Bonnet Scoop - Air Vents for Cooling

[MX5CHIC]

I'm definitely not trying to achieve anything here except to provide observations from myself and others towards the actual and percieved performance gains (or losses) from modifications to our Air Intake Systems ...
As an Engineer who has a vast amount of experience in HVAC (heating ventilation and air conditioning) and Electrical Engineering, I do understand the principles of which you refer to. I love to think outside the square and consistently look at other possibilites - most people on this forum are not engineers but they sure do love to play around with their cars and try new things which is an admirable quality, Australia has some of the finest inventors in the world and many of the best inventions came from back sheds through people tinkering around with their minds open to other possibilities.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not dismissing your valuable input on this subject as we all learn from each other in this forum but I am, and always will be, the annoying kid in the classroom who asks that annoying question ..... but why? .... Why not?

[Rotary]

As an Engineer who has a vast amount of experience in HVAC (heating ventilation and air conditioning) and Electrical Engineering, I do understand the principles of which you refer to.

Which is the reason I explain in so much detail, as it may help you understand how some of the many systems and priciples come together within an engine.
Your not annoying mx5chic, its always good to see someone share a deep Tech Interest
I’m also pointing you towards applying the necessary precision, which is just Engineering isn’t it,
I’d be more than happy to help with any other ideas, or even direct you to some relevant tech reading materials if your interested.

[matt9111]

And just to throw something back into the mix again.....(pun not intended, lol)

What would explain my car running richer? I could definetly tell it was running richer the moment I put the pod on, I could smell it coming out of my exhaust.
The bloke who ran my car on a dyno last week, had a sensor on my exhaust that told him it was running richer than last time, i've gotta post my dyno comparisons up, tonight I will lol.

Also my girldfriends NA, is also running richer after the pod install, you can also smell it.

Only reason I could think of, is the computer is over compensating for the extra amount of airflow its getting. Like when the NA's AFM broke, it couldn't open properly, and the car was just dumping huge amounts of fuel into the motor, it was running so rich I had to keep the revs at about 3000rpm to stop it from stalling.

Cheers

Matty

[Alex]

where have you mounted the temp sensor?

[matt9111]

The Temp Sensor in my car is located inside the pod.

[Fuzzlet]

Also my girldfriends NA, is also running richer after the pod install, you can also smell it.

Only reason I could think of, is the computer is over compensating for the extra amount of airflow its getting

Thats pretty much it. The ECU is detecting higher than normal airflow (compared to the parameters set by the factory), so to avoid it pinging itself to death it dumps in extra fuel...the SE's are reknown for this when you do a few light breathing mods

[Jeo]

Just to throw this doozy of a thread back into the limelight, I've been playing around with my intake over the past few days.

After much research and contemplation, I'm thinking of cutting a hole in the headlight cover that I’m hoping will end up looking something like mx52nv’s (hooray for plagiarism).
This will then feed straight into some kind of exposed air filter (haven’t figured out exactly yet, waiting to see what fits best) sitting in its own enclosed part of the engine bay. Between some heat insulating foam and some sheet aluminium, I should be able to fairly well seal off the right hand side of the engine bay, effectively turning the whole area into one giant airbox.

I have very little technical knowledge backing this up so please take my thoughts with that in mind. Its also still just theory at the moment and could just fail horribly too .

Obviously, the hol(e)y headlight cover probably isn't all that useful to the non NA-ers out there but the "right hand side of engine bay = airbox" could still be applied to an NB.

Thoughts? Criticisms?

[Hammer]

instead of cutting the original aluminium headlight cover, why not get one that already have the scoop built-in that are sold nowadays, or the blinker air intake? Though having said that I don't really know how much they cost.

[mx52nv]

I think Hammer means buy this -> R.S. Aizawa Exterior Products



PM me if you really want it and I'll see if I can help

[Hammer]

I think Hammer means buy this -> R.S. Aizawa Exterior Products



PM me if you really want it and I'll see if I can help

Yeah they're the one.



Or the front blinker air intake type.

[mx52nv]

Or the front blinker air intake type.

I believe they are called Turn Signal Intakes or T.S.I.s

[Hammer]

Hey mx52nv, your headlight covers look good. Which brand are yours? I really like them.

Do you have any issues of debris or exessive water getting into the engine bay through them?

[mx52nv]

Hey mx52nv, your headlight covers look good. Which brand are yours? I really like them.

They were custom made in 1999 when the Yen was pretty strong and it was actually cheaper to do it ourselves. The actual size of my 'air intake' is larger than RS Aizawa's version.

Do you have any issues of debris or exessive water getting into the engine bay through them?

There is a curved tab that actually stops anything going into the engine bay (which defeats the purpose of the headlight covers). These tabs are on both left and right sides of the bonnet and when the bonnet is in place, they sit right behind the headlight cover intakes. Basically in the wet season, I put the tabs back in (2 or 3 screws from memory) and in the dry season (most of the time), these tabs are removed. When the tabs are removed, there is direct flow of air from the headlight cover duct into the engine bay/air filter. Even then, no problem with 'debris' as we put in wire mesh and that takes care of any pebble size objects but in 10 years nothing has ever caused me concern.

Here is the best pic I could find that shows both headlight cover intakes properly.


As I have said in a post somewhere on this forum, I highly recommend them for NAs especially turbo NAs as they work and I did dyno tests on them. My ignorance (basically I never thought that people would care about MX5 headlight cover intakes and dyno results 10 years ago) means that both the dyno owner and I both didn't bother to print out dyno sheets to show the improvements But believe me - they do work

*edit* - Doh! Just realised that Danny aka orx626 took some great photos here -> WA December Meet Up

[Jeo]

I did look in to a whole bunch of other ones over the past few months. The Zoom engineering ones were to first to catch my eye, but I always found myself coming back to mx52nv's home made ones.

Thus, decided to follow a similar route.

[Jeo]

So the headlight cover below popped up for sale on this very forum for a decent price, and I bought it...



I also picked up a serial-usb conversion cable today so that I can connect my Autronic ECU to a laptop and take some hopefully accurate intake temp readings.

Planning on devoting tomorrow afternoon to the testing process and I hope to be back with some results soon after.