I thought I would bring this up again and let the Internet experts debate it. I have had the Moss cowl scoops on for some time. I just switched to some VIS CF ones. I got them just because I like the way they look.

The general consciences is that they can not work to ram more air down the cowl opening because the area under the window is a low pressure zone. The other general idea is that they would work better with the opening pointed towards the window.

Well, that all sounded right in my head but like I said I liked the way they looked so I put them on my car anyway. Now I'm starting to think the other way that they do work and here is why. I took the Moss scoops off and put the new one's on. I sold the old one's and was cleaning then to ship today. What did I find smashed inside the back of the scoops? Bugs and a lot of them. See here in So Cal we have gotten a lot of rain which brought green vegetation, which brought bugs. One drive down the toll road by the house and the window is peppered. The inside of the scoops were clean before I drove to AMVIV and now they are full of splatted bugs.

So..... If there is a negative pressure zone around the cowl's how did my little friend commit suicide in there????

Longboard

 

I think the bugs liked your Mini SO much they just wanted to get a closer look at it.

 

that's an interesting observation. I always assumed they did nothing (doesn't matter because they look cool enough to rock em either way). Mind taping some string to them and seeing what's going on?

 

I was thinking about that. I thought some one did this long ago.

I'm not going to do any testing. I have a bunch of dead little friends that gave their life all ready for the cause.

Longboard

 

so they will go on thier little ballistic trajectory and give their all against whatever they hit.

The real test is to hook up a pressure tranducer to the air box and see what happens to the pressure there at constant speed and engine load.

Matt

 

or just tape some yarn or string around the opening and duct tape your Sony Camcorder to the hood and go for a spin.

 

If it helps by any chance; check this

 

Yes, that might help, thanks MiNi Mac. Very interesting indeed and confirms what SpiderX reported a few years ago (I think it was he who did some air velocity measurements for the airbox.)
I know I sound like a broken record, but I'll say it again: where's the evidence that the Mini is short of air? When people get a Jan/RMW tune they put bigger injectors in, not bigger air intakes--evidence I argue that says the Mini runs out of gas before running out of gas (pun).
All my temperature measurements in, and around, the airbox tell me the airbox air temperature, pressure or volume is NOT the problem, or limiting factor here.
Buy the cowl scoops for the bling factor, no worries. But I doubt they are helping, or hindering, the air going through your air filter!

 

That is some cool stuff.

LB

 

8m/s = 18mph?

 

8 meter per sec. = 26.248 ft. per sec i believe

 

that's the easy part. 1m = 3.3ft. 3.3 x 60 sec x 60 minutes / 5280ft = 18mph

pressure zones at 18mph don't have much bearing on pressure zones at 81mph. I know I don't drive 18mph on purpose.....it's always faster than that

 

btw lb i think these look pretty dope on your car either way. so cheers to that. nice mod.

 

I agree completely good Dr.

My point was to point out my little observation and de-BUG the original idea that air doesnt go in them.

I just think they look cool.

Longboard

 

Thanks,

LB

 

Its the ROTEX ! That sucker is sucking in soooo much air thats it drawing from every/any place possible. I bet if you covered up the vents your hood would collapse inwards .

Care full you don't get sucked in that wouldn't bode well for RMW .

 

That was great! I love it . I really needed that.

Bryan

 

Haven't you noticed when your on the Dyno, Jan always seems to stand further back.

 

How did these scoops, or any scoops, effect the sound of an aftermarket intake? I get a whistle at certain part throttles and would be tempted to do this upgrade if the sound heard through the cowl vents was reduced.

 

I've never hit a cowl, so I never saw the need to get a scoop for one.

 

You all are missing the first and irrefutable proof of why the a$$ end of the car is always dirty:

 

I think there probably is flow into those cowl scoops. Even if the pressure at the base of the windshield is "negative" compared to further up, it may still be positive with respect to underhood.

Also, when I had the HAI with the back partition in place, the filter got dirty only on the front. Now that I've removed the back partition and put baffling in place to direct air towards the HAI, the filter gets dirty on both sides. And this is with only the regular cowl vent, not a cowl scoop.

 

Yea, unfortunately you either need to figure out a way to redirect air down the hatch from the roofline or dramatically improve underside aerodynamics.

 

That was really funny, Bart!
As for telltale dirt, I have 3 "sources" of air for my airbox: the OEM duct from the front grille, the cowl and my FAD. Of course the dirtiest area of the filter corresponds to the FAD location--duh, that's a whole bunch of scoop air getting forced into the airbox with max pressure. The second dirtiest is the cowl end, and ... wait for it, no dirt from the OEM duct source.

Oh well...

 

I bought my scoops for the look