The True Cold Air Intake??????

[AZ59apacheguy]

And this is how it turned out.

Bought this header wrap a while ago and finally got around to doing this. Been wanting to do this for a while because summers suck here in AZ. I had a previously started a thread that involved the whole " Air Intake Temp too high which retards the timing causing major power loss ". So I bought this thinking if it keeps header heat from getting into the engine bay, it should keep engine bay heat out if my Cold Air Intake. So far it does seem to help, I don't get near the heat soak I use to get without the wrap. I can sit at a light longer than before and don't get the dreaded retarded timing issue too bad, if I do, the system seems to adjust guicker and I get my power back faster. Maybe it's the whole placebo affect, but I don't think so. Everyone one wants an aftermarket CAI, but with those I can still see heat soak getting to the Air Intake Sensor. At any rate, it was fun to creat this and I have something a little different that other Expy's out there.

 

[AZ59apacheguy]

Some more pics:

 

[Texpedition45]

Great minds. I have header wrap sitting in my Amazon cart to do the exact same thing to an aftermarket CAI before I install it.

Post a long term follow up when you get a chance. Do you have anything (like a scangauge) that will allow you to view air intake temps?

 

[rjdelp7]

The OEM Air box is routed through fender. Air is being pulled from outside, engine bay. The plastic housing and tubing is forward of engine. It warms with under hood heat. The air in it, does not stay in long enough to heat up, its sucked into engine. Wrapping is a bit of overkill. The engine has four modes in the PCM. Idle, closed loop-during warm up, open loop - normal driving until 2200 rpm and WOT wide open throttle. The knock sensor will retard timing, only if knock is detected. Try using a tank of premium or a different gas station.

 

[theoldwizard1]

What are you using to check the intake air temperature ?

 

[AZ59apacheguy]

The OEM Air box is routed through fender. Air is being pulled from outside, engine bay. The plastic housing and tubing is forward of engine. It warms with under hood heat. The air in it, does not stay in long enough to heat up, its sucked into engine. Wrapping is a bit of overkill. The engine has four modes in the PCM. Idle, closed loop-during warm up, open loop - normal driving until 2200 rpm and WOT wide open throttle. The knock sensor will retard timing, only if knock is detected. Try using a tank of premium or a different gas station.

Actually my main goal was to isolate heat soak from the hot engine bay getting to the Intake Air Temp sensor, another cause of retarded timing, please see:
TSB 02-12-3: " Drivability, lack of power condition when operating in ambient temperatures above 100 deg F. This may caused by the PCM calibration which retards the ignition timing to prevent detonation when the air inlet temp AIT reaches 140 deg F or above. This may be more pronounced during stop and go driving. "

 

[AZ59apacheguy]

I am getting my Air Intake Temp from a wifi obd adapter and I am using " Dash Command app " on my iphone. So far the hotest my " AIT " has gotten was 125* F. I will also note that the AIT does NOT raise as fast as it used to minus the header wrap, this helps when at a stoplight. AZ temps approach 113* daily in the middle of the summer. I am by no means trying to re-invent the wheel and I am by no means an automotive engineer, but I do believe this has helped and not hurt my situation.

 

[rjdelp7]

Actually my main goal was to isolate heat soak from the hot engine bay getting to the Intake Air Temp sensor, another cause of retarded timing, please see:
TSB 02-12-3: " Drivability, lack of power condition when operating in ambient temperatures above 100 deg F. This may caused by the PCM calibration which retards the ignition timing to prevent detonation when the air inlet temp AIT reaches 140 deg F or above. This may be more pronounced during stop and go driving. "

The TSB does not say air inlet temp sensor is retarding timing. You may have detonation, that is retarding it. Driving in NY(outside 80+deg) my engine bay feels hot as hell. In stop and go traffic, technically can heat the air in tube 60+deg, to develop this problem. However it does not. I try a tank of premium. The Honda tuner guys wrap the metal cold air tube, with a heat reflective tape. Header wrap holds heat in, I don't know if it repeals it.

 

[AZ59apacheguy]

It says it right here " This may caused by the PCM calibration which retards the ignition timing to prevent detonation when the air inlet temp AIT reaches 140 deg F or above. "
The AIT sensor is inside the Air Intake. You also have to take into account the a/c compressor running which adds a TON of heat to the engine bay.
If you take our daily AZ temps of around 110* in the middle of the summer + your 60* that would put me well within the 140* as stated above. This causes the retarded timing which prevents detonation, that's why the engineers coded that into the PCM. It's a real thing out here and with all due respect, I don't expect anyone to understand the conditions out here until you've been here....

 

[ExplorerTom]

On my Explorer I have a snorkel and a Scangauge (set to display AIT) along with the factory outside temp display. The intake tubing after the filter is still stock. Here's my observations:
At highway speeds while using throttle, the AIT and outside air are pretty close to the same (like within a degree).
Coasting on the highway, the AIT will go above ambient.
Sitting in traffic, the AIT will stay above ambient.

Back in my tuner days, i wrapped my CAI tube with a sunshades that was one of those foil insulated deals. I monitored with a slow reacting thermostat. Seemed to help with heat soak. Slowed it down some.