An Idea

[SallySpeed3]

This idea will benefit people with FMIC's mostly but I'd like anyones input on the subject. As I continue to modify my car, the pile of stuff in the corner of my garage, my "stock" pile I guess, haha, continues to grow. One item that always catches my attention is the factory air ducts that are used to cool the oem TMIC. I always thought it was a shame to not utilize them now that I have a FMIC because mazda did such a good job with their design. So here's my idea and I realize it's not that original, but here goes. Would it be beneficial in terms of performance to somehow customize those air ducts to direct air into a controlled space (cold air box) to feed air to the engine? I know there are already "cold air boxes" out there on the market. My thought was to buy the corksport one since COBB can't come out with their own, and fab it up somehow so that when you close the hood it's sealed, and of course I'd have to make up my own airway from the ducts. I dunno, its a pretty rough idea. I don't even have any idea how I would go about it since I'm not that crafty. Thoughts? or is it a waste of time?

 

[blackdragon0731]

I'd talk to a local performance shop and see if it would be worthwhile at all, if you have an intake I don't know how much good it would do you though.

 

[MSMS3]

I would think true ambient temp air to an SRI would be a good idea, and ambient air to the engine in general would seem to be as helpful in reducing heat soak to the entire intake side, not just to the intercooler. Underhood temps climb pretty fast once the engine warms up. At idle, they climb over 30 degrees in the first five minutes.

 

[Darth Vader]

The fluid dynamics calculations necessary to make a functioning cold air, not even ram air, intake like this are a challenge. You might just go to alot of work and see no significant changes or, even reduction in performance.

These ducts were designed to be a ram air so, we have to approach the problem like that. Right off the top for issues is the necessary plenum volume of a somewhat closed system like this. i.e. There's huge inlet area here and if the airbox isn't big enough at the filter end, you create turbulence and restriction in the system, not the added cfm you're seeking. Secondly, you have a draw-through MAF expecting intake velocities wandering around normal atmo air pressure. If you create artificial pressure here, through functioning ram air, you will confuse the MAF and screw up the fueling everywhere.

The underhood stuff does serve a purpose with FMIC, it holds the hood heat shielding up. You can, with a touch of care, remove the rubber sealing ring around the bottom an just leave the plastic attached, which makes it less invasive.

To more practically accomplish the cold air for SRI route, you might remove the driver's side ram air inlet. behind that, you'll find a hole in the core support you could fab up a duct to go to, that would lead to a bespoke sealed plenum box around the SRI. That wouldn't do much either, probably but, it'd be easier to make.