My New Homemade Gadget

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 12:57 pm

Hi All,

I just want to post some info about my latest gadget.

Why:
Just bored and I like my engine sucking cold air.

Purpose:
I want to see how hot the engine bay gets, in terms of normal/busy/highway conditions
I want to see if CAI really works and shields the heat and how much
And I want to see these values while I am driving, from a digital display.

So I bought a digital temp reader from DickSmith, $25. This unit comes with 2 sensors.
First one is attached to a 2 meters long cable. I located this sensor deep inside the engine bay.
Second one is in the actual unit to measure the ambiance temp. Using soldering ion, I took the sensor of the board and attached some cable to it, then located it in CAI.
Also using the regular outside temp reader that comes with the car, I have now 3 temp reader; CAI/Engine bay/outside.

Here are the photos;

My engine bay. I have done the CAI box, cost me around $30. Bit of metal to construct the box, heat shield for the pipe and an old windscreen heat shield to cover the CAI.
Donâ€™t laugh!

here is the sensor in CAI

and the sensor in the engine bay , just in front of the firewall, I thought this would be a good spot to measure the highest

and here is inside the car, I can see the temps all the time

what do you guys think?

FTO338 · Post by **FTO338** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 1:19 pm

Max you the first person who actually believe my windscreen heat shield trick, so i'm only laugh with you & not at you eheheheheh

I'm so proud

BuCkEt · Post by **BuCkEt** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 1:24 pm

I'm highly impressed.

What have been your findings now that you've got the temp sensors up?
Does the heat shielding make a difference?

Post by **dstocks** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 1:28 pm

Great Idea MXYSXY. Also like the temp setup

akuma3 · Post by **akuma3** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 2:49 pm

i won't laugh because that's what i wanna do to mine now

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 2:52 pm

I have been evaluating the results for about 2 months now.

My CAI setup definitely works. During normal/highway driving there is only 2-4 degree C difference between outside temp and in CAI, while engine bay around 45-50max.
Eg; outside 18 C, CAI 20 C, engine 45 C
outside 25 C, CAI 28 C, engine 50 C

CAI is not sealed(with minimum gap, around 4sq cm gap only). The reason for this is that cold air intake is located low in the bumper, so didn't want to suck up water.

In the very busy traffic conditions, everything get hot.
eg; outside 18 C, CAI 35 C, engine 55 C
outside 25 C, CAI 38 C, engine 60 C
I have not seen engine temp goes past 60 C yet.

I get the cold air from one of those horizontal gaps in the front bumper, next to the number plate.
I have realised that this works well. For eg; if I am driving stop/start in very busy traffic everything get very hot.
However, as soon as car has a non stop run, CAI goes down to outside temp in 30 sec max.

I made a metal framing in CAI setup, also have a plastic box around (except the top bit, but the rest), which covered with windscreen heat shield.

FTO338 · Post by **FTO338** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 3:09 pm

I think this deserve to be in the DIY section.

Post by **dstocks** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 3:09 pm

Have you got some pics of your setup.......

Dont believe I did that. For some reason, I thought Bucket started this post - sorry mxysxy. Thats why the comment above. Having a dyslexic moment.

Chiangstar · Post by **Chiangstar** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 3:49 pm

i did a very similar thing to my CAI setup also and can vouch that the results that mxysxy got are real... the CAI's do make a substantial difference...

in regards to the engine bay temps getting higher than 60 degrees... in summer im pretty sure they will... mine went off the scales last summer and the max temp of the thermometre i had was 70 degrees

simon

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 4:01 pm

This is where I get the cold air from. I used a piece of white water piping, and painted with silver caliper paint(that I never bothered to use it on my calipers. I actually used the same paint on my windscreen wipers as well. Great results. I used to hate stock black wipers). Actually, It is very hard to see that there is a pipe there.

This is the way it looks. I have tried many different piping (metal, hard/thick plastic, very thin flexible plastic) from CAI box to the throttle body, and come to realised that you have to heat shield the pipe as well, cause engine bay gets hot, so the pipe and all the cold air that sucked gets hot as well along the way in the pipe. That thick shield on the pipe is from Bunnings, very cheap thing to buy, it has a sticky side. I am sure there are more appropriate products out there.

This is the side of the box. Those bolts push the shield to the frame in the CAI box. Now I know the measurements, will get rid off all the bolts, nuts and the frame in the next version, and make it one part.
Realise the only unsealed space pointed in red colour.

Box has to have a top cover, otherwise, it only works in highways where there is too much air try to get in to the box. Engine heats still effects the box in normal conditions without the top.

Bits of metal that I use for frame, thanks to Bunnings again.

BuCkEt · Post by **BuCkEt** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 10:13 pm

Dont believe I did that. For some reason, I thought Bucket started this post - sorry mxysxy. Thats why the comment above. Having a dyslexic moment.

Ahahaha, I don't even have my car at the moment.

Post by **dstocks** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 10:20 pm

Ahhhh, but that just gives you more time to dream of new things to do to it......

Ill take a risk here and step off topic for a moment. Bucket, do you have an update on where youre at. Have you made any progress towards becoming mobile????. I think of your situation every time my broken mount squeaks. I may be incapacitated until my new mount arrives from UAS, but at least im mobile.....

BuCkEt · Post by **BuCkEt** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 11:02 pm

It's at the trans shop right now, dropped it off on Wed.

That was odd....driving across the whole city in only 3rd gear

He's found out that it's a wire somewhere in the harness that's grounding and shorting causing the box to go into limp mode. Now he has to find which wire it is and fix it up.

Hopefully next week sometime.

I will be chained to my baby once I get her back.

Post by **dstocks** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 11:10 pm

At least that doesnt sound as though it has quite so many $ signs attached to it as before. Sounds as though you may be fully mobile before me.

Post by **Bennoz** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 3:24 pm

Thats impressive Max

Gotta love a bit of home grown ingenuity

Pete: I watched your msn name go sorta like - Damn car, to friggen car, to Im gonna kill this car, to "I hate waiting"

barfy · Post by **barfy** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 10:54 pm

With the painted pipe at the front is that sucking air into the stock air flow set up or is it a pipe that goes straight to the pod ??

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 9:54 am

barfy wrote:With the painted pipe at the front is that sucking air into the stock air flow set up or is it a pipe that goes straight to the pod ??

Goes straight in to the box.
Forget about stock piping if you have a CAI box.
The reason for this is that stock airbox works by sucking(from the end of the pipe) the air in to the box.
However, my CAI setup works by pushing the air into the box, so, you need a direct opening from the front of the car.

barfy · Post by **barfy** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 3:03 pm

So do you go in from under the wheel arch or what ? Which is the best way to go into ??

mxysxy · Post by **mxysxy** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 4:35 pm

Check out where the red circle is. It goes all way down to the ground
I used a 60 degree adaptor from bunnings at the end of that painted pipe, then used a flexible cable from Autobarn.
Not many bends this way.

SchumieFan · Post by **SchumieFan** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:47 am

erm... u know how u buy engine paint etc... its resistant to heat right?

why not just paint your intake pipe with that? of is this a stupid idea?

FTO AUSTRALIA

My New Homemade Gadget

My New Homemade Gadget

Great Idea

Show us some pics

Ahhh

$