Fuelly Forums - Failure Breeds Success

I think Edison coined the phrase, but in the experiment section the notion that testing takes time could never be more important. The HAI I installed in the Solstice was a 90% failure. Something I didn't even think about came into play, air pressure. I used a piece of aluminum 3" dryer pipe to carry hot air from the back of the radiator to the front of the air intake. I got the car on the road and nothing, I gained one mpg. So I sat there figuring that once the car is moving through the air, the velocity of the car moving foreward would push hot air into the intake. Not true, at the front of the car where the hood meets the bumper there is a pencil wide gap, this gap above 45 mph turns into a cold breaze. Having been in the Heating and Air business I took out my remote thermometer and installed it at various locations on the car. The intake is right at this gap and below 45, the intake is drawing in hot air form the back of the radiator through the HAI pipe at around 150 degrees. Now once I go past 45 mph the air blast from the gap chills the intake to what ever the outside air temp is, that being 48 degrees.

Back to the drawing board, I have to figure out a way to get the hot air to the mouth of the intake, its right against a flat wall and the air gap. I can't bore a hole into the body of the air cleaner, so I have to come up with a way of sealing the mouth up so it just breaths hot air. I even thought of an idea to run a small transmission radiator mounted in front of the intake to get it to breath hot air. Also the air filter box sits on top of the intake shroud of the radiator, so the box temp is the same as the outside.

My goal is to get my intake temp up to 180 to 195 degrees. Since summer ended two weeks ago, its gone from the 80's to the 40's and I have lost 4 mpg over all. Time to sit and think.