I have been looking at intakes and was studying the stock MCS intake last night and I don't understand where it gets air from. Is there a hose or opening somewhere underneath that I am not seeing? How can a sc engine not have a more open breather than that? I'm baffled, educate me.

 

Welcome to MCO
Somewhere in the "member Minis" section is a picture of the intake and how it works. It may take a while, but if you look throught there you will find this. Good Luck. Or perhaps someone will post it..


His, Chile RED all over, Madness intake, MINI-Motorsport Airbox Mod, Magnaflow Exhaust, BMP spark plug wires, RDR rear sway bar and Helix P/D 15% reduction pulley.
Hers, EB UJ on top and BONE stock

 

Look at the very front, just behind the grill, just right of center. If memory serves, it's about three inches wide, oval in shape.

 

MINI2.COM has a great explanation in the FOQ's regarding intake systems on the MCS. You'll find it at: http://www.mini2.com/forum/thread28817_.html

Happy Motoring :smile: :smile: :smile:

Charlie

 

Ah ha, thank you very much. It all makes sense now.

 

One more questionif you don't mind. Do the aftermarket intakes (Pilo, Mini Mania, etc) use the air intake pipe that goes to the grill or are they just pulling air from under the hood? Thanks again for the education.

 

The Alta, MINI Mania, Pilo, Pipercross and Rogue/Madness intakes come with a heat shield which seals with the lower portion of the stock air box and underside of the hood to form a cold air box. Outside air is still taken in through the duct in the the front grille and passed into the lower portion of the stock air box.

The other intakes are exposed to underhood heat to one degree or another.

 

OK. I've been studying these for a long time...don't yet have one, but I'm just about done with break-in!

I don't understand the vestigial grill intake that remains after putting in a Cold Air Intake. All of the air is drawn in through the driver's side windshield vent, so why on earth would you even need the tubing from the original air box??? I've never seen an adequate response to this.

 

whats the small bump-out and downtube near the beginning of the intake path on the driver's side (US) of the intake for? It's unmarked on the MINI2 diagram.

 

>>I don't understand the vestigial grill intake that remains after putting in a Cold Air Intake. All of the air is drawn in through the driver's side windshield vent, so why on earth would you even need the tubing from the original air box??? I've never seen an adequate response to this.
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>>
You'll notice in the following air flow diagram, there is no air shown flowing from the cowl area:



The following picture is what you have when you remove the top portion of the stock air box in preparation to install an after market intake:



The hole that let's in air from the cowl is not very large in diameter, so unless you're installing the Alta intake (which requires removing the bulkhead between the engine bay and cowl area) or going to install one of the other heat shielded intakes and drill holes in the bulkhead, your main source of air is still going to be that routed though the grill and into the remaining portion of the stock air box.

The following Pipercross Viper intake eliminates the stock grill snorkel and takes air solely from the cowl area:



I'm interested in seeing this tested for performance gains against the other intakes. I'd be surprised if the numbers are as good as the other heat shielded intakes.

 

That helped somewhat, but my question remains: assuming I use a Rogue style intake, and assuming I go ahead and drill holes in the bulkhead, why not just remove and/or seal off the grill-area intake? Wouldn't that be the "coldest" option?

 

>>whats the small bump-out and downtube near the beginning of the intake path on the driver's side (US) of the intake for? It's unmarked on the MINI2 diagram.

Click here for a possible answer.

 

>>That helped somewhat, but my question remains: assuming I use a Rogue style intake, and assuming I go ahead and drill holes in the bulkhead, why not just remove and/or seal off the grill-area intake? Wouldn't that be the "coldest" option?

I think if raming air into the box from behind would have provided better performance than from the front, the engineers would have designed the car that way.

Also, I would think air from two sources is better than from one source.

 

>>>>whats the small bump-out and downtube near the beginning of the intake path on the driver's side (US) of the intake for? It's unmarked on the MINI2 diagram.
>>
>>Click here for a possible answer.
>>

from the site:
Helmholz Resonator
A device comprised of a volume of air and an opening to the "outside." The internal volume of a speaker cabinet and its port is an example of a Helmholz Resonator. A bottle is another example. Blowing air across the opening will produce a tone because of the air resonating, and the pitch of the tone will be related to the resonant frequency of the volume. In a vented (ported) speaker enclosure the back wave of air from the driver is used to reinforce the front wave at the resonant frequency. This phenomenon is commonly employed to extend the low frequency range of the speaker/enclosure system.

Helmholz Resonators are also employed in acoustics. Enclosing a volume of air (in a box, for example) while allowing limited access to the outside through a series of holes or slits in the surface can create a resonant system that will absorb (or, more accurately, cancel) standing waves and problem frequencies that may be too prominent in a room. If you have one or two frequencies that are too strong in your room a Helmholz Resonator is a very effective way of correcting it.

I understand that - a tuned port for sound, doubt if it helps the performance much, unless they've figured out how to time wave fronts. Maybe it needs to go??

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All that stuff about resonance is related to the little off-shoot just to the left of the initial airflow. What I want to know is: wouldn't the coldest air be the stuff that comes straight in from the outside? So I still would like an answer...Randy would be nice, but anyone will do. Would it be possible to simply avoid the grill-area ram air intake, and only bring in air from the driver's side under-the-wiper intake utilizing the holey wall method?

 

As I said in a previous post:

Seems to me some sort of scoop on top of the vent would be required to effectively ram in the air.

 

I just replaced my factory intake with an alta, the factory box is very restrictive. I had pushed my car in 5th gear before the box mod but never hit the rev limiter. Now it screams to red line. Music to the ears.
:smile:

 

>>Seems to me some sort of scoop on top of the vent would be required to effectively ram in the air.

I totally understand what you're saying, but if that is the case, then why is everyone running out and buying these "Cold Air Intakes" that more fully utilize the windshield vent? Why is everyone so in love with "Randy's Airbox Mod" in which even more access is made to the windshield vent?

I would like to see more people chiming in on this.

 

The alta system utilizes the bottom half from the factory air box, it inhales thru the grill and from the back of the expanded box. The end result is a bigger box with more airflow and capacity. I have made similar modifications to the air box on my aprilia motorcycle. I noticed my mcs reves freer and faster, I can feel a small gain in torqe and hp on the mid range and up. I would recomend opening that sucker up as soon as you can, begin to enjoy the sweet melody your super charger makes. I love my mcs.

 

Just to keep the discussion alive:

I'm adding a K&N drop-in filter and I'm thinking about opening up the hole in my stock airbox a la Thumper's airbox mod while I've got the box open:

Lightning Speed...and + 3 MPG !!!

I'm thinking that I may be able to get gains out of the stock airbox similar to all of the CAIs, especially if I were to put some heat shielding on/in the factory box.

Any thoughts?

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Having just inspected my stock MCS intake, I would like to bump this thread and get an answer to Chitown's question.

 

If I don't get an answer soon this thread is gonna get moved to Off Topic :: Politics.

 

I am also curious what the answer to chitown coop's question is. I ordered the Alta w/ black hose earlier this week and recieved it today and will be installing it in about an hours time and will report back later if I can shed any light on this.

 

>>
>>>>Seems to me some sort of scoop on top of the vent would be required to effectively ram in the air.
>>
>>I totally understand what you're saying, but if that is the case, then why is everyone running out and buying these "Cold Air Intakes" that more fully utilize the windshield vent? Why is everyone so in love with "Randy's Airbox Mod" in which even more access is made to the windshield vent?

Here is the info you need. After talking to helix on this topic in the past this is as close to "reality" as I can share with you. The air from the cowl or windshield vent is not helping air intake flow so don't count on it doing much in an active sense. In fact if you check pressure you may find that it is either not helping or even doing things you don't want.

So where is the air coming from? It's coming from the front of the MINI at the bonnet grille then hooking around in the snorkel then down and is pushing air into the stock lower portion of the airbox. Any air intake kit that keeps this bottom portion of the stock airbox is keeping the good cooler air caught from the front of the MINI as it goes.

Vendors are making claims that the true cold air intakes which rely mostly on air coming from the cowl windshield area works better but we really need a head to head comparison to verify claims. The Webb airbox mod with drilled holes, although it lets in some additional SC sound may not be as good as thought earlier. Airflow back in the cowl area is just not very helpful for air intake in a meaningful way. Lets see some evidence that it really helps!

So what does that leave us? Any air intake that uses air flow from the front of the MINI is likely to work OK. The more closed off the airbox is from engine heat the better. Any air from the cowl area is not likely to be a great factor although the supercharger sound is quite nice from the driver's area when the rear engine wall area is opening up by the alta intake box or by drilling a bunch of 2" holes.

I hope this addresses your question. If not PM me or talk to Eric at Helix13.

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Aloha

 

Somehow I missed this origionally but what I want to know is how would sealing up the front grill increase air flow? Let's see.... when we go forward, we are forcing ourselves into the wind and if there is a hole in the front (like the hood scoop or the grill or the air intake behind the grill for the airbox) air is forced into it. This is fresh outside air that is presumably cold. (or at least as cold as it's gonna get without cooling it by some other means.) Now the mini's system takes the air in from the grill, routes it to the bottom of the airbox (don't these engineers know heat rises?) the air then goes through the paper filter and up and then back down into the throttle body. This is the part of the MINI's system that most intakes change.

Now, the K&N intake (the one I have so I can comment on it) takes the air from the grill and instead of routing it to the bottom, directs the air straight back into where the airbox was. The top is removed and a heat shield is added to the engine side. Inside the new airbox is a K&N cone filter that goes right down to the throttle body.

Opening up the back of the airbox may help some but I can't imagine a better source of fresh could air would be the front of the engine.