Heat is transfered in three ways. 1. Conduction. This is when a warm material transfers heat to other materials touching it. 2. Convection. This is where a gas or a liquid moves against a nother material and the heat gets transfered very similar to conduction, but because at least one of the materials flows, the heat keeps getting replenished with "freshly warm" flowing material. 3. Radiation, where electromagnetic waves (yes, light is a form of electromagnetic waves) transfer energy from the source to the material absorbing the waves. The gold form in the start of the video is very effective against radiation transmitted heat, but does not do a lot when it comes to convection, which was how it was tested. Foam works very good against convection since it creates an extra layer with bubbles inside the foam that are hard to heat. In order to create a good cold air intake you need to take into account what kind of heat transfer is happening under your hood and how long the air you are ingesting is actually in your intake system. Ingesting air from outside of the engine compartment means usually that within a few rotations of the crankshaft, the ingested air is already inside the combustion chamber. You get mostly radiation and convection heat transfer under the hood, Conduction is not a large source of heat for the intake trajectory. Isolate for Radiation and convection and don't overdo it, the air inside your intake is only heated for a very short period while driving. Having said that, driving off from standing still makes heat soak in the engine compartment a significant factor so you will want to properly insulate for that. If you want to test how efficient your cold air intake is at keeping intake air cold, you need to measure the actual air temperature directly outside your intake and measure the difference in temperature at the intake of the cylinder head, or whatever compressor you use if you aren't working with an atmospheric setup. Measuring a hair dryer through a sheet of plastic is not representative for the condition in an intake system of a running engine.

@____MC____

3 ай бұрын

Exactly. Needs to measure input and output air temperature at running velocities. My newer silverado has a reflective fiber insulation behind the engine.

@piwright42

3 ай бұрын

Spot on what I was thinking with mylar in general. The logic is, "NASA uses it to keep infrared telescopes cool in space, so it must be good at keep things cool." The problem with that logic is the mechanics of the medium it performs in. In this application foam, fiberglass or mineral board would be better at sequestration. For ease of use, a thermal blanket would be the simplest solution if the incoming air charge will be exposed to the heat of the engine bay long enough to be an issue.

Guys,Just got to look at this video of mine for the first time since the day after it was posted. I want to say something about the critical posts that reference the types of heat a cold air box has to deal with. My first comment here is that this is far from my first rodeo as far as thermal criteria are involved. If you came to that conclusion then I only have myself to blame for not being more concise. Let me explain here. Firstly ther location of the airbox on an Ecoboost Mustang is in a position where there was little radiated heat involved. The otherside of the engine is a very different matter. My airbox had to be proofed against a great deal of heat conducted via the hot air in that region. My tests focus on that aspect on the heat reduction into the intake charge through the case walls. Next the comments pointing out that the reflective materials should face the heat source. They were but a photo of whatever was being tested could not be photographed through the aluminum sheet. For that reason I had to turn them around to show what was being tested. My apologies for any confusion here. Will do my best to minimise such in future. Thanks for your patience here from PowerTec 10's most confusing tech guy!!!! DV

I put one of those Air Inlet Systems cold air kits as recommended by you on my street 72 Nova back in 2000 or so. It picked up a half mile an hour and 3 hundredths. Went from 99.15 mph and a 6.85 to 99.7 mph and a 6.82 in the eighth mile. It's still on there!

@DavidVizard

3 ай бұрын

Patrick, please note I did not say they did not work. the point I am making here is that, at best, they only deliver about a 1/3rd of their full potential

@patrickmoore1017

3 ай бұрын

@@DavidVizard sorry if I came across sideways of what you’re saying here. I should have said the cold air worked for me in A-B-A-B-A testing on a 400 ci SBC carbureted car, and may not work with any certainty on any anyone else’s setup. Anyhow, fantastic video and keep them coming, especially any more camshaft tech you may have!

You need a Gale Banks iDash data logger and sensors. You should ask.

I like what you said about torque first, rpm second. Too many people don't know that horsepower equals torque multiplied by rpm divided by 5252. A dyno measures torque, horsepower is calculated from the above formula. Many folks think they are two separate things. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us!

@cuoresportivo155

3 ай бұрын

And that torque at the wheels changes with engine rpm AND gear, while wheel horsepower only changes with engine rpm.

@henzig8774

3 ай бұрын

I explained this to a coworker (who is actually a car guy) once casually while working. During this conversation I said something like, "That is why all dyno charts have torque and hp crossing at 5252 Rpm. Diesels typically won't rev that high hence they always have dyno charts where the lines don't cross." He was quickly googling pictures of dyno graphs and then told me his mind was blown he never noticed it.

@MrTheHillfolk

3 ай бұрын

​@@henzig8774 Sonetimes,if they wont rev high enough,the graph can be mathematically extrapolated to see if someone is lying 😃

@V8Lenny

2 ай бұрын

​@@henzig8774in Europe, or at any manufacturers dyno, it does not cross at 5252

Find some Kwool 1/8” ceramic paper if you want the absolute maximum heat reduction. You can lay it on an oven element and hold your hand 1/4” from the paper and hold it there

I would like to see this test redone, but using a radiant heat source (like a heat lamp). The results might be interesting.

I've ran these tests in the past on a twin turbo N54 BMW. The gains your seeing now would probably be insignificant with an upgraded intercooler. I found that on my BMW that lowering the inlet temps 40 degrees before the turbo only resulted in an 8 degree drop at the intake manifold with my upgraded intercooler. Combine that with the cooling advantages of direct injection and there's very minimal benefits for companies to spend time researching ways to keep the temps cooler. Primary focus is flow and aesthetics. The cars I've seen with upgraded downpipes, exhaust, piping, intercooler and running an Ethanol blend of at least 30% on direct injection setups showed minimal gains with a cold air intake over just a filter on the turbo sucking hot air. I love the fact that your analyzing every little piece, can't wait to see any intercooler testing to show intercooler designed, heat sink efficiencies and pre/post efficiency numbers. I wish all intercooler companies tested those but unfortunately that's rarely disclosed.

Intake manufacturers need to take notes from this.

I have a 4" Anderson Power Pipe for my 1989 Mustang 5.0. Its ceramic coated (inside and out) and takes in air from the cooler fender-wall. Can't say if it made a difference as I installed new heads the same time. It's piece of mind as my previous setup was pulling in air from the hot engine bay.

I have put a special insulation tape on all surfaces of my filterbox, intake from outside and house to the turbo. I had a drop in temperature on 22 dg celcius. Put in a KN filter and had a small gain in hp and torque. Put the same tape on the hose from intercooler. The hose was close to the turbo and ERG so it was very hot. After the tape it had a drop in temperature of 31 dg celcius. The car runs very strong and drive longer pr liter Gasolin. All the best from Denmark 🇩🇰

@armandomendoza3167

3 ай бұрын

What was the brand name of the tape that you used?

@mortenjrgensen5497

3 ай бұрын

@@armandomendoza3167 I cant remember the name. But its the industry use it to keep the heat from getting to one pipe/hose to another. Its often used around turbo ect.

@armandomendoza3167

3 ай бұрын

@@mortenjrgensen5497 Is it Marine grade industrial? Or mining industrial?

@mortenjrgensen5497

3 ай бұрын

@@armandomendoza3167 industry . I can see if I can find where I got it from and the name. It was a danish company

@mortenjrgensen5497

3 ай бұрын

Autofix nu that is the site. Power wrap selvklæbende tape. This is the name of the product.

Of all the want-to-be amateurs on KZread promoting nothing that works, at least we have David Vizard and Gayle Banks to give us tried and true products through experience, research, and testing, and the facts to back up their awesome claims. Everything else is garbage.

@dondotterer24

3 ай бұрын

Yep

@victorriceroni8455

3 ай бұрын

You ain't kidding. We are so fortunate these extraordinary gentlemen are still with us to share their hard earned wisdom.

Having made custome silencers for commercial air conditioners, what I learned was air is a thermal barrier and media served to uncrease the surface area of air trapped inside the thermal media. All that to say, inside atmosphere, everything in contact conducts. If you use a thermal blanket and wrap it around the inlet pipe too tight it will become a conductor. If you use reflective media, (gold or silver mylar), and its touching what you want to insulate, it will conduct. A snug wrapped thermal blanket with reflective media wrapped around it should yield best results against conductive and infrared heat. Thermal wrapping things like exhaust headers and the hot side of the turbo with further lower engine bay heat and could remote the need to insulate a cold air intake if the intake has a short enough run to the intake manifold.

The only real efficient CAI would be a double walled tube and box. ie thin structural material with a vacuum or foam core.

I just saw a Jeep with a "cold air intake". I had an aluminum tube with a cone filter on the end of it sitting in the air box area. The top of the air box was missing and the element was open to under hood hot air. Truly was a hot air intake.

Great stuff. I have a 2015 Ecoboost Mustang and am very interested in this subject matter.

I don't know why, but paint has been developed that reflects IR back as if it were white, though it is some other color, including Black, in the visible spectrum. My point here is that the visible color may not reflect its insulative value (by reflection or radiation of IR). It also implies that the finish can be chosen to perform much better than you would think, given its color.

@David Vizard: Where can we find the formula to calculate the right valve size when thinking about going to a bigger valve AND valve seat? And do we always need bigger valves? > cant we just enlarge the inner diameter of the standard valve seat to improve filling the cylinders?

So a double wall tube with foam between the tubes should keep the temperature stable from end to end

Hello David off subject here, but could you do a powertec video on cylinder heads sizing for combustion chamber sizing based on gear ratio an vehicle weight for racy applications drag strip/ pull truck /boat bbc…. Thank you for all your years of knowledge an taking your time to help others understand performance of any engines with all those years of testing that had to be very expensive. Thanks agin Tyler.

"That's power and anti-detonation right there." They solved this in WW2 fighters with water/methanol injection. Further, there are modern kits for cats that scavenge air-conditioning condensation to reduce the need to top off the water level of those water only injection kits. Driving4Answers covered it in a recent video.

David, your test data would be better with the use of a FLIR camera. Although it is dynamically self calibrating, mounting it on a tripod in record mode and using their software would allow you to build excellent temperature curves. Infared Guns a nice little toys but I only use them for non critical measurments. They are too effected by environmental conditions and angle of approach to the measured surface. I found them 100% useless when heating a large mass of steel. A large drive coupling that needs to slide on a 5" diameter shaft. The glorified laser pointer told us is was still only 150F while the old school 350F temperature crayon about vaporized because we had to large rosebuds on it for longer than needed to slide it on the shaft. We had so much radiant heat the chain of the chain fall holding the coupling grew so much it dropped 2" out of alignment. That was the last day I relied on infared temperature measurement. I would rather see the airbox mounted in a hot box, with ambient air flowing through it, record ambient, internal temp, outlet temp and airflow. Then you woukd be able to calculate mass air losses (density deviation) from the different methods of insulating from heat soak. I think, while your test showed results, its anecdotal data that does not fully represent what is going underhood. Using a real fan with an airspeed sensor mounted on the inlet of the cold air/ram air entry on the dyno capable of providing road speed effect with the hood closed would be useful data. The airbox is getting heat soaked with 200F air from the heat exchangers feeding the under hood area. Thats why we run the Trackspec hood louvers on these Mustangs. It allows more airflow through the cooling module by lowering the positive pressure under the hood, places a path of least resistance to evacuate the hot air, and also provides anti-lift qualites at track speeds because that high pressure zone heads in the direction of zero. The Multimatic built Mustangs still run the factory GT airbox, there is so much negative pressure and open element air filter that is so popular hurt HP. They even went so far in the early models to cut away the inner fenders ahead of the strut towers to reduce pressure.

Cool test. Big fan. Would have been intresting to see(phenolic plastic) Cutting Board would have performed. Works weel insulating Intake Manifolds(spacers)🙏

I understand that the air density increases as temperature drops, but the viscosity decreases also? I did not see that coming - but I will take it!

David. How about DEI thermal blankets. Example would be product number 010834 used in starter motors. It has glass fiber. Would covering an air box with this material help. I've used it on a turbo intake plastic pipe. Since is inches away from an exhaust manifold. Just to bring down the temperature. Insulated side by a laser temperature gun reads 90s. Non insulated plastic on opposite side i get 80.5°F to 88.5°F. I have a diesel engine. The air charge cooler inlet gets to be at 76.4 °F. The exit pipe on the air charge cooler reaches 63.1°F. The intake elbow the is bolted to the engine gets to be 69.9°F. Please note this test was done on 3-17-24 in the morning at 8 A.M. Weather temperature was 75°F. And the truck was driven 4 miles. When reaching home. Temperatures where measured again. To se any varibles. The turbo exhaust pipe was reading 203°F. I don't know if my laser thermometer was broken. Yet is what i had. And i didn't want to touch it by hand. I hope this is iformative for you. Since you shared information. I want to be kind and share my findings with you and the public. Let me know what you think. And Thank you for everything. Be blessed.

@Hipsters_N_Hippies

3 ай бұрын

Look up intake manifold heat shields. (I’ve seen some by heat shields Inc.) Then look up cheaper Peel and stick heat shields online. 🤝 you’ll get the idea. (Side note: if you use the DEI thermal blankets on intake tubes, Try to get really creative in how you can leave some air space between the two and the blanket. Because you were trying to keep the environment the intake tube is in cooler. So where ever the blanket is touching is an area that the heat he is being transferred against the intake tube.

@armandomendoza3167

3 ай бұрын

​@@Hipsters_N_Hippies Thanks for the information. I didn't know. Now I do. I'm looking at the products that you mentioned.

@RockingJOffroad

3 ай бұрын

I need to second the DEI products! They work! On my off road race car my feet were within an inch or two of the header tubes with a aluminum firewall between and I wrapped the headers with the DEI ceramic header wrap and my feet never felt uncomfortably hot!

@CBD-Life-South-Africa

3 ай бұрын

DEI Inc products are used on SpaceX and Nasa Shuttles and rockets for a reason!

@MrTheHillfolk

3 ай бұрын

An old trick I've learned from an experimental aircraft builder ,is how to make your own heat shields. Get some tin, some copper or red rtv ,and some exhaust wrap. Putty knife is nice to spread the rtv on the tin, and then stick the wrap to it. For kicks when my car was apart I did some of the OEM heat shields like that and it's noticable in the temp drops.

I missed the heat wrap for exhausts used on the cold air intake tunneling.

A dual walled tube prolly be the best David. Blow thru air between the walls ejecting out the back ( blow thru heat shield)and inner tube comming from same high psi pick up point. Gotta evacuate heat. Edit: Asbestos blanket prolly best but we know its problems - header wrap would be interesting. Also would like to see one with Linear Heat sync ( then same with outside pipe) dual walled^^^

Well first. Its my belief that the yellow tape and the chrome finish should really have the reflective surface facing the heat source

@DavidVizard

3 ай бұрын

And you think I did not know that??????????? DV

Grandioso. Bel video. Molto interessante. Aspetto il prossimo

Always use ram air type intakes with large filter elements. If done correctly you can really take advantage of static air pressure from air speed, increased air density. Be sure to keep intake tubes away or insulated from radiant heat of engine/exhaust.

Great video, well done

Thank you!

Back in the 70s i built an air box to pack with ice sometimes dry ice to lower intake air temp and i could feel the higher torque and see the quicker acceleration. No real science used, just did it by guess and on principle. Newer engines are already engineered for higher efficiencies and a lot more engineering is needed to pull out more HP.

Insulated dryer pipe cover over stock pipes might be interesting

Ford did really well with making actual cold air intakes instead of just filter boxes on the 197/550/650 mustangs

The gold tape is aluminium with a yellow tint and would have very similar results as the chrome film. NASA use actual gold metal foil which I think has the lowest emissivity of any material and therefore best heat reflection. McLaren used it on the F1 but its also very expensive!

@rocketsurgeon11

3 ай бұрын

I believe the DEI gold foil is actually the aerospace grade stuff, but I could be wrong. That's not what he used, obviously. Just making mention of it.

Great info thanks

Bit confused here. Still talking about carburetors while working on/with the EcoBoost Mustang engine. That car has an injection system. And is controlled by signals from sensors to the ECU. That includes the Cold Air Intake sensor. ...thus the colder the air the more gasoline will be injected. The engine will run rich. Not over rich that is.

Do you have a cam formula for 4 cylinder 4 valve head engines? Love your channel.

a clue to the gold heat material can be found in the video "moon machines", aluminized Mylar 25 layers thick. kzread.info/dash/bejne/Zq2elaWOm8u6qsY.html. I am not clear on the home foam (the have a lot of home foam)

Any advice on any kind of cold air or should I stick to the ram system for my 93 Formula Firebird ? Unfortunately after 183 kms ( I'm Canadian an in Canada lol ). The transmission died on me last wk ....my Lt1 runs flawless an amazing but it's soo hard to find an 700r4 that works ..mine was first yr 4th gen original ..an I heard they only made em like that one year unfortunately...so I bought a 5.3 litre gxp and a 4l60 to put into it .. what would be a GD system to use on that , if you don't mind me asking and Much RESPECT TO YOU !!

Perhaps the foil films are more geared to resist radiant heat than the conduction/convection combo of the moving air from the hair dryer. Might perform better for something right next to an exhaust in a stagnant area?

@DavidVizard

3 ай бұрын

Could certainly be so if my tests with chrome plated A Series Mini engines are anything to go by.

Real question not a dig. So if a aluminium/composite intake manifold doesn't have enough time to transfer radiant heat to the intake charge due to the speed at which the air is moving at part to full throttle how would a un-insulated/insulated air box transfer heat to the inlet intake air providing the intake system is not a restriction in any way, and is drawing air outside of the radiant heat of the engine bay? How fast is the intake air "moving" as it is drawn into the engine at atmospheric pressure? How much does charge cooling affect air intake temp results carbureted/TBI vs EFI/DI? I just don't see how insulating the air box would make a difference to air intake temps if the system is not restricted (0 vacuum at 14.7 psi barometric pressure at full throttle) and is drawing cool dense ambient air or rammed air?

Would I be correct in saying that the largest factor is the amount of time the air is in the inlet? In other words, even if the air box, plumbing and inlet port, were hot, there’s not enough time for the surfaces to radiate heat into the air volume, due to its speed. 🇦🇺💙🤜🏼🤛🏼😎☮️🍀

Try some of that aluminized bubble wrap insulation for in intake areas. Gonna' melt next to a turbo.

@DavidVizard

3 ай бұрын

Give me a brand to search for please.DV

@Sagina1999

3 ай бұрын

@@DavidVizard Reflectix I think most of the brands are similar. I have some, and you got me thinking. I have a ram air that extends about 8 inches out of the front bumper. It's metal, but then changes to black plastic. I'm going to wrap that part with this stuff. Sometimes it needs to be removed, and I like the way it will flex when I need to remove it. I'll use some aluminum tape and not make it too tight. My cold ram air works very well on my old Honda N/A injected engine. The intake will feel cold when I check it after driving!

those non contact thermal cameras don't give good readings on reflective surfaces. a thermocouple would have been better. And wouldn't you want those heat barriers on the hot side of the aluminum sheet? Assuming you're modeling the thermal performance of an intake system in a hot engine compartment?

Hard to have a legit cold air intake with the egr system pumping hot exhaust into the intake stream.

No scam. They work if properly designed.

If you’re measuring with an “infrared thermometer,” then you need to account for the emissivity of the various surfaces.

@DavidVizard

3 ай бұрын

I had a chart that gives that sort of data - thanks DV

@jeremylastname873

3 ай бұрын

@@DavidVizard Excellent engineering. I have been remotely admiring your work for decades. Thank you for being you. Your integrity is refreshing and it should be (more!) contagious.

@jeremylastname873

3 ай бұрын

BTW: Omega sells some low-mass thermocouples that can be used to great advantage where appropriate. As usual, one should thermally insulate the “wires” if the ambient temperature is dissimilar to the temperature being measured. 🤓

David, perhaps a strange idea but perhaps a coaxial air intake would have merit? With moving air in the outer layer.

@DavidVizard

3 ай бұрын

Now that sound like a good move. That could be a worthwhile 3D printing job! DV

@g0fvt

3 ай бұрын

@@DavidVizard in my head I was picturing the "balanced flue" as used on a lot of central heating boilers and the exhaust system of the 1970s Suzuki RE5 motorcycle. The latter had a rotary engine and used a coaxial exhaust arrangement with scoops. If it works on an exhaust it ought to work on an inlet. Perhaps another odd idea could be to flow more air than you need through a large intake duct and vent off the excess. The more air you can shift the less the less the ambient temperature around the airbox should affect the intake temperature at the turbo. Sorry if this is a poor description.

I trust you will have control of : shift points , boost controls , waste gate contols , timing contols , fuel controls , and any shutt off , and 2 step contols , by the next track test ,,, !

@DavidVizard

3 ай бұрын

May be or, more accurately, hopefully so, but health probs have currently cut my work day to 3 - 4 hours. Right now I am working on a grill located ram air setup. Now that's a 'me' project and unfortunately client work has to come first. Not even I get to play on my own stuff just when ever I please - unfortunately.

@rolandtamaccio3285

3 ай бұрын

@@DavidVizard ,,, all the more reason not to involve nitrous . It's just so unworthy of your methodical procedure .

i had a K&N cold air on my 2011 ford raptor gas milage is same no better than factory also was light on the pedal no more than 55 MPH

I use carbon fiber tube with K&N cone filter

@richardscott8186

3 ай бұрын

FYI,,Steeda Carbon Fiber intake

👍👍👍

Non posso credere ad alcuni commenti che ho letto. Credete veramente di spiegare cose così basilari a Mr Vizard ? Un ingegnere di un esperienza enorme e che comprende profondamente le dinamiche della fisica e dei motori. Non vi capisco... Non sto dicendo non pensare con la vostra testa, ma vi chiedo di sedervi con tranquillità e ASCOLTARE. Potreste imparare qualcosa di buono. Buona vita

Tbe gold film must work fairly well in extremes as NASA uses it, and in space definately meets the extreme catagory.

@jamesschneider3329

3 ай бұрын

Reflection of energy (heat) works in space because there is no atmosphere to heat up.

@DavidVizard

3 ай бұрын

@@jamesschneider3329 James - some how managed to overlook that!!!!! DV

@michaelblacktree

3 ай бұрын

The gold film that NASA uses is different from the stuff you buy at the parts store. Also, outer space is a hard vacuum. So there's no convection. Completely different scenarios, with completely different materials.

My Mazda3 Skyactiv loses 4mpg to 5mpg when the temperature gets cold outside.

@spiv_gennedy

3 ай бұрын

I think that is more so to do with the skyactive motors having pretty high static compression. When it gets cold enough outside the ECU bumps up the fuel to match the cooler, denser air to keep the motor from running too lean and knocking. With the already high compression in your motor any knock could be a death sentence for it.

@jasonbusch3624

3 ай бұрын

@spiv_gennedy it sure goes through sparkplugs. I am on my 5th set in 190,000 miles. Had the electrode break off at the porcelain and the coil burned out on cylinder 2. When it starts misfiring at a idle you can hear it popping in the exhaust and it is time for new plugs. Have to gap iridium or rhuthium at .030 or it will get a misfire and CEL while idling. Factory gapped iridium NGK plugs will throw CEL every time after a few miles. Denso TT iridium seem to work best and get the best mileage.

I don't see how this test applies to a cars induction system. From the time the air enters the inlet and is out the tail pipes is likely in milliseconds. There is no time for that fast moving air to pickup much heat from a heat soaked induction system. So looking at your 0-1sec line they all would basically do the same thing? You basically just want a source that's sucking up as close to ambient air temps as possible. The radiant heat seems likes a pretty useless performance marker? Similar to frost forming on alcohol intake runners.... that doesn't mean the air entering the cylinders is anywhere near that cold. The in coming air has no time to have much heat pulled from it.

What about putting this on the outside of the intake tube and from intercooler to engine? kzread.info/dash/bejne/dn-G06OsepS0Zs4.htmlsi=gXjuzeYe_Gt7YF2H

@DavidVizard

3 ай бұрын

Hey justlost2010,Just checked this out will call them tomorrow. thanks much for the lead!!! DV

@justlost2010

3 ай бұрын

@DavidVizard I ha a 2017 Fusion 2.0. The turbo outlet runs along the back of the engine in all that heat. So very instead, in the test results.

Yes ruins reliability

Hello Mr. V. It looks to me that in your tests, the films and tapes and such are on the back side of the aluminum (i.e. facing away from the heat source). I would assume these materials should be facing the heat source and covering the entire aluminum sheet to see how much heat makes it through. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Thank you for your extremely valuable information.