air intake thoughts
 

has anyone messed around with the intake on thier motor to increase mpg? i know that stock most vehicles have chambers off the air tube from the air cleaner to the throttle body to make it quiter. i am wondering if these chambers hurts mpg and if it would get better mpg with a smooth pipe from the air cleaner to the throttle body?


also another thought is that i know warmer air gets better mpg. so i was thinking if i took a stainless steel pipe and attached it so it is resting on top of the the exhaust manifold and then attached my air intake tube to it so the air from the intake flowed through the pipe it would create a air intake warmer by flowing the air throught the pipe. would i get better mpg?


also i know that smaller carberators on the 2 stoke motors that i build give them better bottom end and i was wondering if i put a restrictor in the air intake before the mass air flow sensor would it give the motor better bottom end power there for increasing mpg. i would think that the restrictor would make the motor flow less air and the computer would compensate by making a leaner mixture. i know that my high rpm power would suffer but cruising on the highway my motor is around 2000 rpm's

just a couple of crazy thought i was thinking about.

those boxes won't do much to hurt MPG since most of the time, we only crack the throttle plate open by a very small bit. I guess it could help some but it would probably take a while to recoup the cost of the tube (if ever)

the WAI or HAI (warm air intake, hot air intake) does work and many people (including me). results vary by vehicle and person. mine runs aroun 140ish degrees. I have seen a max of 179 in the heat of the summer and in the winter will still hit triple digits (barely)

I am seeing 40+ percent over my EPA rating. I say that because most don't know that the cavaliers are rated so low. it has a big (relatively speaking) 4 cylinder motor. most of my gains came from driving style change.

the WAI/HAI does cut off your top end some but doesn't seem to hurt you that bad.

Restricting the air intake on a modern vehicle will not raise economy. The O2 and Mass Airflow sensors will make sure the right amount of fuel is used. If anything you'll activate the Check Engine Light because the engine will be operating way outisde its parameters its expecting from the Throttle Position Sensor reading.

Warm air intakes do work on many vehicles. I recommend a slight modification though. Put the opening of the tube right at the exhaust manifold, so its sucking warm air right off the manifold.

I don't know about blocking off air chambers. I don't think it would make a difference in economy, but it certainly would not hurt to block them off with some good duct tape and experiment.

-Jay

Not me...

i am a plumber and the intake pipe seems to be about the same size as 2" pvc pipe. i could fab the tube for nothing

ccrider,
The resonance chambers are there to help eliminate intake noise and removing them makes no difference to either fuel consumed or to performance.

There was a very popular mod doing the rounds a few years ago for the Opel / Vauxhall / Holden Vectra called the "three pipe mod"
Effectively the resonator tubes were cut off and a sleeve fitted to the outside to cover the holes with the inside being filled with some sort of gap filler to make the intake smooth.
Dyno tests revealed it made NIL difference apart from adding an ear aching drone to the intake noise.
I have a feeling GM worked all this out before they built the car !

Pete.

so on the warm air intake are guys just running a pipe up to the exhaust manifold or are they fabing enclosures around the exhaust manifold? is this a kit that can be purchased?

I'm planing such a project right now. I don't know of any kits (but I haven't looked it to that). I'm on more of a coffee cans and JB weld budget myself.
You should have some way of monitoring the air temp wile you drive, as too high of a temp could cause damage.

I'm working with a horizontal 4, which makes things harder than with most engines, as the exhaust come out of the bottom of the block and the air into the top. This also means the entire exhaust system is the same height from the ground, and I don't want to suck up any puddles when I'm driving around in the woods. I've got many ideas for this, and most are more complicated than they need to be.

Both have been done by various members. There's no kit to do this, usually the best to use is some flexible metal hose. I was going to use 4 inch flexible metal dryer vent hose when I rig one up on my Sierra K1500 because the air intake already appears to be 3 or 4 inches. Flexible metal exhaust pipe is also available in various sizes at your local auto parts store.

My recommendation is to look at the diameters of the stock air intake, and choose something the same size, or slightly bigger. Metal is recommended instead of PVC so heat from the manifold doesn't melt or burn the pipe.

-Jay