Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Zetec Maintenance Cold Air?

The aluminum foil sounds like a decent idea to me. With the aluminum tube I've got, it would be nice to get some insulation around it.

I'm no expert, but I suspect that the lowered position is helpful, though this also increases the amount of dirt and grit it will have to deal with, I bet. If one lifts it up to the normal airbox position, some kind of heat shield (like I've put on mine) might be good.

Cool bro, that is how hot rodding began in America, someone standing in front of their open hood thinking "I wonder if I could do this, so that would do this". It's the American hot rodding way ! Congrats on your mods and your thinking ! Don't stop now, the greatest inventions in the world began with I wonder,,, Now, if you could just get your intake to point directly into the airstream as you're going down the road. Look sometime at a race car. Look at how many ducts and scoops point directly into the cool, fresh air. More air=more horsepower. Every 10 degrees of added heat costs you 1-2 horsepower. Keep on thinkin, keep on trying new stuff, Ken

Remember, aluminum foil is also designed to keep heat in.

That's why you wrap a baked potato in it before putting it in the oven...

If you want good insulatiuon for you intake, get rid of the ABS, and get PolyCarbonate ABS pipes instead.
Much better heat refelction properties and slower heat absorbtion rate.
You could also rap your inyake in 3M Kapton tape (the yellow kind) before wrapping it in Aluminum Foil.

Well I do not know what you are trying to do...

But if you want heat to stay away from something, do not wrap it in a conductor like aluminum foil.

Have you looked at header wrap?

When I need to replace my air filter I'm going to buy the CTA intake and wrap it in this stuff to keep heat out of the aluminum pipe which could theoretically heat up the air coming in (never know, won't hurt to do it)...

There's nothing wrong with a conductive layer. The plastic under it is still just as insulative. The question is which way will the outside of the plastic, with foil or without? The foil reflects some infrared, the plastic absorbs it.

The thing to remember with aluminium foil is both sides are different. One is reflective (shiny side) and the other is dull and would absorb heat. As with the baked potato, one would wrap the foil with the shiny side in!

Kennard, thanks for the props, if only someone could come up with a way to point the filter at the air without cutting.

Question to ponder, would the airflow from tumble-dryer ducting become turbulent, or could one use it to route air to the filter that is in the low position?

Also, any input on whether the filter in the low position is better there with a bend in the flow, or positioned up higher without the bend?
Looking forward to all your response.

The dull side is less smooth, but not necessarily less reflective. More like the difference between smooth glass and frosted glass. They diffuse the light differently but aren't much different in the total light that gets through.

Hey Guys, it's official! I'm a "CEGer"!

Re: the aluminium foil is applied shiny side out to reflect the heat away from the intake pipe. Will update when I get around to doing it.

Re: the intake I made is fairly close to the one I saw on "High Rev Tuners" (Speedchannel) Sunday night. It was on a Focus ZX5, made of metal and had smoother bends, but put the filter pointing down just in front of the master cylinder.
So far I'm happy with it. Did the mod between fills, idled it for 1.5 hours (forgot about it!) after resetting the comp., have been screaming around 'cos I like the sound and I still got 27 MPG! (24mpg US gallons) Best I ever got before was 26 (Imperial/English) and I really babied it!
Wonder if the Mobil 1 has anything to do with it?

I gave someone a ride the other day, and when we went up the onramp, she asked "Have you got a glasspack in there?" No, it was just the intake...