Winter intake idea

[jonnymopar]

If this has already been posted and/or thought of, sorry.

I currently have an Iceman cold air intake on my 03. During the winter months, I see a 3-4mpg drop like some other people. This has been consistent for the 4 winters I've owned my car. I'm wanting to do an intake experiment to see if I can get my winter MPG up. I think that the cold air intake during the winter time might be supplying air that's a bit colder than I need.

All I'm thinking is removing the bellows replacement section, coupling the throttle body straight to the intake manifold, and putting a cone filter directly onto the throttle body. This way, it's drawing air from the engine bay, near the radiator. I'm guessing the slower I'm going, the warmer the intake air temp will be, since less of that ice cold air is rushing through the engine bay. Stuck in traffic, it will be drawing the warmest air, which is perfect since stop-and-go traffic is where you get the worst gas mileage anyway.

One obstacle that I might run into is physically supporting the whole thing, since the intake will be shorter and won't reach the fender well. I might be able to rig up a bracket that would mount somewhere to the radiator support, or even to the engine itself. The only other thing is placing the intake air temp sensor somewhere. I particularly don't care if it's zip-tied to the filter since I'm doing this purely for functionality.

Anybody find any holes in my logic? Other thoughts?

[occasional demons]

If you have speed control, this may cause some bind in the cable. I found this to be a problem when I installed it on my ghetto IM set up. The problem was solved using a '00 Stratus cable. (Much shorter)
It would be a problem tho with the stock TB, as the Stratus uses a diferent attachment to the TB bracket. Not a problem with home grown Mustang TB bracket.

At speed, I doubt you will see much warmer temps, but like you said in city driving, there may be some warmth retained. I would get one of those cheap indoor/outdoor thermometers and mount the sensor near the IM/bellows to see what the temps are cruising VS city driving. At least it may give you an idea if it is worth the effort.

[jonnymopar]

No cruise control on mine. As far as mounting the throttle body directly to the manifold, I have done it one other time in an extreme emergency (200+ miles from home with an engine that idled somewhere around 6200rpm). The car drove fine and the throttle didn't feel any different, so I know that will work.

I plan on monitoring ambient temp as well as engine bay temp using some RTDs I have laying around at work. I even have some mini dataloggers that might work as well.

[occasional demons]

Sweet.

As far as the stock air box goes, with the resonator removed, the inside temp will basically match the ambient outside temps, as long as the engine is running. I found that with in minutes in the summer heat, the air box temps would be within a degree or two of the outside air temps.

Now, if you could do the old school heat riser set up from the exhaust manifold heat shield, you could prolly have a more consistent inlet temp. But running the duct would be a feat in it self! You would also need some sort of box around the filter to make it remotely effective.

[turbodudey]

Sort of like this:





You can see the cruise and throttle cable rounting too. Works just fine.

Don't know if it will really make much difference though. Part of the winter fuel consumption is probably due to the fuel blend too. Should be easy enough to rig up though, if you want to try it.

[occasional demons]

I think he has more of an "eliminating the bellows, and hooking the TB to the IM via a silicone coupler" idea in mind.

Like this, but with an oem type TB/IM. But with the filter directly mounted to the TB.

[heydockyle]

Gas mileage also drops in winter cause of shitty winter gas, or atleast thats what I've been told.

[occasional demons]

The fuel formulation changes, and also the driveline lubricants are colder, causing more drag. An ATX will warm up better than an MTX, but it still will take longer. ATX's won't shift into OD until the engine reaches a certain temperature either, so that takes a little longer. Yes there are a lot of factors, but why not have a little fun playing around with eliminating one of them...

If it helps, great. If not, so it goes.

[jonnymopar]

Sort of like this:

Right, that's what I'm thinking. That looks pretty sweet actually. Is that a Modern Performance throttle body? I've got a Lorenzo 60mm and, as said before, I know that mounts right to the intake manifold with just a basic coupler. I picked up an eBay filter with a 2.5" inlet so it would fit right on the throttle body.

occasional demons, old Turbo Dodge guys think alike! My all-time favorite car, my 1988 Daytona, had the 2.5L N/A with that heated air intake setup. It definitely did its job. I've already bought the cone filter for this experiment, but after thinking about it, I wonder how a Turbo I air box would work if I ran a hose from near the exhaust manifold. I bet I have one laying around somewhere.

Basically as occasional said, if it works, great. If not, I'm out $12 for the filter and just some time fabricating whatever bracket I decide to use. The stuff I need to monitor temperature and the material for the bracket won't cost me anything.

[ZeroChad]

I actually did that after I repaired my engine from hydrolocking while I was breaking the engine in. Even with the heavier MPX TB it seemed to hold fine without a braket. I have a mag intake with a 60mm opening welded on though.

[excon]

idea:

first gen throttle body and first gen "CAI". The filter will lay horizontally across the exhaust manifold. Some rigging will be involved with the tb...

[heydockyle]

Thats how the intake is designed on my 1st gen at the moment

[jonnymopar]

Functionally, that would be ideal for what I'm trying to do, but I'd have to go with a 1gn intake manifold and I'd also have to relocate my battery. I'm looking for something that I could easily switch in and out for the winter.

[occasional demons]

You would also need 1gn heater tubes/starter. Definitely not worth it.

Edit: That just gave me a thought...

You could do an air box with a small heater core or heat exchanger of some sort that is plumbed into the heater lines. You could plumb it so it is in the return side, so you still have full heat in the cabin, and it is still going to be sufficient to do some temp increase in the filter box.

This is opposite of what I did on one of my cars to lower the IM temps, since the coolant flowed through the IM...

[dblsg]

Gas mileage also drops in winter cause of shitty winter gas, or atleast thats what I've been told.

thats your main issue right there... gas companies switch over to their "winter blend" fuel.