anyone can explain Cold air intake?

[mr grumpy]

Just wondering how does the cold air intake system works and if anyone could explain/share ant it and which bikes use this????

[Pandoras Kitten 3]

It's easier to explain on a car; normal 'economy' cars for reasons of compactness, have their intakes located inside the engine bay. Naturally, this means the engine is sucking in warm air from the engine compartment.

 

A 'cold air intake' reroutes the intake path so that cold air from the outside environment is taken in; usually cars will have either hood scoops (Subaru WRX, Legacy, etc) or a strange looking hole at the side of the air dam/front spoiler (some modded Civic Type Rs)

 

The second benefit of a CAI is that the aftermarket intake path is straighter than the original one, and this will give the following benefits:

 

1. Faster throttle response from shorter intake tract;

2. Colder air intake means the fuel-air charge is denser, which has the effect of sucking in more air into the engine for a given volume.

 

How about a warm air intake?

 

Yes, some cars deliberately have warm air intakes (WAI), as aforesaid located in the engine bay itself; there are some benefits;

 

1. Better fuel economy - driving with a WAI requires more opening of the throttle; this moves a higher volume of air into the engine with less restriction to flow.

2. Protection - Orchard road flash flood with low-mounted CAI = risk to the engine ingesting water. Not too sure on foreign object ingestion but what happens if a stone goes into the big ram intake?

3. Sometimes in the real world, the difference in temperature is minimal; power is actually obtained from ram-air effect at high speeds, and the optimised intake path instead.

 

Read up more at wikipedia:

 

Cold air intakes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_air_intake

 

Warm air intakes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warm_air_intake

 

Ram air

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram-air_intake

[Demon]

  mr grumpy said:

Just wondering how does the cold air intake system works and if anyone could explain/share ant it and which bikes use this????

 

In theory, cold air is denser so during combustion, it produces more horsepower.

 

If you are a sailor, you will notice than sailing in a cooler climate is much faster than in a hotter climate given the same wind velocity. This is simply because cooler air is denser so it gives the sail more "push".

 

There is no need for bike to have CAI because the bike does not draw air from an enclosed engine compartment like in the case for car.

 

Even for cars, CAI is alot of bull. If there is any increased in hp, it will almost negligible to make any difference.

 

One thing for sure, any car with CAI, your low-end power will definitely suffer.

 

You will notice that CAI is especially popular mod for Subaru Impreza, and that basically kill your low-end speed ie, acceleration. Some with even more ridiculous mods like 17" rims on a 1.5ton car, no wonder it is not uncommon to hear that Impreza was outpaced by a Honda Jazz to Vios.

 

[Pandoras Kitten 3]

Modern sportsbikes have ram-air. They work best stock, because the engineers at Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawa, etc, did their homework spending millions of $s in R&D before selling them first to racers and now offering a street-legal version to you.

 

If your stock bike's intake is restrictive and hindering top-end performance, then it's grounds to do an intake mod; but once again it's unlikely that major performance increases can be obtained unless you're willing to read up on the physics involved.

 

  Quote

You will notice that CAI is especially popular mod for Subaru Impreza, and that basically kill your low-end speed ie, acceleration. Some with even more ridiculous mods like 17" rims on a 1.5ton car, no wonder it is not uncommon to hear that Impreza was outpaced by a Honda Jazz to Vios.

 

Spending lots of moolah to do a "full race" setup, without actually riding/driving the machine = absolutely, totally murdered by stock Yamaha 125Z.

 

If new to tuning, best is change part by part, tune screw by screw... you'll gain crucial experience on future DIY projects... and knowing what and what not to invest in for your future dream tuner car/bike.

[hachi]

  Kalyan said:

Modern sportsbikes have ram-air. They work best stock, because the engineers at Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawa, etc, did their homework spending millions of $s in R&D before selling them first to racers and now offering a street-legal version to you.

 

If your stock bike's intake is restrictive and hindering top-end performance, then it's grounds to do an intake mod; but once again it's unlikely that major performance increases can be obtained unless you're willing to read up on the physics involved.

 

 

 

Spending lots of moolah to do a "full race" setup, without actually riding/driving the machine = absolutely, totally murdered by stock Yamaha 125Z.

 

If new to tuning, best is change part by part, tune screw by screw... you'll gain crucial experience on future DIY projects... and knowing what and what not to invest in for your future dream tuner car/bike.

Agreed, ram air makes CAI looked ancient. Most cars install CAI belong to the low end range, whereby modern sport bikes, while staying within emission rules, they make more bhp every year...

While super cars making 100bhp per litre is an achievement, but modern superbikes are approaching 200bhp per litre...

Edited June 28, 2010 by hachi

[Pandoras Kitten 3]

A simple experiment to illustrate the benefits of a colder air charge is to construct a water-injection device. Just did one and oh my.. it's great when you're running hot and need a boost.

[mr grumpy]

thks for the sharing guys, i had a cai on my suzuki swift last time and i felt an increase in my pick up so i tot it might have the same effect on a bike

[mr grumpy]

would like to see a ramair on a bike, ive read the link but still dono wad kinda diff it can make, anyone tried it?

[Pandoras Kitten 3]

You have a Swift? Great fun little car

 

Anyways as aforesaid there are major differences between bike and car induction systems; might want to go through the replies again.

[mr grumpy]

  Kalyan said:

You have a Swift? Great fun little car

 

Anyways as aforesaid there are major differences between bike and car induction systems; might want to go through the replies again.

 

i had now its gone ok thks again for ur sharing

[Topnut]

Ah gone?! the Swift Sport?