CAI .... Cold Air Intake
 

Needing some advice please Gents ....

With our rather warm ambient temperatures in my parts I have noticed a
significant variation in engine performance and driveability when the ambient
temperatures are between 15 & 20 deg.C to when they are above 20 deg.C.

The car is far more responsive and just feels way happier when temperatures are cooler...

Having done some research I have come across a fair amount of talk about
CAI's and the benefits thereof .... also talk on the denisity of the air being beneficial etc etc.....

Has anybody gone this route ..... are there CAI kits available for the 8's etc etc ??

Any advice would be appreciated.... +++

We've got rather too much "normal" cool air up in these parts I'm afraid so its not really an issue!! :(

I don't believe there are any kits off-the-shelf, but one wouldn't be difficult to make, simply a filter on a stick as they say.

Sorry, I don't understand. What do you mean by "above 20 degrees C"? Have you got your car in an oven? :Confused:

It'd be nice to have that oproblem here! :)

Yup.... That's why they call it Sunny SA .....

In summer our standard daily temps range from 73 deg/F to 102 deg/F....
more ofetn than not at the top end of the scale ...
This has a significant effect on the V8 N/A ..... And I am trying to
come-up with a solution.

I am looking at something more than just a filter on a stick ......

Diesel engines sometimes have a cooler built into the fuel system I wonder if something similar could be rigged up for your car.


I've attached a Range Rover diesel fuel cooling system to give you an idea

Yup...that's more in line with what I am looking at.

The CAI theory appears to be along the lines of getting MORE air past the MAF.

I am looking to get cooler/denser air past the MAF as I understand it ... this has a direct influence on the ECU adjusting fuel/timing etc etc etc.....

Or am I heading in the wrong direction here ??

Well you cannot get air cooler than ambient without some type of active cooling(something like extra high power aircon for intake) but that would not be practical and possibly rob more power to operate it that you would gain. Another option would be nitrous injection.

47p2 picture shows fuel cooler which is mounted in intake, that would make intake air even hotter as it cools down fuel.

Stock A/S8 already have 'cold air intake' as does all modern cars drawing air from the front of car unlike some old cars that used hot air from under the bonnet.

Well known 'tuning' is to put resistor in place of air temperature sensor to fool ECU of thinking it gets colder air and to inject more fuel at WOT and advance ignition.

The system is supposed to deal with a normal range of conditions. The lambda sensors detects the amount of oxygen in the exhaust. Too much oxygen indicates a lean condition and so the vehicle computer richens the fuel to correct for this condition. Vice versa -too little oxygen indicates a rich condition and so corrects the fuel input to correct for this condition. So the fuel system automatically compensates for changes in air density. Unless you are driving in Oz (where temperature are touching 50C at the momment and possibly beyond the designed tolerances), i would have though that the system should ensure that little difference is felt.

But what do us in Scotland know about driving in warm climates!! :ROFL:

It would be interesting to know what conditions the system is, in fact designed to cope before performance drop-off. I would have thought that driving at altitude would have a greater effect as air density varies more with height than with temperature - I think?? I am probably wrong about all this as I am no engineer.....

The cooler I showed is not mounted in the air intake, the trunking only provides an airflow to the cooler not yo the engine air intake