S40 V40: Finally sorted a proper cold air intake

[btsam]

Howdy folks, hope your well

Had a bit of a tinker today. Been wanting to get a little more fresh air into the airbox for a while, got a k&n panel filter the other week and have wanted to imrove on the oem intake (inside the wing). Always found myself looking at the ducts either side of the radiator but on closer inspection it looked like to tight of a fit

anyway, had play round today and sorted it, need to find the right size/shape duct to finish the bumper off but it works extremely well even on the first test run, bit more responsive. I'm sure once the MAF/ecu has adjusted to compensate it will be even better, fingers crossed!

a few pics





doesn't make any more noise, if anything it's quieter!, bear in mind mines a N/A 1.8 so don't think it'll help the turbo boys but on non 'blower' engines it des seem to help a fair bit.

Regards

S

[T4 mikey]

Just watch out for water,flooding ,fords etc......

[tt82]

nice job

I have been considering doing something similar myself for a while, on my old MY99 1.6 V40 there was enough room to cut a hole in the bottom of the airbox and run a pipe down to the grill, however now ive got the auto, it seem to get in the way. I really like the way youve routed the pipe, got next week off so may look into doing the same.

[btsam]

thanks tt.

its a proper squeez as just behind the inlet on the bumper is the chassis but theres just enough room to route it kinda diagonally downwards through the gap past the back of the fog light then straight up through hole into the wing the into the engine bay to the air box.

i've just got home from work and i can really tell the difference, no placebo effect. cant comment on HP as i dont rev it above 5 but from 2.5 3k revs wise it does pull much better as if theres more torgue due to more/cooler are and also the increase in positive pressure into the airbox.

regards

s

[tt82]

also got a bit of black mesh i bought a while ago to fit in the holes in the lower bumper, would help protect the radiator and disguise the pipe

[kilou]

I'm a bit skeptical about those mods myself. Of course cold air is better for engine performances but the difference should be way much smaller than for example the difference between driving in summer at 30°C or winter at 0°C. We're talking about a much narrower temperature range here. And honestly I don't find my 2.0L pulls that much more in winter than it does in summer. Actually it never pulls at all LOL

The location behind the left wing is not very pone to catch hot air from the engine. It's actually quite well protected, also from dirt, rain and other stuff.
I don't know but I'd say the placebo effect may be bigger than originally supposed with these mods...

[tt82]

I imagine it will make a difference, most sportier vehicles will have more direct air feeds like this. Reallistically, how much air can be drawn into the engine now with the air having to be pulled inbetween the indicator and headlamp. I magine removing the whole indicator unit would produce similar effects if you wanted try it.

As for dirt, rain and other stuff, combined with a k&n filter and regular claening intervals i cant see it being a problem

[kilou]

This is not really what can be called a "direct" air feed. Actually the stock design is more direct, here there is an additional length of pipe, moreover the type of pipe used (with ondulating flanges) will decrease the air speed quite a lot. Direct air feeds are usually smooth metal/plastic pipes.

Honestly I've never seen performance cars using this. At most, some will use dynamic air feeds but that's about it. Of course it may be an improvement over a design where the stock airbox is replaced by an open KN filter but a stock system is better imho, even compared to a KN filter which are known to produce lack of low end torque. The only "good point" I see in this design is that the engine will potentially suck fresher air than it does in the wing...but again fresh air in summer is still way hotter than at winter times, yet winter in itself as not been described as a performance mod on any car LOL

I'm not saying it doesn't work though, never tried it myself. However it would be nice to have some hard data to judge about a difference. This reminds me about electric superchargers that claim improved performances while not being able to produce a single unit of pressure.... Finally when you see that a "complicated" thing such as VVT, when introduced in 2000, was able to barely improve the performances of our engines, I guess Volvo would not spend $$$ in high-tech engineering when a simple length of pipe may produce even the slightest performance gain. No offense but this is just my opinion. However if I have time I should try it to see how it feels on my engine.