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Alright guys, we all know about intakes. Or if you don't, you're looking to learn. Yeah, I posted this in the 10thgen section because all the data I'm collecting is from direct observations of the IAT gauge on my KTuner app as well as the ambient temperature gauge on my dashboard. Also any modifications I've done will be annotated. This is gonna be a lot of reading: backgrounds on intakes, design differences, etc., so buckle up and enjoy the ride. There's also gonna be a lot of rudimentary information, so a lot of you will probably skim over the info and straight to the pictures.
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First off, there are 2 main types of aftermarket intakes available for the general public: cold air intakes (CAI) and short ram intakes (SRI).

• Cold Air Intakes typically position the air filter down behind the bumper, taking suction from outside of the engine bay, hence the "cold air" aspect of them. Typically multi section pipe sections with a cone filter at the end. One big "fear" with CAIs is the fear of hydrolock. Since the intake takes a suction from super down low, they have a higher potential to take in water and send it into the engine. Since water is effectively non-compressible, this can result in bent rods if enough water is introduced into the combustion chamber.
• Short Ram Intakes are often times the upper half of a company's CAI counterpart, and the intake takes a suction from inside the engine bay. Often jokingly referred to as "hot air intakes" by some since engine bay temps are invariably (and sometimes significantly) higher than ambient air temperatures. The tradeoff here is that SRIs are infinitely easier when it comes to maintenance (cleaning/replacing filter), since the air filter is easily accessible just by popping the hood.
• Hybrid CAIs. yeah, I didn't mention this before this bulleted section because either nobody really thought about making them until recently. If they are out there, I had no idea they were a thing. 27WON, a small company that's been R&Ding a LOT for the 10thgen has such an intake that consists of a plastic intake box within which the filter connects, and it has a.. reverse snorkel part that pulls air from the fenderwell. There's also a slit cut out in the top of the filter housing that allows a secondary suction source in the case the lower snorkel part becomes fully submerged in water. The filter is easily serviceable by removing 4 fasteners that hold the clear acrylic cover. It's a very interesting design, but I can't justify the $400 price tag on an intake. --->Link for the curious<---

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Now, why do people buy intakes? The alleged power increase these provide. Many companies out there claim "up to 15-20 hp increase!" Note the choice of words there, kids, "up to" is included there. That way, if you don't make squat for power, they can say, "hey, we said 'up to,' not a guaranteed 15-20..." Well then, that gives you some food for though, eh? On the 7thgen platform, pretty much every intake out there did, in fact, give you a slight power boost, but only 1-5hp in the top of the RPM band. Furthermore, this came at a sacrifice: often times a power loss in the low RPM band, usually in the 1-3hp range. No, I'm not providing that data, mostly because I don't feel like searching for various individuals' dynos from way back in the day, and chances are the pictures aren't hosted anymore. Okay, I lied a little. Here's a dyno chart from Super Street power pages where they dyno'd a 2008 Si with a Fujita SRI

Source: SuperStreetOnline.com - Red: Baseline, Green: Intake
Note the loss in power between 3000-4000RPM, very slight gain from 4500-5100RPM, loss between 5500-6000, and the only gain at the 6500-8000 range. Way at the top of the power band. You're just about shifting at that point, and you'd really only be at that RPM level if you were pretty much drag racing or other high speed straights. These results are kinda typical of pretty much any intake out there. CAIs will be slightly different, but most of the gain is going to be had up top. Another thing about intakes, particularly ones constructed of metal pipes is heat soak. The engine bay is much hotter than ambient, and the intake pipe soaks up that heat and heats up the intake stream going into your engine. Hotter air -> less dense (i.e. less O2 density -> less fuel being added in -> ??? -> profit less power to be had. It's more complicated than that, but in essence, that's the very thing that CAIs aim to defeat, is hotter air entering the engine. Some intakes out there have plastic piping/intake assemblies that a filter fits onto, and it helps mitigate that battle with heat and intake air.

So.. Yeah, I've been talking down intakes, but we still get them anyways. Why...? Lets be real. The bling factor. The sounds. And, in my opinion, ease of maintenance. No worrying about broken air filter housing from heat stressed plastic. Just a hose clamp and wash the damn thing. Especially with the DryFlow tech that AEM introduced, you don't have to oil many of the filters out there anymore. Wash, air dry, reinstall, call it a day. Unless you have a CAI where the intake filter sits inside the bumper, then you have hella extra steps to take. An intake will most definitely give your car a different sound. Hell, different intakes will give your car a different sounds. I went from a Weapon*R Dragon SRI to an AEM V2 intake in my 2002 and it sounded like a completely different engine.

Alright Josh, I'm bored. We already know all this crap. Where's the good stuff?

I'm getting there. I was just talking out my *** up there for people that wanna learn some stuff. You may recall me saying above, "I couldn't justify the $400 price tag," and that's true. Many intakes out there, especially for the 10thgen, have a going price of $300 or $400, depending if you go SRI or CAI. I, myself, have a short ram intake, but I didn't spend $300 on it. I didn't even spend $100 on it. I went the DIY route and made one. An important thing to note here is the OEM intake on a 10thgen has a MAF sensor housing built into the filter cover. The specs on the MAF housing is incredibly important in ensuring your ECU puts the right about of fuel into the combustion chamber. Word on the street is Injen's MAF design for the 10thgen sucks, causing all sorts of issues. 27WON 3D scanned an OEM MAF housing and inputted that scan into CAD to make theirs. Mishimoto and PRL Motorsports are among others that have been proven to have well-designed MAF housings in their intake systems. Would you look at that, also. Their intake designs all utilize plastic piping, and not metal. But I digress. My DIY intake has a properly designed MAF housing, because it's the one that Honda made for the car. I just carefully extracted it from the air filter cover. I also put a quality filter on it (AEM DryFlow). Also, the stock intake on the 10thgen is actually quite good. Quiet as ****, but not a limiting factor. So, if intakes don't do squat, why did I get one? Because this is a turbocharged engine. And I wanted to hear the damn woosh noises. Seriously. Couldn't hear a damn thing turbo-wise. It was way the hell too quiet. Now, with my intake, I can hear turbo spool, turbo suction, and the BPV (there is no VTA BOV on this car, just a bypass valve that recirculates excess boost back into the inlet).

There is one problem with my intake, however, and that is really the reason I'm making this thread. I made a SRI, and it takes suction from inside the engine bay. Of a turbocharged engine. Turbos are notorious for generating lots of heat, and this Vegas summer hasn't helped. Luckily, the coolant system does its job and keeps my coolant temp in the 180-200F range.

I want to be perfectly clear here, I am not discussing power gains from cooler air. I am not implying power gains from intakes. I am simply finding cost-effective ways to introduce cooler air into my engine. Snails like cold air. Let's give the damn snail cold air. I will say, though, I am most definitely feeling the effects of hot weather in the gas pedal. As the temperatures dropped, car feels a bit more sluggish, and the screen shot you're about to see will explain why.

Here's the screen shot of my KTuner app that prompted me to start thinking of ways to get cooler air into my intake stream:

That 174.2F (79.6C) IAT though. I was in stop-and-go traffic with a.. 107F (41.7F) ambient. That's almost a 70F (40C) difference in ambient to intake temps. I about crapped myself when I saw my intake and coolant temps that damn close to each other.

Days later (8/14), I took screen shots at random intervals to record IATs. Again, ambient temps at this time were about 107F. First screen was at the stop light before the freeway, and the following 3 were cruising on the freeway. Going forward, if I say "delta," the number to which I'm referring corresponds with the following equation: IAT - Ambient = delta, all done with degrees Fahrenheit. All screenshots were taken after my car had gotten up to NOT (normal operating temp). This set of screen shots will be referred to as Drive 1.


Deltas here: 67.2 (stationary), 47.4, 36.3, 33. You can see that as I was rolling, some cooler air was coming in, but still a 30+ degree delta.

The morning after that (8/15), I took more screenshots on my way to the VA hospital to get some blood drawn. Much cooler ambient temperature (94F/34.4C) with no stop-and-go traffic. Again, first shot was at the light leading to the freeway, and every one thereafter was while cruising, as you can tell by the speed at which I was travelling. This will be Drive 2

Deltas here: 53.2 (stationary), 33.4, 24.4, 22.6, 19, 19
Lower deltas here, but also lower ambient temps. Some correlation here, but still basically a minimum delta of 20F.

This morning, I cut out 9 of the hexagons on the driver's side fake vent on the front in preparations for my RAM induction plumbing I want to fab up.

I chose these particular 9 to cut out for symmetry's sake. The passenger's side has these exact 9 cut out (well, mirrored to the vent I'm holding), presumably to let more sound come from the weak *** OEM horn.
Theoretically, this should have lowered my IATs anyways, but by a much smaller margin than what the final design I have in my mind should yield. By opening this vent, more outside air should be going into the bumper, into the fenderwell, and up to my filter. This time, I paid closer attention to the ambient temps at the times of screen shots.
The first 4 were taken on surface streets, leading up to the freeway.
The next 7 were taken on the freeway, with a bit of traffic (hence dropping down to 45), and one light due to a detour onto another freeway. I did get on boost (read 19PSI at one point) to purposefully generate some heat in the engine bay and coerce more intake flow.
The last one was a long downhill (3-4 miles) where, if you start at 35MPH at the top, you'll easily be at 60MPH before it starts to level out to a shallower road grade, provided you don't touch the brakes. note the ~-10PSI manifold air pressure and 0% throttle position)
This will be referred to as Drive 3



Well, look at that. After the vent modification, there is a noticeable difference. Recall that in Drive 1 with the 107 ambient, the lowest delta I got was 33. Drive 2 with the 94 ambient, the best I got was 19. Drive time on Drive 3 was about on par with Drive 2, but this time ambient temperatures were, on average, ~10 degrees higher. Stop-and-go/surface street traffic, my deltas were all lower than that of the stationary on both Drive 1 and 2. Freeway cruising, my deltas were trailing on par with Drive 2, even with the 10-degree higher ambient temperatures. There may or may have not been some increase in throttle response, but I'm chalking that up to placebo effect. However, the decrease in IATs is most definitely there. I'll go for more drives and keep you guys updated.

Until next time!


8/23 - Drive 4 - ~0530-0600PST
This morning on my commute to work, figured I'd take some screenshots with the cooler weather.


Even cooler ambient temps for Drive 4, and we see here that the deltas are tracking lower than that of Drive 2. Drive 2 had deltas from 19-33, with a stationary delta of 53. Here, We have a mobile range of 15-25. The stationary shot in screenshot 5 in this one was a very short time stopped after freeway cruising.

Drive 5 - 8/23 ~1430-1450PST



Steady ambient temperature of 102F the whole drive (with the occasional tick up to 103F). Screenshots 1-4 here were all freeway cruising, 5-6 were during that 3-4 mile downhill, and the last two were stationary, with the very last being in my driveway. Here, we see freeway cruising deltas from 22-35F, and after that long downhill while stationary, IATs creeping up. Makes sense since there's no active air being shoved into my engine bay. Still lower than Drive 1 and a hair higher than Drive 3. Likely cause of that: shorter commute here than that test run. Still, IATs weren't alarmingly high, with most of the deltas in the mid-low 20 range and a few blips above it.

I think at this point, lots of empirical data has been collected for the current configuration. I'll probably do 1-2 more runs each with each cold and hot temps just to gain more data points, but the real test will be after I fab up the RAM induction. That might not be for a while, though.

 
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In for more spreadsheets and data

 
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I had spreadsheets. Basically all it was were ambient, IAT, and Delta temps. Nothing that couldn't be done simply by listing them. For the times I do keep track of small changes in ambient, a spreadsheet style data table like on drive 3 will be added

 
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More observations from yesterday consistent with my findings above: 10 mile trip home from work, 80% freeway driving, ambient temps of 105-108 and IATs were 20°F ± 2°F over ambient while moving anywhere above 30MPH. The only time it went above that 20°F ± 2°F delta was while sitting at a red light, and the most it got up to was a 30°F delta.

Also, yesterday morning on my commute to work, I saw the lowest delta yet: 8.9°F delta. Saw it again this morning omw to work.

When I eventually fab up that ram intake scoop thingy, what I hope to see is a lower delta and possibly less fluctuation between motile and stationary IATs, since I'm planning on fabbing up a sort of semi-open shield around the filter. That last part may come later though.

 
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Do you get lower max boost in colder weather?

I am peaking less now that the nights are getting cooler. Cooler air is denser so the engine should need less boost to make the same amount of power is my understanding.

 
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Since I'm tuned, ECU is no longer following torque target protocol, but instead is now boost pressure targeted. I'm not sure how it ties into the change in timing for higher IATs. Either that, or the lack in power I'm feeling is strictly based on an O2 density change with warmer air. Or butt Dyno effect since I got used to the power. Lol

 
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Ah ok, thanks. My tune still retains the OEM "safety" features so I am thinking it is suppose to do that. Makes sense that yours would not be effected since it is now boost target instead of torque.

 
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At least, that's my understanding of the KTuner genx tunes

 
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Started preliminary design work on the ram tube. It's too hot to do physical modelling right now, so I defaulted to my 3D modelling program: 123D design by AutoDesk (it has long since been discontinued, but I still had the program install file. It works great for simple ****. lol). Drafted up a 2D model (internal and external pipe dimensions) in Illustrator, then imported the SVG as a solid design into 123D and used the internal mockup to hollow out the external solid. Had to do some cutting and flipping, and due to the limitations of this program, couldn't quite connect the two sections together. Well, I could have, but I didn't feel like putting that much effort into it since it's a preliminary mockup to get a visualization of what I was gonna make. Yes, it's a fairly rectangular shape, and the actual design will include more curvatures. The rectangular bend(s) that connect the two sections together will likely stay in that rectangular shape due to the opening in the fenderwell into the engine bay, and will likely be taller than wider, like in the lower piece. I plan on using factory intake mounting points to keep this thing stationary. It's not going to physically connect to the engine, not even physically to the filter, rather just serve as an outside source to the filter. What I might do is make the engine bay portion (vertical section) a smaller diameter than the bumper section to increase flow velocity at that point. I busted out some fluid dynamics engineering lessons from back in like 2004 for this.

Quick lesson for yall (at least what we were taught in Navy nuke school): in a given pipe, flow rate will maintain constant throughout the length, regardless of pipe diameter. The factors that change when you change pipe diameter are fluid velocity (in this case, air), and fluid pressure at the given points. Decreasing pipe diameter in the middle of a pipe will decrease pressure at the bottleneck, but will increase fluid velocity. If my theory is correct, the pipe diameter decrease at the bend should decrease pressure (as exerted on the walls of the pipe) and increase fluid velocity into the engine bay portion. This should (again, in theory) reduce heat transfer from external factors to the air inside the pipe, ensuring cooler air is reaching the filter. I'm not worried about heat from friction inside the pipe, as any heat generated will be minimal. Either that or I'm just nerding out way the hell too much for an experiment

Likely gonna be made of fiberglass using metal mesh as a mold/core. What I'm thinking is shape it using metal mesh, initial shaping with glass on the exterior, then lay down an internal layer to sandwich the metal wireframe mesh between layers of fiberglass. My fab skills with this sorta thing is limited, so if anyone has any input as to what I should use, please, I'd appreciate your input. planning on "rolling" the edges, much like how a doctor would mold a cast liner

 
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Alright guys, it's been a minute since I've updated. IATs over the last week have been consistent with my posts above, so I have no worries there. I did see that another dude on CivicX did pretty much a similar setup as to what I'm planning, just a lot more ghetto rigged. Same holes cut out on the front vent, but he just paid a visit to Home Depot's pipe aisle and used an outdoor gang box as an output funnel. I'm probably gonna do some similar to that, as far as piping goes, but hope to make it a bit more professional looking, while trying to keep overall costs down. ABS piping, a few pipe intake couplers (in the model below, a 15° bends, a pair of 90° bends, and a 45°) and couple that with a velocity stack on the inlet side and probably some sort of outlet.. plenum.. be it a dust hood, rectangular intake funnel, or straight fabricated from fiberglass. He noted IATs that were 5-10° above ambient, where after my vent modification, I was seeing no less than 10° above ambient. At the end of the day, I think what I'm trying to accomplish here is mitigating heat soak. Because it sucks. lol

Found out that the hole that goes from the fenderwell to the engine bay can accommodate a 3.25" OD pipe, and maybe a 3.5" OD pipe, so i'm planning on using 3" piping for it. Either that, or I'm just gonna abandon this DIY job and just buy a CAI. lol. I was browsing around for ideas on ABS heat shields, and I saw a dude that used a rubbermaid 7gal trashcan and fabbed up a heat shield on his F150. After it was finished, it looked pro af. I took a look inside my engine bay and realized that there's definitely not enough room to finagle something like that, unless I go full fabricator mode and make it out of fiberglass. I really don't wanna default to that, since the hot weather we have really messes with cure times. Last time I worked with glass in these temps, I had maybe 60-90 seconds of working time before the resin hardened.

Anyways, here's V2.0 of my ram induction system, modeled with 3" piping and approximate measurements. The angle of the front vent is approximate. I put a piece of paper on my hood and eyed the angle it sat at, which ended up being almost exactly 15°.

 
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Well, I'm getting closer to actual fabrication guys. Intake velocity stack came in. I'm not going with the 4 coupler setup like in the above post. Instead, I have a flexible duct that's gonna run from the velocity stack (in the bumper) back and around, through the hole, and that'll connect to maybe a pipe or directly to the heat shield box I'm gonna fab up, depending on how much length is left when the duct gets into the engine bay. Because I always go above and beyond when I go to make things, I've rendered it. pay no mind to the fact that this latest render still has couplers rendered in

 
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Progress has been made! I picked up a cheapo velocity stack off of amazon for like $10 and a Spectre flexible intake hose (yeah, I know. Autozone "performance" crap..) for like $20. Mounted the funnel behind the holes I cut out in the faux vent and routed the tube into the engine bay. Zip tied it in place for temporary mounting purposes since I'm gonna fab up a heat shield box thingamajig (inspired by this thread I found on an F150 forum). That's the black box you see in the 3D renders above. Making it out of fiberglass, and I read that mica powder is good for tinting fiberglass resin, so picked some "ninja black" stuff and hoping to give it a pseudo carbon fiber look. lol. If it looks like ****, I'ma paint it.

BUT, I digress.

With the intake duct mounted, I took her for a test drive. Screenshots and actual deltas will be posted up after I photoshop them all together like I did in the previous drives. Needless to say, there was a significant improvement (i.e. lower deltas = lower IATs) with the temporary mounted setup alone. On average, mobile deltas were sticking right at at 10°F mark. The only time I saw IATs shoot up was on an uphill (6% grade) going from ~10% throttle to about 50-60% throttle. Saw IAT momentarily shoot up to about +30-50°F, but slowly steady out to about the +10-15°F range

Here are the results from Drive 6. Again, actual screen shots will be uploaded later, but I figured I wouldn't leave you guys hanging.




edit: the temporary setup. Stupid funnel thing was a TIGHT fit.


But, I got it sitting pretty behind the vent. It's kinda pushing up against the soft shroud next to the fog light, but it's posing no issues that I can see.

 
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Fiberglassing in progress That black powder stuff worked great. Prolly quarter teaspoon for 4oz resin

 
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Drive 7 - 12SEP2019
Finished the intake heat shield and took a drive. Sure, average delta was a hair higher than drive 6, but with higher ambient temps, that's kinda to be expected. Higher temps, more heat retention, blah blah blah. However, During the majority of the drive, delta temp was sitting right at 10°F ± 1°F. With the heat shield installed, I noticed IATs creeping up slower than without it. With only one drive with it installed, I can only speculate that it's working.

First up, pics of the setup. Heat shield is made of 2 layers of fiberglass cloth, and 2 extra layers of resin. The right (passenger) and underside have heat barrier tape and since I only had enough for those 2 faces, the backside has a layer of adhesive-backed silver carbon fiber (dry) that I bought a LOOOOOOONNNNNGGG time ago and never got around to using it. In fact, I forgot what I originally bought it for. lol. I have some rubber edge guard on the way and I'm gonna put that on the edges to help prevent delamination of the layers of fiberglass/rolling of the tape edges



from the backside of the heat shield, the duct going into the bottom of the box


The heat shield box itself:



And pics of just the heat shield installed


and proof of function:

painter's tape stuck onto the radiator cover, doubled over so it didn't stick to the filter.

Leaf blower aimed right into the intake funnel in the bumper.

 
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Looks good dude

 
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Yeah man that looks awesome!!!

Are you going to add something to the top edge to seal it against the hood? The rubber edge guard that you ordered might do that.

 
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I thought about it. The top of the box doesn't even come close to the hood (there's a LOT of clearance under the hood from the top level of where everything sits), and in order to protect from the rest of the engine bay, it'd need to seal against the hood. When I was bolting everything back together, I was thinking about making a removable cover that meets close to the radiator cover.I'd have to figure out how to secure it in place though.

Fun fact, a rubbermaid 7 gallon trashcan makes a perfect fiberglass mold. It's made of HDPE and fiberglass resin comes right off with no mold release applied.

If anyone wants some mica powder to tint their fiberglass resin, hmu. lol. I'll send you some. It was $15 for 50g of the stuff, and I used a popsicle stick as a scoopula (it' a thing. google it. If you've taken chemistry lab classes, you've used one). One little scoop per 4oz resin I mixed up

 
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It would be cool to get some IAT's without one and then maybe add one and see it helps. I only bring it up because the one on my car sits high so that it can fit snug against the hood. Seems like it might help when moving slow more then on the highway but wondered how much of a difference there would be.

 
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The ducting alone did a world of difference, and the fact that I have empirical data above make that even better. I'll run with this setup for a while, take some readings, and see if I can mock up some facade of what we're talking about to see if that helps with IATs at all

 
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Casual 28DEC update.

IATs in the winter have pretty much stayed in a +1F to +10F over ambient. IAT1 (at the MAF) fluctuates depending on throttle position. IAT2 (post IC) stays a lot more steady, usually sticking to about +10F over ambient. It's kinda nice. The big differences are gonna show in the middle of summer. We'll see how much of an effect heat soak has on IAT2

 
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Dude this fab is dope as hell. Clean fiberglass work and the red horn, nice touch. Reminds my of my first turbo project pvc intake in highschool, except 1000% nicer.

Did you ever get around to recording summer IATs? I'd love to see the difference in made. I'm curious how the 27Won style works in the real world.

Jake

 
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Thanks! It's been working absolutely fantastically since I've had it. The funnel faded some, and it's kinda pink-ish. It pisses me off aesthetically, but it does its job. I've been considering making my own duct that's actually fiberglassed to the grille, but work has been kinda busy lately. Lots of OT pay. You know what they say, you do your job well, you get to do other people's jobs.

I monitor my IATs every so often, but haven't been screenshotting them lately. I'll prolly do a run Thursday or Friday just to keep this thread fresh-ish and get some summer temps for y'all. We should be getting a high of 107 and 104 Thursday and Friday, respectively, so it should be good. Looking back at this thread, I profusely apologize for not doing any screenshots with everything mounted up. I kinda left this thread as is because there was a lot of good data. In hindsight, I wish I took some readings when ambient temps were encroaching on 120F

I've been noticing a consistent 15-20F over ambient on IAT2 temps (post-intercooler) while in motion after I've been driving around for more than 10 minutes with ambient temps >110. I don't really drive in much stop and go, either. Those temps are 100% what I expected. I really didn't expect the fiberglass shield to make a huge difference (since it's open on 3 of the 6 sides), but I can only imagine heat soak would be worse without it in high ambient temps. The RAM air induction from the front grille made the biggest difference for sure. The fiberglass shield just kinda directs it all toward the filter instead of haphazardly spewing out to the rest of the engine bay. I'm still considering getting a 27WON intercooler because 1) it gets hot as **** in Vegas, 2) I love the R&D Vincent has been doing with the 10thgen, and 3) they're now local to me since they moved to Henderson, NV (there's a huge grey area where you don't know if you're in Henderson or Las Vegas on the south east side of town). Super sad I had to work stupid early the day after they had a meet at their shop. The meet went from 6-9PM, and I had to be up at 2AM for work after getting off at 6PM. It would have been awesome to go, but highly irresponsible. Vincent from 27WON tried to coerce me into going by tempting me with food.

aaaand here's proof



keep an eye out, I'll have updates in the next few days. Thanks for the reminder!

 
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Said screw it and took some readings on my way home from work.

When I hopped in my car (after it sitting in the sun from 06:00 to 14:30), ambient temp sensor read 111F. For reference's sake, this will be Drive 7. The first screen shot was taken at 14:47, and the 1 minute idle screenshot was at 15:08


And here it is in chart form with ambients and deltas


First reading was after a hot start and on city streets, uphill, with moderate traffic. the 2nd to 16th columns are freeway miles, with the ones with "traffic" in the notes denoting times where traffic slowed down, and I was within 20 feet of a car in front of me. I noticed on this drive that temps creep up when this is the case, but to be expected, since cars expel heat out their *** ends, and exhausts tend to be at the same-ish level as my RAM intake funnel. The 2nd to last column, I threw in a post-intercooler reading after 20-ish minutes of driving, and the last reading, I threw in a pre-intercooler reading after sitting at a light for just about 60 seconds.

In motion, with light-ish traffic (all the 70-ish MPH readings), you can see pre-intercooler deltas are around/just above 10F in 105-110F weather (recall Drive 6, where ambient temps were about 25F lower than today, those deltas tracked barely lower than those of Drive 7). When traffic slowed down, and heat from other cars were influencing intake temps, you started to see them creep toward the 15F mark. Even with the 1 minute idle, delta temp was still less than 30F. If you recall Drive 5 with the 102F ambient temps, those in-motion deltas were 20-30F, with idle deltas in the 30-40F range. With higher ambient temps than Drive 6 and deltas tracking damn close to each other, I'd say the fiberglass heat shield apparatus is actually doing a bit of good there. Once weather cools down to the low 80s, I'll post another set of readings. That <20F post-IC delta with a stock intercooler isn't terrible, either. Despite having a primary intake suction in the engine bay, it's relatively low, all things considered.

Another factor that's affecting under hood temps is boost level. In Drive 6, I had boost levels at a max of 4.41psi during that test. Here, while I have more readings, and most of them in vacuum, I did a stint at around the 12psi mark. I also have a more powerful tune installed here than I did 2 years ago. Back then, I was running the KTuner starter 21psi tune (21psi under ideal conditions -- max I ever saw was maybe 18.xx psi). These days, I'm running Phearable 1.5T non-si tune which maxes out at 24psi (under ideal conditions -- max I've seen with this tune has been 22.xx psi).

 
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Wow, thanks for reviving this post. So if I'm reading your data right, it sounds like on average you delta dropped about 15-20F from your stock IAT delta. Looking at the 27WON data that seems to be better than data by 5F to 10F. That's pretty impressive.

 
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It was kinda stock at the beginning. I started this study after I made my home brew SRI without the RAM air ducting. I'd imagine it was comparable to stock, however.

Now, the TunerView app, I've noticed, isn't quite accurate (despite showing decimal points in the temps), per se. Rather, it shows the temps in steps, but still accurate enough to get single point readings for reference. 27WON has equipment that is a lot more sophisticated than what I have.

Another variable is they're (likely) doing tests and getting readings indoors, while on a dyno, with a fan blowing into the front of the vehicle, possibly with the hood popped. My tests, however, were in real world scenarios with the hood closed, sun beating down on the metal hood, creating higher under-hood temps, with variable local temperatures, vehicle speeds, traffic, and other things that would cause temperature variability. That said, their tests are in much more controlled conditions.

What I really like about my setup is the sound. It's definitely louder (with regards to turbo woosh noises) than the 27WON setup (I installed my buddy's 27WON intake on his 16 EX-T), at a fraction of the cost. It just took some time, effort, and plenty of jerry rigging to get mine made, all while attempting to keep the insides of the factory MAF as unscathed as possible. Also learning that polypropylene/polyethylene (whatever OEM intake stuff was made of) doesn't take adhesives... at all... I had to basically score the PE/PP so the ABS glue I made (literally chopped up an ABS pipe coupler and covered it with acetone until it all melted) would fill in the gaps to hold it together, and enough so there was no air leakage.

At the end of the day, however, I got the results I wanted: lowered IATs without a lot of money

 
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Thanks xRiCeBoYx

Based on your project I installed my old AEM filter onto my 2020 SI coupe. Bought the top filter box from my Honda dealer, kept the 2 nuts from the box and made metal brackets to secure it. My wife was complaining the SI was not as thrilling as our old RSX type-s, the intake is getting us closer but not quite, seriously looking at the Hondata Flashpro.

Very clean and discret.

almost touching the computer bracket but not quite. The rubber union is from and old civic box I kept, was perfect.

Next step will be to create a support for the MAF wire

Thanks again.

 
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I took off that L bracket, wrapped it in electrical tape and called it a day. I'm glad my project brought inspiration.

Look into KTuner, too. There are more off-the-shelf 3rd party tunes available, and if you buy from either twostepperformance.com or phearable.com, you'll get their tune for free.

 
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Little update today, since temps here in Vegas dropped like a rock. Mid September, temps were in the 100s. It's dropped to a high in the low 60s this week, and last night, high winds and a frozen mix warning.

Anywho, on my way to work this morning (I leave the house at 5:15-5:30), ambient temps started at 45F and got up to 50 by the time I got to work (it's a 20 minute drive).

With the car creeping up to normal operating temp (NOT), IAT1 (pre-IC) delta was +0-2F. IAT2 (post-IC) was at a constant +1ish (I switched to IAT1 after I got to NOT and kept it there for the rest of my drive). Once I got to NOT, I had a steady +2-4F delta. The only time it creeped up was when I got off the freeway and onto city streets with traffic lights and when I stopped to get gas. The highest delta I was was +6F at a complete stop.

No screenshots today. Was stupid windy and wet, so I was just doing quick glances at my phone for IATs

 
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Finally got to complete the airbox, not as elegant as your fiberglass one but decided to work with what I had already, (galvanized metal sheet).
Basically a 8''X26'' tube taking the fresh airr from the fender, then wrapped with sound deathening material I had left from from when I replaced my front speakers.
It protects from the heat and makes it more massive, less rattling,
Seems to keep the inside cool, checked it after a few spirited runs and its just a litthe bit warm to the touch, putting the top cover also reduce the sound of the blowout valve to an acceptable level. here's some pictures

 
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That's super cool! I know you covered it in sound deadening material for heat reflection, but I'm curious about its effectiveness over time due to the large surface area of the sheet metal.

real talk though, I'm glad someone else decided to play around with this DIY business