ok im a noob to the tuner scene(is that politically correct?) and i was wondering do all those intakes really provide enough power to justify the cost? i know it should help to pull in air away from the engine bay, but most of the filters are still in the engine bay so how would it be beneficial to the engine. i could understand the kind that go in the front bumper but wouldn't they also pick up a lot of dust and road debris not to mention hydro locking when it rains. also why do they have oiled filters, in my tech school we were told a paper element filtered better than any other type.
my other question is why do people put spoilers on a front wheel drive car? i thought the principle behind the spoiler was to increase down force on the rear of the vehicle to increase the traction of the rear wheels. so if that is true than pushing down on the rear of the car would cause the front to come up decreasing the traction on the front wheels which are the drive wheels. if they are nonfunctional than why put them there , they would only increase the drag coefficient and add useless weight. thanks for any replies.


Modified by iluvdrt at 4:48 PM 9/29/2003

 

the short ram intakes which are the ones that still pull air from the engine bay are beneficial because of the smooth piping. stock plastic piping is accordian style, so it doesn't let the air work up a good velocity. Plus the plastic become heatsoaked easier. The other reason, is the less effective air filter box. Most stock boxes are highly restrictive.

As far as the front bumper filters, yes, they are usally somewhat removed from the direct air flow, so they don't puck up as much debris as you'd think, but yes, they do pick up more, and need to be cleaned more often than the short rams. Hydro locking really isn't an issue. At least not as much as a lot of people have been scared into thinking. The filter doesn't have to be fully emerged to hydrolock the engine, but darn close. As long as you aren't driving through any huge puddles or lakes, it will probably be just fine. But even slightly deep puddles should be given caution (higher than the bottom of your bumper), because when you are pushing through water like that, the water directly in front of the bumper will swell, so you have to take that into consideration.

It's completely possible that paper filters filter better than any other type, but if they don't flow as much air, then they aren't a good choice for performance.

Now onto the spoilers. For the most part, you are correct, they will reduce the traction on the front wheels, but for wings to produce any substantial downforce, the air must be travelling over it at a pretty good speed. Wings don't provide much benefit when launching a car (when drive wheel traction is the most important). But front engined/front drive cars are much lighter in the rear end, so for a FF car, a wing provides a little extra "weight" in the back to help with high speed handling, or to keep the car straight when doing hard braking from high speeds (helps prevent rear lift, which reduces rear traction, and can cause spinouts).

They also help at high speeds, when any car needs as much downforce as it can get (to a degree....)

But I think most people just get them for looks, and perhaps "status" if it's an expensive wing.

Reminds me of a story. One of the local autocrossers has this formula car (open wheeled, single seat, rear engine/rear drive race car), and it had a HUGE rear wing on it, to help it stick to the track when racing, the lower the speeds, the bigger the wing needs to be to keep the downforce. Anyways, he put his car on his open trailer, and was driving it up the freeway to the race, (100 miles maybe) when his trailer wheel bearing went out. He had no idea why, but he got it changed, and got to the race, where he found that a different bearing went out. Then he realized why, it was because at freeway speeds, the rear wing on his car on the trailer was creating thousands of pounds of downforce, and was overloading the wheel bearings of his trailer. He now removes the wing to transport the car.


Anyways, hope that answers your questions. Good luck with tech school.

 

thanks. 1 more question. where do the maf sensors go on these intakes, and if noone uses it, then how do you go about bypassing it. thanks.

 

hondas dont use a MAF sensor, they use a MAP sensor. its located on top of the throttle body.

 

well that would explain it. thanks for all the help.

 

It seems 'traditional' for Honda to measure air pressure in the manifold, along with throttle position & RPM. OTOH, it's 'traditional' for European cars to measure air flow rate, then they don't have to measure throttle position.

Either way works. There's more than one way to figure out how much air goes in... Some cars are beginning to measure ALL of that stuff, so the system can tolerate sensor failures & keep running.