Installed an ALTA CAI in my R53. Swwweeeeeeet !

Seems I don't listen to my stereo as much now.....

Anyways I was wondering what to do with the OEM Front Fresh Air Intake opening and didn't want to leave it as is. So I fabricated a diverter out of thin sheet aluminum, shaped it to take the air and send it in the direction of the Intercooler.

Painted it and the opening and secured it with pop rivets. Filed the rivets flush.....done deal. Not sure just how effective it is, but it certainly looks better than it was...

Motor safe.

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Doesn't the ALTA cai use the stock front feed?

 

Mine does, also the bonnet grill.

 

Interesting Do you have a pic alittle further back?

 

No. You remove the firewall piece and it gets air thru the cowl near the windshield base on divers side

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Thats what I meant I just called it the wrong thing

 

The bottom portion of the stock intake uses the plastic tubing that directs fresh air from the front air intake. The Alta CAI uses the bottom portion of the stock intake to achieve the same effect. You weren't supposed to remove the tubing...but to each his own I guess...

 

Thinking the same thing. But that is some nice looking fab work O.P.

 

Yeah did you block the lower front feed off or is it sucking in warm engine bay air?

The red diverter is flashy!

Jeremy

 

uh...............uh................uh.....this intake is below the sealed off ic intake area, right?

if you increase the pressure underneath the ic, it will reduce the presssure difference between the top of the ic and the bottom of the ic, thus reducing the airflow flow through the ic.

for your gizmo to help, you'd have to be sure that the aiflow through the gap under the ic was actually fast enough to suck air through the ic. you can't do this.......

look at it another way: if you had the ic sitting out in the air with the same airflow over the top and over the bottom, no air would flow through the fins.

 

I'd put the front air duct back on... Why not maximize the amount of fresh air to the airbox? You have the rear cowl area open, but you've closed off the duct from the front of the car, which is receiving rammed fresh air (tests showed there was positive airflow above 45mph in that duct.)

 

Yes, use the front fresh air intake for it's intended purpose instead of effectively reducing the efficiency of the IC.

That red thingie does look flashy though

 

The MINI is my only transportation right now. And being here in colderrrrrr climates ( gets below 0 during winter ) I wanted the abiltiy to vent some warmer air into the CAI during winter months. So I plug it up for summer time months, and will open it up in winter time and let in some warmer air from the manifold. Should help with gas mileage that way by allowing the engine to warm up faster.

That tube gets pretty hot when running for a while in summer, and would make sense that it must also to some degree warm the air as well....

I'll give this a try for a while and see what my numbers are this winter with MPG. Establish a base line once we are on winter fuel and abient temps run constant for a few weeks, and tire pressures/temps even themselves out.

 

Good idea, and good to know.

But given that the ALTA CAI can litterly "suck the paint off my hood" at high speeds, I am not sure it actually benefits all that much positive air flow at high speeds..

I'll be getting a set of cowl scoops though, would like to get as much air in as possible down inside ALTA's box from above. Sort of like the Ram induction scoops on the old Pont Trans AM's...

 

But what about the hole in the lower potion of the stock box, what did you do to that?