HuggyBear

sorry convertible im not a mechanic, but i dont see those shrouds redirecting anything at all. if you look into your grill theres no plastic shroud directing anything to the rad, its a strait shot through the grill to the rad. i dont know where your coming from here...

btw i didnt say they block air to the rad. they just isolate that fresh air to that one area. no cold air gets to the intake(on the other side) with those shrouds in there. thats whats getting blocked, and why i originally removed them(pre-scoop period). even then i noticed an almost non-existent improvement, but it was there. i never said anything about them blocking the rad.


and silkworm, "those of us who know our cars know you're right" what the hell is that??? if anyone knows the results of this its me, and fastrotaries since hes done it too. i dont see you having tried this for yourself and giving any results, or else youd have told us already.

so those of us who know our cars and how this mod effects them includes just me and him here. unless youd like to just outright call us liars, or to stupid to read a temp gauge, you may want acknowledge it MAY have a benefit.

you may want to try it for yourself before slamming the idea

i dont mean to be harshe but dude you came in hear telling us we dont know what we are talking about when we've already done this and have NO negative effects. thats ignorant...

just cause we dont have a thousand or 2 posts doesnt mean we're idiots.

now that iv got that off my chest sorry for the rant, please lets all be friends

autocrash

HuggyBear: I like the general idea behind your intake, but there is no arguing that it does block a portion of the radiator... as well, the plastic shrouds were put there for a purpose (and I don't think it was extra weight... )

(sorry... read my post in the lounge about the english language... that's just funny... read it here... )
And besides that, you are talking about the stock temp gauge I assume, one which can sit at normal operating temperature while the actual temperature ranges between 180 and 249 degrees (or something like that.. the range is bloody huge regardless...)
So it MAY have affected your cooling, but obviously not significantly (yay! )
I think that the best way to go in the case of a cold air box would be to combine the best of both worlds, incorporate the Mariah style box with the original intake ducting (two sources of cold air!! ) That way one could still keep the original duct-work in place while enjoying the benefits of a cold-air box....

WilTaylor: ur still a moron in my books

NZConvertible

Those plastic shrouds are there to stop air going over the radiator instead of through it. The undertray does the same thing at the bottom, and is even more important. The fact that it’s a straight shot means nothing, because air always follows the path of least resistance, and it’s much easier for the air to go around the radiator than through it, due to the restriction of the core. So if you block the all places where the air can flow around the radiator, it must go through it instead. Simple.
Removing those shrouds will reduce the amount of air going through the radiator. Period. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll overheat, just that the total capacity of the cooling system is now slightly reduced. Your DIY cold-air scoop is also blocking the path to the radiator, so that will be further reducing the cooling capacity. But a mildly modded NA that’s not being driven really hard isn’t going to be near the limits of the cooling system (unless some components aren’t 100%), so you’re getting away with it. Lucky you.
I realise why you’ve done this. I know the stock airbox pickup point isn’t ideal from a cold air point of view (it’s better than the engine bay though!), but Mazda’s priorities were different to ours. Personally (and this probably comes from owning turbos), I just don’t like doing anything that could affect my cooling capacity.
BTW, with a little creative cutting, those shrouds could probably be reinstalled around your duct. Up to you.

HuggyBear

convertible thanks for the info about that, i appreciate it. ya if necessary i could put the shroud back in on the pasenger side. and even mod the other one to work around the intake scoop.

note: i understand how you say it blocks air from going up near the intake area and forces it through the rad. air is forced into the area during motion, and when the area fills air is forced through the rad, kind of like a pressurized system. with the shrouds removed the theory is the same, only the volume of air needed to create the pressurized area is a bit bigger. air is still going through at safe levels or im sure id see the temp pointer move up a bit despite the range mazda put on it for safe operating.

also note fastrotaries has done competitions without the shrouds with no temp issues.

btw - i like i said i appreciate you taking the time to explain that to me, i understand exactly what ur saying now, and if i hadnt done this and got the favorable results i did im sure i would have thought twice. but i cant dispute me and fast rotaries results on this. i hope you dont either...

it works. for n/a cars at least. i havent tested it on a turbo at all. maybe ill get that opportunity soon

rochsteve

SureShot

HuggyBear: Here's a thought. When the hood is down, the prop rod blocks ~20% of you intake path. I removed my hood prop. I use an aluminum tube and stow it out of the way..
Bill

HuggyBear

ya i noticed that it kind of blocks the path. was thinking about a solution that would keep it available to use but i havent come up with anything.

cant quite bring myself to take it out. maybe if i could make it detachable somehow i could just store it in the trunk for use.

hmmm ill look into that this weekend. keep you posted.

can you tell me more about this aluminum tube of yours? maybe some pics?

autocrash

what about maybe mounting the prop rod along the side of the engine bay? (don't have my car here to look... but) just a thought.... or, depending on how it's held in, you could remove the bushings at the base of it and have it sit loosely in the body hole when in use, but store it in the trunk (this is what happened to the prop rod on my Accord...)

TriTurboGen3 RX-7

Can someone plzz give me the link to Mariah motorsports Website, and Bonez site ?

jmica

For those of you that are still looking for more information about Checkpoint Engineering's Cold-Air Intake, here's a link to their newly developed website with pictures of it installed.

http://www.checkpointmotors.net/Gallery.asp?albumID=6

RotorHad

Okay... now looking at the CPE intake I have a question. Wouldn't the length and extra bends take away from performance. I don't know much about fluidynamics, but isn't that why we sometimes see a pressure drop with our FMIC piping? I understand that we're obviously getting cooler, thus more dense, air... but all that extra length doesn't hurt anything?

Also... wouldn't the filters new location subject it to much harsher conditions? Rocks, water, bugs, oil, tar... etc.