Retrofitted Induction Kit

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

ok I just installed part of an intake kit meant for the Cooper R56 into the RCZ THP200.

It's actually the DDMWORKS Street Intake.
http://www.ddmworks.com/MiniStore/MINI_ ... ystem.html

The metal bracket couldn't fit, so I had to install it without..
It's basically an open pod K&N with silicon elbow connected to the airflow sensor.

Intake Temps stay within 17 degrees of Ambient when at a standstill, 10 degrees when at medium speeds and above (Ambient is 32 celsius here in Singapore)
Measured using OBD scanners.. Stock intake betters these temperatures by 3-4 degrees on both standstill and moving figures

Butt Dyno:
Low end feels exactly the same as stock.
High end has more push, does not run out of grunt so fast

Get soft swooshing noises during induction and blow-off periods. Nothing too loud. very subtle.

Am thinking of adding a scoop to the bonnet to get some cold air flowing to the filter area..

 

[Anonymous]

I was going to say surely it would work more efficiently with a cold air feed not going to get much where that's stuck quite the opposite in fact.

 

[Anonymous]

I have to ask.... Why?

The normal intake is at the front directly in the air stream as I recall. So it gets cold ram air. Sat in the back of the engine bay, there is no ram air effect and you are just putting warm air into it. Does not seem like a lot of point to it to me?

 

[RCZ-Performance]

"Am thinking of adding a scoop to the bonnet to get some cold air flowing to the filter area.."

Maybe from a functionality purpose this works, but come on, an RCZ with a scoop ... NOOOOOO !!!!

 

[Anonymous]

Perhaps this is why the mini cooper S has a scoop to allow for the extra cool air?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi guys, yup the fact that it is "sucking in hot air" is what bothers me the most about it..
But the intake temperatures do not differ that greatly in most situations, so I'm ok with it for now..
I just have something against intakes that snake back and forth, so I'm banking on the fact that the more free-flowing intake negates the effect of hotter air at lower speeds.. This retrofitted intake seems to be similar in design to the NM Engineering Intake for R56's, where the open intake resides at the back of the engine bay.. Plus I would be uprating my exhaust soon, so I'm also hoping the intake and exhaust flows match/complement after that (haha it's a very trial-and-error approach!)
Please tell me if my reasoning is flawed!

and yes the hood scoop is an attempt to simulate the opening of the Cooper R56 hood scoop to get cool air flowing in. I'm sorry Mr Shiney for defiling our beautiful RCZ.. I promise to try to make it smaller and more integrated, kinda like the one on the Ferrari California.. It's def not gonna me like a WRX Boy Racer Big-Enough-To-Put-A-Baby-Inside hood scoop... heh..

 

[Anonymous]

Its your car mate, you can do what you want with it. If that includes attempting to out design professional engineers then go knock yourself out..... :thumbup:

In answer to your question though, yes I do think your idea is deeply flawed for the reasons already stated above. Even a scoop is not going to give you the ram air effect, it is just going to circulate more hot air around the engine compartment. The existing air box design takes air from outside the vehicle and feeds it directly into the air box which feeds directly to the turbo. You can gain the benefit of ram air effect as well.

Your filter does nothing more than suck hot air in from the engine compartment and I can't for a moment see how it will improve performance over putting something like a K&N filter in the proper air box.

Ask yourself why it is not built the way you have done it?
:lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the input!
If I do end up putting a scoop in, it would be a closed system that channels the scoop air straight to the filter element, so hopefully that doesn't circulate the hot air around the engine bay like you said would happen..
anyway, I assumed the engine was designed the way it was because it is a One-Engine-Fits-All for many cars and makes, plus to reduce the "swooshing" noises that comes from an open filter (taboo for a production car!)..

You are definitely right about the hot air entering the filter, as engine temps do rise faster than with the stock system when the car is at a standstill..
It doesn't seem to hurt performance in any way, but am monitoring it further! (based on Butt Dyno only, so I will never know for sure =P)

 

[Anonymous]

I would lay money that if you dyno it the performance will be down. I don't think its a one engine fits all installation I think it is actually a very tailored system. If you actually look at the standard filter setup, you will see that it is actually very efficient with regards to air flow. I have no doubt a high quality filter fitted into the standard box would give a small margin of improvement over the standard filter bit otherwise I would doubt very much there is much to be gained.

As for cutting a hole in the bonnet for a scoop, well there is no accounting for taste.......

 

[Anonymous]

ahhh... thanks.. in the name of efficiency, you have inspired me to push my "Hood Scoop Project" through faster.. =)

 

[Anonymous]

Out of idle curiosity where are you going to fit the filter with your scoop? The scoop will need to feed into a closed box directly connected to the induction system to be of any use (a bit like the current airbox in fact!).

I am quite fascinated by your intentions even if I see no point in them whatsoever!! I would be really interested in the background you have in this sort of design?

 

[Anonymous]

Ah, yes.. I'm actually going to leave the filter as it is as shown in my first post. As for my potential scoop, yes I will be getting the air fed into a closed box which I will be fabricating (getting somebody do do it) around the current bottom half of the air box that remains behind the engine bay. The closed box would encase the entire filter element.
I am trying to achieve something similar to this system:
http://www.ddmworks.com/MiniStore/MINI_ ... ystem.html

Although the stock system is indeed decent, i did not like the first half of the intake pipe because it still draws air in from the front of the engine bay. Technically, the induction point is the whole area after the resonator box, which is serviced with air from the wheel area, the cold air feed pipe, as well as air coming from the front of the car. At low and medium speeds, the air from the front of the car already passes through the radiator, which causes it to heat up. The situation gets better thou at higher speeds, as the cold air feed helps. To me, the current intake feels like a "LONG ram" intake with the induction point still in the engine bay. Also, the extra tubing that the air has to run through to get to the filter element at the back of the engine bay gets very hot after a short time, which heats up the air anyway(just takes longer to get hotter). I also did not like the 180 degree turn the air had to make inside the filter box. Only half of the filter surface area (nearest to the inlet/outlet pipes) was utilized. After 2500km of driving, one side of my filter was dirty, but the other half was brand new clean. I don't know much about that, but to me, it might get inefficient faster than expected! (i live in a dirty country.. haha)
Cone filters usually outflow panel filters too, so I'm hoping to gain increased flow at the expense of hotter air (which hopefully would be negated by the efficient intercooler)
So far I have not felt the car bogged down by heat anymore than it was with my stock intake, even though Intake temperatures are slightly higher. Am glad the intercooler is doing its job!

My background is actually Finance (totally unrelated!), but during my University days, I did a Physics minor with focus on fluid mechanics. That part of me is what's making me do all this. =P

sorry for defiling the work of professional engineers, but this obsession is my curse! haha
now can anybody give me suggestions on what style hood scoop would look fine on the RCZ? =P

 

[Anonymous]

Something like this should do the job

http://www.nebraskachassis.com/pics/Cav ... dScoop.jpg

 

[Anonymous]

LMFAO.

 

[Anonymous]

dont tempt me!

 

[Anonymous]

Perhaps this is why the mini cooper S has a scoop to allow for the extra cool air?

The bonnet (hood) scoop on the 2nd generation turbocharged BMW MINI's is for model recognition only, and has no practical use whatsoever, to aid air flow into the factory stock sealed air filter housing box! quite a lot of folks remove the honeycomb section of the scoop, in order to fully open up the mouth of the scoop, in an attempt to aid engine/turbo cooling, but this still has no real practical effect, on reducing under bonnet temperatures.