Have any of you guys ramed air your tgps..I've heard nothing but good news about ram airing a turbo so it won't have to work as hard to make boost. I'll see what it'll do but have anyone tried it?
Probably the closest thing to making a RA for a TGP would be the K&N filter on the turbo.
I'd like to get a RA scoop on my hood one of these days and then have an intake fabbed up so that it's directly under the scoop opening.
I would think there would be a way to convert the drivers side louver to work as a cold air box. I'll have to check it out when I get home....
Hey Max...I was looking into that at one time, but the only problem is there are many things directly under the stock loover location. But a pressure box that fits directly onto the turbo inlet and fab some sort of low profile scoop to face into the wind on the hood! That would be real trick I think!! :wink:
I know the cowl induction on the older t/a's worked in a similar fasion. the cowl faced the back of the car, but pulled nice cool air in. Not a ram air, but better than the cone on the turbo. Otherwise, I wonder if there would be a way to plumb something to the drivers side wheel well or something..... I'll have to do some playing around. That is, if I keep the car. Thinking about selling it once the new trans is in.
I just leave my hood open about 10 inches all the time, works just like a ram air! At first it was hard to see over the hood, but since it bounces up and down over the bumps its not that bad anymore, espically since my hood release (finally :twisted: ) broke off. I'll take some pictures (COPYRIGHT of course) I think this is the wave of the future for TGP / STE' ers.
I plan on selling the piece of 2x4 that props up the hood for $50.00 due to the amount of R & D that went into this mod.
On the cutting edge of technoligy.....
LMAO!
There have been some decent cold air inductions systems fabbed up by owners. Just getting cool air + having a low restriction K&N cone are very beneficial. One guy who used to drag race his regularly, removed his drivers side headlite. I don't know if this was for a ram air intake or just to get more air to the intercooler. Removing the a/c condesor fins in front of the I.C. helps to cool the charge a bunch I hear. I wrapped my I.C. to Throttle body intake hose with header wrap to keep the charge cooled.
An Idea just occured to me that since ram air will get slowed down by every bend before it gets to the air filter, the best way to over come this loss in velocity it to put the air filter actually in the stream of air going down the road. This will force air thru the filter by schere velocity of speed. Then the losses of velocity should be reduced since there will be less collideing of the fast wind against blunt walls. Blunt walls will slow down and reduce ram air by a huge degree. Sound logical ?
I've been working on one for my Cutlass, but now that I have this TGP (and once I get it running) I will transfer everything to the TGP that I have thought about. Since the guy I bought the car off of cut two damn holes in the hood of the Blact TGP, I will use it as the practice hood. I am planning a small ( 6-9" wide and ~8" deep, maybe 2" high) ram air scoop right above the lower 1/2 of the air box (cutlass mind you) I was gonna cut the rear to fit the CAI that I made up so it fit in the channel of the box. Then cut the hole and fab up a kevlar or carbon fiber scoop. and seal it back up, creating a pressurized box. A ram air hood vs. a typical hood scoop is that a ram air hood (on an N/A car anyway) is only good above ~60 MPH where as a scoop will you aerodynamics to create a vortex forcing air backwards into the area under the hood. But a turbo car pulls MORE in, so I would have to think harder about it. We'll see.
The other option I had tossed up in the air was taking my spare hood and building a cowl, and making a vent in the front of the cowl similar to a ram air trans am.
Quote from: maximageI know the cowl induction on the older t/a's worked in a similar fasion. the cowl faced the back of the car, but pulled nice cool air in. Not a ram air, but better than the cone on the turbo.
Actually Max...my 70 T/A had the functional shaker hood scoop. Functional meaning the door in the scoop would open to allow "pressurized" air down into the intake. At the base of the older T/A and Camaro windshields there is actually 15+ pounds of pressure when you are at 45 MPH and above. So when they say cowl or ram air induction on the older cars with more vertical windshields, they actually worked! :shock: This will be on Ripley's believe it or not! :lol: :lol: I have no idea what pressures are there in todays stream-lined cars...but in the olden days they actually worked even though they pointed to the rear of the airflow... 8)
I was thinking more like my cousins 84 Recaro T/A. It's sleeked back like the gp, and when it rains, you can actually watch it pull the raindrops in. Not that thats a good thing, but I'm sure the design could be improved upon.
Sure...but a little water going into the engine wouldn't hurt it. They use alcohol or water spray kits that blast right into the intake stream to cool the charged air and reduce knock in many turbo applications. Plus it will steam clean the inside of the cumbustion chamber!! :lol:
8)
I was just hinking the excess water could soak the air cleaner and cause a loss of breathability.
From my studies and classes, Ram Air is only good once you get into triple digit speeds! For sure a Ram Air is still a CAI and that?s good, just no easy way to do a CAI with the limited space in the front of the TGP. Only 2 streetable and viable options I can suggest are to move battery to the trunk (less weight on the front/traction wheels, oh well) and use that space to build an air box, or the one Pontiac Jeff made a while back that tucks into the lower front area of the driver?s fender well. Non streetable is to pop the headlight out and let a big old K&N hang out the front there, seen that one done for a 13.56 et TGP I worked on. Yes water is a concern, too much and the air filter loads up restricting air flow AT the air filter contact point, specially an air filter with some absorbency which K&N and others have, though the K&N is oil soaked, this oil dries as dust and such collects on it, and a good bath of rain water will flush those impurities into the intake air stream, so good point to avoid the risk of excess water contamination!! Metered control and a supply of clean-filter water/alcohol injection can be a good thing if someone is pushing hard the limits of power making, but this is done when all other typical areas of performance improvements are exhausted. And just to cover my bases, the point I made on Ram Air above comes from David Vizard who is THE guru of engine air flow, he is highly respected in many race series doing Formula 1 and everything else in between. And this also stated by Ken Sperry and Pat Baer of GM MotorSports and Dodge MotorSports. BUT don?t give up trying to find better solutions though!!!
Jeff M
Thanks for the excellent insite Jeff, its good to see you taing some time off from working so hard. You are right about the ram air thing. My intent with it was the latter of your guess. Cold Air Flow. I'm kind of pining at ways to get cold air to the nuclear heated engine compartment. If the TGP winds up being a car I try to push past the 13's, I will definately need this. The goal for the car, depending on if I keep it, is to build a 12 flat street car, also capable of daily commuting. I've done it in numerous imports, and a few domestics, but nothing as odd ball as the TGP. So, any insight you may have including cold air possibilities will be greatly appreciated. Thank You, and keep up the killer tuning work!!!
Very true...triple digit speeds are optimum for "Ram Air". To know what speed needs to be achieved it would need to be figured the bore and stroke of the motor, the actual ID" and length (volume) of the intake system to include the flow capabilities of the heads...blah blah blah. :wink: Where I was going with the reverse facing cowl "intake" systems actually working, is that there is flow that will go into them not have vacuum from a venturi effect because the flow passes over the intake first. There is positive pressure at the base of a windshield that allows rear facing cowls to work without having to make the flow of air work to enter the intake. Me saying that there is 15lbs of pressure at the base of a windshield might have been mis-interpreted that the intake would have 15lbs of sustained positive pressure in it like it was turbo or supercharged. It would be nice it it was that easy!!
Question of the day...what is the speed that must be achieved for "Ram Air" to be effective on a "stock" TGP or TSTE? :shock:
Umm, yea, close enough 8) . As for the speed at which there would be a few psi of extra air pressure from a Ram Air on a TGP, pretty much the same as any car with a Ram Air Hood Scoop, some might need to be taller than others to see gains, or front mount but it all boils down to the fact the TGP stock or chip?d is not even going to see 100mph or more trap speeds so, till that happens, Ram Air looks good, but I like the mean looking hood louvers we got, long as they stay on :)
Jeff M
Trap speed no....but I did always enjoy taking the ricers to the top end of things on the highway to see just how fast they thought they were. Maybe that is why my Tranny cooked so soon after I got it from Waskie!! :lol:
When i was thinking about doing it, i was planning on putting a scoop, box, whatever in or just behind the lower front valance panel and plumb the air to the turbo, it would look stock as long as you are not on you hands and knees, and would force the air up into the turbo.
WOW! Thanks for the input guys.
I know on N/A cars that ram air could do better at high speeds but I've got good gains at just 90 mph. The ram air my brother used on his Taurus SHO droped his 1/4 mile by a second. He had used just a cone filter on the mass ...then a cold air intake..but nothing realy good for gains then whe he went ram air it boosted the funfactor.
I guess size does matter on the ram air. His ram air used a old Mustang 2.3l air silancer cut in halve and used vent tube from a dryer...cool huh. Prob getting like 2psi at just 60mph.
So imagine what 2psi at the inlet of the turbo could do....won't it multiply it to like 6psi more (give or take) the turbo doesn't have to strugle to make....I could be wrong.
But then again any outside fresh air would do good for this engine.
Well I would think the bigger the scoop the more ram air pressure you would have...but then how big is too big that it becomes as aero-dynamic as a brick? 8)