Well FI Guys I was wondering does high intake temp at the air filter really matter much on a FI car w/ intercooler? i know it make s a world of difference on a N/A car thats is why there is a major effort to always run cool air to the air filter.
I seems that most if not all S/C or turbo set ups I see the air filter is postioned well in the engine bay area rarely to I see any atempt to locate the any where near a cool inlet or tubing.
The only thing I fiqure is that the intercooler negates any incoming tempeture .

 

yes it does matter. car will be more responsive/leaner with colder temps. a/f will vary slightly. i think some standalones will adjust for the change.

 

It'll help to have it in a cooler place, but that is not always an option. You are taking the ambient air and increasing the temperature when it is compressed, then removing as much heat as possible with the intercooler. So, it would make sense that if your starting temp is lower, your ending temp should be lower, thus yielding more power. I don't have any hard data to say that if you intake temp is lowered by x degrees you will yield y hp more, but it does make a difference. My *guess* is that it'll make a bigger difference on an turbo car than on an NA car purely because you are flowing a greater volume of air.

 

Yes you don't want to use warm air from the engine compartment. The cooler the air entering the combustion chamber the better.

The only time it wouldn't matter is when your IC is so huge that the air coming out of the IC is ambient temperature.

I have a buddy with a 1990 Ford SuperCoupe that run's 13.1's on a 3.8 V6 and a eaton supercharger. He is running 19 lbs of boost and his IC is so huge that he is back to ambient after the IC. He is running a cold air intake, but in his case, it wouldn't matter. FYI he gets these temperature numbers from his datalogger.

 

I guess that make sense. I first thought that if the IC was discharging lets say 95 degrees temp that 100 degree or 110degrees coming in would not matter much because the IC would discharge bothj temps at 95 degrees.
But I now see the IC does not have to work as hard to keep the 100 degree to 95 as it does the 110 degree. Keeps it more efficient.
I could'nt figure why quite a few FI's keep there air filter so far into the engine bay.
Thanks for the input.