The Experiment: Understanding Intake Temperatures and their Impact on Engine Performance

As we began our experiment, I mentioned that it's likely going to get warm inside the engine bay when the engine is stationary. However, once I start moving, turbulent air will mix around the engine bay, keeping those temperatures down. With that in mind, let's dive into the results of our test.

Before we started driving, we took readings from various points on the car. We had ambient temperature, which would be compared to intake temperatures at different locations - front and back of the intake. We also monitored the temperature at the top of the engine, as this would give us a better understanding of what's happening inside the engine bay. With the engine off and stationary, all readings were floating around 20 degrees Celsius. The ambient temperature was relatively stable, but the intake temperatures varied depending on whether the fans were on or not.

Now that we've started driving, let's take a closer look at our results. As I drove out to the middle of nowhere, I monitored the temperature fluctuations as I went along. Sitting here idling, the engine had warmed up significantly. The ambient temperature was reading around 20 degrees Celsius, which fluctuated depending on whether the fans were on or not. Our intake temperatures were quite different from each other - the front of the intake was measuring about 40 degrees Celsius, while the back of the intake was a whopping 55 degrees Celsius, with a difference of about 25 degrees Celsius.

As I started driving at a speed of around 20 miles per hour, we took readings to see how the temperature differences would change. To our surprise, the ambient temperature and the front of the intake were reading around 17 degrees Celsius apart, while the back of the intake was measuring around 30 degrees Celsius warmer than the very front of the car. This means that if you could get air flowing directly into the engine bay from outside, you could potentially be dropping temperatures by around 30 to 35 degrees Celsius.

As I accelerated to a speed of 240 miles per hour, we took another set of readings. We found that at this higher speed, the temperature differences between ambient and the front of the intake were reduced, with an 18-degree difference reading at the front and a 38-degree difference at the back of the intake. This meant that if you were pushing the car hard, the potential temperature drop could be around 30 degrees Celsius.

To further test our hypothesis, I decided to do some harder acceleration and braking maneuvers, getting the engine really hot in the process. As we reached higher speeds, it seemed that the temperature differences had leveled off a bit, with an 18-degree difference between ambient and the front of the intake, and a 38-degree difference between ambient and the back of the intake. This still means that at high speeds, you could potentially be getting around 30 degrees Celsius cooler air by relocating that air intake.

Based on our results, two potential solutions come to mind: relocate the air intake to draw it closer to the front of the car, or put in a heat shield between the air intake and the exhaust to block some of that hot air from reaching it. Both of these methods could potentially result in significant temperature drops, making them worthy of further investigation.

The Importance of Intake Temperature

Our experiment highlights the importance of understanding intake temperatures when it comes to engine performance. By locating the air intake correctly, you can significantly improve the cooling effect on your engine, leading to improved fuel efficiency and reduced wear and tear on your engine over time.

In conclusion, our experiment has provided some fascinating insights into the world of engine performance. By taking a closer look at the temperature differences between ambient conditions and the intake temperatures, we've been able to identify potential solutions for improving engine cooling. Whether you're a seasoned mechanic or an enthusiast looking to upgrade your car's performance, understanding the importance of intake temperature is crucial for achieving optimal results.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone and welcome in this video we are figuring out whether or not my supercharged s2000 has a hot air intake so you can see the air intake right here it's towards the front of the engine and it is you know within the engine bay so perhaps it's not in the greatest spot as far as drawing in cool air so it's also kind of near the exhaust and so what i'm trying to figure out in this video is do i need to do anything about this and so in order to figure that out i have four different thermocouples which i've wired around the engine and so i'm going to be using this device right here essentially it's just a fancy thermometer i've got thermocouples which i can attach to it and read off what the temperature is in various locations so the four spots we're going to be looking at we've got a thermocouple on the front side of the air intake which is you know towards the front of the car we've got one on the back of the air intake which is closer to the exhaust so we'll see if there's a difference in temperature on the front and the back of that air intake i've also got one kind of smack dab in the middle of the engine bay so right up on top of the engine that will probably get fairly warm since it's in the center right above all the heat and it also has some insulation above it on the hood and then finally we have our control which is going to be up front so you know best case let's say our air intake was routed so that it could pull air directly from the front of the vehicle we'll know what temperature that area is and then we can compare it to the temperature on the air intake itself now i don't know what the results are going to be i'm certainly interested in finding out i don't think it's going to be as bad as it looks i think you know when the vehicles kind of come to a stop then it's probably going to get pretty warm in there but then once i'm moving i think you know kind of turbulent air is going to be mixing all around this engine bay and keeping those temperatures down i don't know that so we're going to go test it and find out what actually happens okay so here we have our four readings you can see they're all floating around 20 degrees celsius before the engine has started so the engine's been off it's been sitting in the garage overnight nothing is warm on it and they're all kind of floating around 20 degrees celsius so here on the top left we have our ambient we'll be comparing that to our intake numbers which are the front of the intake and the back of the intake and then here we have the top of the engine so we'll be monitoring these as i drive around at different speeds and see what impact it has on our intake temperatures okay so just sitting here idling the engine's all the way warmed up i've driven out to the middle of nowhere we're going to do some different tests with this so i'm actually surprised i've been monitoring it as i've been driving and it's more of a difference than i expected it to but anyways just sitting here idling ambient temperatures reading about 20 degrees this fluctuates depending on if the fans are on or not our intake front is measuring 40 degrees so 20 degrees warmer and our intake back is reading 55 degrees so about 25 degrees celsius warmer so a significant difference but again we're just sitting here stationary so i'm going to start to drive and then we will see where these temperatures go okay so cruising at about 20 miles an hour we've got about a 17 degree difference between the outside temperature and the front of the intake and then the back of the intake is about 30 degrees warmer than the very front of the car so best case scenario you know you could be dropping probably 30 to 35 degrees celsius with having the intake mounted directly up front now it's probably going to be some average between the intake front and the intake back so probably somewhere in the 20 degree temperature differential on average that you're going to have between the front of the car and this intake traveling at 20 miles an hour so we're gonna speed up 240 and see what it says there all right cruising along at 40 miles an hour it's about 15 degrees difference between ambient and the front of the intake and about 30 degree difference between ambient and the back of the intake so again you know that's actually a pretty significant difference in temperature uh probably at least about 20 degrees celsius cooler air that you could get if you rerouted that intake or perhaps put in you know a heat shield protecting it from the exhaust portion uh so that that backside of the intake was pulling in cooler air all right so now traveling at 60 miles an hour we are seeing less of a difference so it's about 10 degrees warmer on the front of the intake from ambient and it's about 20 to 25 degrees warmer on the back of the intake from ambient so certainly as you get into these higher speeds the differential becomes less as you have more turbulence within that engine bay and you've got cooler air coming in all right so now we're going to do something a little bit different i'm going to do some hard acceleration and then you know brake a bit get back on the acceleration brake a bit get back on the acceleration try to get the engine really hot and see you know if we were really pushing the car what sort of temperature differences would we be seeing all right so it seems to somewhat have leveled off pushing the car fairly hard uh we're getting about an 18 degree difference between ambient and the front of the intake and about a 38 degree difference between the ambient and the back intake so you know 18 to 38 so we're looking at somewhere around a 30 degree temperature differential which is significant so if you're pushing the car hard this is saying that you know you could potentially be getting around 30 degree cooler air uh celsius by relocating that air intake so this has been pretty fascinating for me i actually wasn't expecting to see numbers in the range that i saw you know it's actually a pretty significant difference uh where the intake is versus ambient conditions if you were to be able to get best case air flow into that intake so interesting to see i think two potential solutions would be to either relocate that air intake kind of draw it closer to the front of the car or perhaps put in a heat shield between that air intake and the exhaust to try and block some of that hot air from coming over and reaching it so if you guys have any questions or comments of course feel free to leave those below thanks for watchinghello everyone and welcome in this video we are figuring out whether or not my supercharged s2000 has a hot air intake so you can see the air intake right here it's towards the front of the engine and it is you know within the engine bay so perhaps it's not in the greatest spot as far as drawing in cool air so it's also kind of near the exhaust and so what i'm trying to figure out in this video is do i need to do anything about this and so in order to figure that out i have four different thermocouples which i've wired around the engine and so i'm going to be using this device right here essentially it's just a fancy thermometer i've got thermocouples which i can attach to it and read off what the temperature is in various locations so the four spots we're going to be looking at we've got a thermocouple on the front side of the air intake which is you know towards the front of the car we've got one on the back of the air intake which is closer to the exhaust so we'll see if there's a difference in temperature on the front and the back of that air intake i've also got one kind of smack dab in the middle of the engine bay so right up on top of the engine that will probably get fairly warm since it's in the center right above all the heat and it also has some insulation above it on the hood and then finally we have our control which is going to be up front so you know best case let's say our air intake was routed so that it could pull air directly from the front of the vehicle we'll know what temperature that area is and then we can compare it to the temperature on the air intake itself now i don't know what the results are going to be i'm certainly interested in finding out i don't think it's going to be as bad as it looks i think you know when the vehicles kind of come to a stop then it's probably going to get pretty warm in there but then once i'm moving i think you know kind of turbulent air is going to be mixing all around this engine bay and keeping those temperatures down i don't know that so we're going to go test it and find out what actually happens okay so here we have our four readings you can see they're all floating around 20 degrees celsius before the engine has started so the engine's been off it's been sitting in the garage overnight nothing is warm on it and they're all kind of floating around 20 degrees celsius so here on the top left we have our ambient we'll be comparing that to our intake numbers which are the front of the intake and the back of the intake and then here we have the top of the engine so we'll be monitoring these as i drive around at different speeds and see what impact it has on our intake temperatures okay so just sitting here idling the engine's all the way warmed up i've driven out to the middle of nowhere we're going to do some different tests with this so i'm actually surprised i've been monitoring it as i've been driving and it's more of a difference than i expected it to but anyways just sitting here idling ambient temperatures reading about 20 degrees this fluctuates depending on if the fans are on or not our intake front is measuring 40 degrees so 20 degrees warmer and our intake back is reading 55 degrees so about 25 degrees celsius warmer so a significant difference but again we're just sitting here stationary so i'm going to start to drive and then we will see where these temperatures go okay so cruising at about 20 miles an hour we've got about a 17 degree difference between the outside temperature and the front of the intake and then the back of the intake is about 30 degrees warmer than the very front of the car so best case scenario you know you could be dropping probably 30 to 35 degrees celsius with having the intake mounted directly up front now it's probably going to be some average between the intake front and the intake back so probably somewhere in the 20 degree temperature differential on average that you're going to have between the front of the car and this intake traveling at 20 miles an hour so we're gonna speed up 240 and see what it says there all right cruising along at 40 miles an hour it's about 15 degrees difference between ambient and the front of the intake and about 30 degree difference between ambient and the back of the intake so again you know that's actually a pretty significant difference in temperature uh probably at least about 20 degrees celsius cooler air that you could get if you rerouted that intake or perhaps put in you know a heat shield protecting it from the exhaust portion uh so that that backside of the intake was pulling in cooler air all right so now traveling at 60 miles an hour we are seeing less of a difference so it's about 10 degrees warmer on the front of the intake from ambient and it's about 20 to 25 degrees warmer on the back of the intake from ambient so certainly as you get into these higher speeds the differential becomes less as you have more turbulence within that engine bay and you've got cooler air coming in all right so now we're going to do something a little bit different i'm going to do some hard acceleration and then you know brake a bit get back on the acceleration brake a bit get back on the acceleration try to get the engine really hot and see you know if we were really pushing the car what sort of temperature differences would we be seeing all right so it seems to somewhat have leveled off pushing the car fairly hard uh we're getting about an 18 degree difference between ambient and the front of the intake and about a 38 degree difference between the ambient and the back intake so you know 18 to 38 so we're looking at somewhere around a 30 degree temperature differential which is significant so if you're pushing the car hard this is saying that you know you could potentially be getting around 30 degree cooler air uh celsius by relocating that air intake so this has been pretty fascinating for me i actually wasn't expecting to see numbers in the range that i saw you know it's actually a pretty significant difference uh where the intake is versus ambient conditions if you were to be able to get best case air flow into that intake so interesting to see i think two potential solutions would be to either relocate that air intake kind of draw it closer to the front of the car or perhaps put in a heat shield between that air intake and the exhaust to try and block some of that hot air from coming over and reaching it so if you guys have any questions or comments of course feel free to leave those below thanks for watching\n"