I have a Pop charger arriving any day. I have been reading previous posts about the heat soak issue. It is over a 100 degrees in Nor Cal in the summer. Should I send it back and get a Stillen Air box instead ? Will the heat from my engine compartment make me lose any power or damage the motor?
Thanks.

 

I don't think you will find much performance differnece between the two. The heat soak is more for the engine than the intake.

 

It won't damage anything. Heat soak is negligable for just about any intake system available for us. No system is really that much better than any other as far as measureable performance (I'm not counting dyno sheets, just performance #s).

 

At slower speeds (sub 40mph) especially in stop and go traffic, aftermarket intakes (Stillen, JWT, CAIs) will ingest significantly hotter air because they are exposed to significantly more engine heat. At higher speeds, the hot air gets funneled out of the engine bay. I've done tests monitoring the air temp sensor and the aftermarket intake designs can see as high 50 degrees over ambient at a stop. The stock intake will only see about a 10 degree increase over ambient at a stop. Since the MAF sensor is responsible for relaying air intake temp and conditions, the POP style intakes may make for more laggy performance on hot days.

 

How would the Stillen see that much more heat than the oem? It is mostly closed in like the oem...

 

The top of the Stillen Airbox looks similiar to stock, but the lower portions of the airbox are open in multiple spots. I think Stillen could have really been on to something if they would have made a fully sealed airbox.

 

Which I'll accomplish at some point. It's just a flat sided panel that would be required. I don't know why they didn't finish it either.

 

Some thin plexiglass or a cut up black small trash and a some high temp epoxy glue should do the trick. I bought a friends stock airbox and I'll be attempting something similiar.

 

i had the stillen and jwt pop charger...honestly the best overall was my modified stock airbox. i just pulled the drain box and sealed up the hole on the bottom of the stock airbox to keep the vaccuum effect.

 

Can you elaborate? I actually like the Stillen a bit better. Sound excluded. But I'm trying to decide if the up in pep was from the clean cone vs the dirty panel I took out. but I don't remember anything noticable when I first put it in either.

 

I did something similiar.

 

and the results?

what do think would be better? modifying/sealing the stillen airbox or sealing the stock airbox like described above with an amsoil filter?

 

Two tools that every experimenter should not be without:
1.Manometers [ Dwyer gauge type] sensitive 0-5" , 0-10" H2O and higher increments. [Atmospheric pressure can be 415" H20 so 1/415= good accuracy 1/4 of a single percent and some are 10 times better than this.
2.Remote outside thermometer [RasioShack] to measure underhood/plenum air temps...........while driving and idling.

http://autospeed.drive.com.au/A_2159/cms/article.html
http://www.dwyer-inst.com/htdocs/air...troduction.cfm
http://autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/article.html?&A=0663
http://www.lexusaustralia.org/techni...r%20Intake.htm

The intake plumbing has a less than 7" restriction, the air filters less than 1", the Maf assembly less than 7", the throttle plate wide open 2-3".

With these tools you can measure and validate your mods.

I have a dozen assorted manometers [from ebay] $14-$20 each] that can ACCURATELY cover every air flow situation. From measure an air filter to within 1% accuracy to measuring the restriction inside plenum from atmosphere [20-22" H2O].

 

Thank you for the great links and tips - extremely informative! I appreciate that.

 

I only have 1/4 mile results for the modified airbox which included sealing off the lower resonator, Z-tube, and K&N filter. The car has consistently ran in the 14.3-14.4 range at 98-99mph.

Cone filters do have a performance advantage, but taking away the pressurization effect of the stock intake and adding additional heat is not ideal with the typical POP-style intakes. I think there may be some peroformance to be gained with a sealed Stillen or stock airbox with a cone. A lot of performance car intakes use sealed airboxes with cones including the Viper and S2000.