 

Why not create a shroud around the exhaust and feed that HOT air into the intake?
Like they used to do...
Is there a limit to how hot the intake air can be?
Is there a limit to how much 'fuel savings' this theory can produce?

Some how, I thought modern engines, with the feedback from the O² Sensor, always keep the 'air/fuel ratio' at the ideal.

Hot, cold, humid, dry, high altitude, low altitude. The engine runs as clean and as efficient as it can.
You don't have to dik under the hood and make claims you 'improved' the design.
Hay'L, it's hard to get two tankfuls measure the exact same MPG. How could you ever prove these claims?

 

Good idea. Totally forgot about the exhaust manifold hot air take-offs that were used on the old style air cleaners!! We can shroud the air from the radiator and make it flow through a jacket formed around the exhaust manifold and then feed it to the throttle body. Then run the car's exhaust to the front of the radiator. Get a self-maintaining heat loop going and eventually fuel usage will steady out at a pretty minimum level.

 

The obligatory question since this is a fuel efficient vehicle, what was the trip mpg?

 

@AzusaPrius you did say in your initial post:

“Let me know your thoughts…”

I’d hate to put back the original intake every time I need a smog check, although I can’t remember if the guy even opened the hood last time.

It seems the filter surface area may be small/smaller than the original filter. For reason(s) I don’t remember I thought the goal is to keep or increase filter surface area.

I think most of the time someone will wait until it’s time to replace the stock filter, to install a new intake. I mean I’d be really surprised if you had a brand new air filter in there just before you replaced the stock intake with your new one. While I believe you are experiencing a true benefit, I how it would compare to a new Toyota or even performance replacement filter…

 

I trust that you have "Feelings. Nothing more than Feelings." [Andy Williams]

But this is a car forum. "Numbers. Nothing matters but Numbers." [me]

Now it's too late to gather 'Before/After' numbers.
That leaves us with "Trust",,,,, for you and your sponsors.

Did you really get "20 - 25% Fuel Savings" by feeding your engine 'Enhanced Air' (water)?


What a quality site!!!! Trust them.

 

Can't tell if you are serious.
What intake air temp will provide this 'minimum level'?
100°?
120°?
150°?

Why don't any manufacturers use such a system?

Isn't this just changing the Density Altitude of the intake air?
How would this be different than driving at 12,000 ft. in the mountains, to the engine?
The aero drag would remain the same...

 

I agree with Norton that there is no performance advantage to using a short ram air intake.

I never expected any gain in horsepower, since I know that the air is metered by the ecu from the data provided by the maf sensor.

The only advantage to a short ram air intake is physical. It clears away all that plastic ducting in the engine compartment and allows efficient addition of an oil catch can (OCC). With relocation, the OCC cup can be unscrewed and emptied with no additional removal of anything else. The filter is in full display and is easily visually checked every time the hood is opened. And, there is no rat trap.

On my setup, the intake point is in the same location as the OEM intake. My new replacement AEM dry filter eliminates the oil used in the originally supplied K&N. The new filter has nearly twice the surface area of the original and will provide extended service before cleaning. Removal for cleaning takes a screwdriver to remove one worn drive hose clamp. Cleaning the filter takes 10 minutes. I'll let it dry overnight and use the K&N temporarily until I can put it back on the next day. Easy.

Noise is not an issue. Under normal conditions, it is not even noticeable. It only roars when the accelerator is pushed down hard.

 

I figured the minimum level of fuel usage would eventually be zero, lol, when the engine shut off...