Stock SU Air Cleaner vs. Aftermarket...CAI?

[Dane]

I've been thinking about this for a while and have searched the archives, but haven't been able to find much info regarding a high flow cold air intake for the SU's. Ive seen the K@N filter assemblies that are sold by Black Dragon and MSA, but those suck in hot engine compartment air.

 

(BTW, do those K@N intakes include airhorns the way the stock air cleaner does? How about connections for float bowl vents?)

 

Right now I have kind of a poor man's CAI, where the tube for the hot air intake instead goes through a hole in the front of the engine compartment, but that doesn't take the normal air intake into account.

 

I was thinking of cutting an opening in the side of the fresh air intake (black plastic elbow piece) on the front driver's side of the engine compartment, and connecting a big hose from there to the air cleaner. I also had the idea of ducting air from the cowl area, but don't want to cut a big hole in the firewall for this. I saw Bryan Little's vented hood intake idea over at http://www.geocities.com/zgarage2001/z.html, but don't have a vented hood to use for this. (It also appears he took that article off his website).

 

There should also be some sort of heat shielding between the exhaust and the intake, this is an obvious source of excess heat.

 

So does anybody have any cool ideas for CAI for the SU's? Also, has anybody actually seen any dyno proven horsepower increases using the twin K@N filter assemblies, despite the fact that they aren't a CAI?

[JSM]

I was in process of coming up with a CAI also for my setup. I was looking at using 3" PVC plumbing at the carbs and then run metal from there. The 3" would have worked but needed to be cut down. The PVC had a great shape, left plenty of room for Velocity stacks. If I get another car I will be playing with it again. I agree 100% about the K&N filters and the heat.

[JMortensen]

I'd too would like to see dyno results before and after. What would also really help are some air temperature measurements before and after to see how much difference there is.

 

I see guys go crazy trying to keep hot air out of the carbs, and I always suspect that this is a very expensive 2-3 hp they are after.

 

The K&N filters do not have air horns in them, but what I did back when I was running SU's was to cut the air horns out of the stock air cleaner and bolt them inside the K&N filter housing. Worked fine and I imagine it was worth the effort, but I never tested the difference.

[Ripper]

.I see guys go crazy trying to keep hot air out of the carbs, and I always suspect that this is a very expensive 2-3 hp they are after.

 

I think every little bit counts. The mod could be done cheaply if you can get the pipe at a good price.

I remember reading in an article sometime ago that conveyed- for every 4 degrees colder the intake air is, you will gain around 1kw of power. Not that good really. However if you calculate the difference between the ambient tempreture and the tempreture under the bonnet of a car, I believe you could ultimately gain 5 kw or maybe more.

One has to remember that on a highly worked motor, cold air intake will almost certainly making tuning easier and ensure a more detonation resistant engine.