Alta Intake tube... Is it worth it? I was debating on getting it... I know it is smoother and bigger piping but that doesnt necessarily mean its better... Any dyno proof? I have some ideas on cheap performance improvements but want to see if the alta is worth it...

 

I dont think it makes a difference. I like the way it looks though. thats why I got it.

 

Alta has a graph on their site showing gains of 7whp/5ftlb when the hose is added to their cold air intake. How much can you gain with stock intake box and the Alta hose? 1-3 whp max...maybe 4 if you have a cat back exhaust.

Will your butt duno sense 2ish whp? Eh, probably not. You will hear the intake more which will fool your ear dyno into thinking you made more power.

Is it worth $95? Heck yea. Besides, $95 is cheap for 2ish whp.

 

Agreed - it's not a big (if any) power gainer - but it DOES increase SC sound, and it looks great IMHO.

 

I would like a REAL dyno by someone outside of the company because(no offense) but it looks like my little brother made that dyno graph on MS paint...

 

Geez, Myke, don't go telling people the truth... Oy vey, you can't be trusted with the secrets anymore.
If that tube created anything, it's popodyno HP, that's all.

 

No offense taken, and I normally usually don't trust a mfg to give the full scoop on a dyno of a part, but then again, you're going to be hard pressed to find an independent person willing and able to produce a dyno chart for just a $95 part. Most only take their cars to dynos after installing a multitude of pieces...

 

+1

I just bought the Alta CAI with tube last week, NOT because I thought I would gain power but because I think it looks cool and wanted to try an alternative to the DDM CAI I have now

 

Haha, sorry, but I learned something working for RPI, never trust companies HP claims without proof from a 3rd party or a dyno that can be verified as true... even on a dynojet things can get fishy, you can slip the clutch to build boost (Turbo cars) and you will see a gain throughout the hp range... They key to a great setup is dyno and test then adjust... It is very important in my philosophy of tuning a car because i have seen exhausts alone loose massive hp (20+whp) over stock as well as intakes(15-20whp)... It may sound better, but performance is lossed in it and it is useless... I am thinking of trying different intake methods from what I have Learned at RPI because I have yet to see a decent intake (hp wise) from this car and i feel there are ways of improvement... (the cowl is a low pressure area, and is not the best place for an intake because of that, the stock system would be better if the tube was put lower near the grill and keeping the stock box as it isgoing to act as a ram air intake with ambient air forcing itself through the system and pressurizing the box... if done i would expect 10whp on a conservative dyno at 70mph...maybe put on foil tape on the intake system piping and box to keep temperatures down...

 

Good luck engineering an intake that'll perform like a true cold air/ram air intake. I think Webb had one called the RAF intake, but if I remember correctly, the thread about it died a slow death... I currently have the Webb/DDM intake, and would love to see someone come up with a way to feed it colder air, but in our tight little engine bays, I don't think it's going to be possible. Hopefully someone will prove me wrong though

 

Cool! Go for it!

Let us know when you hit a puddle and hydrolock. That will be exciting.

(people do it already with the existing partially-protected snorkel... so be careful)...

 

LOL, I realize that and that is one of the problems I am trying to address... I have other ideas too that will work, how well, im not sure yet... like i say I will dyno and test, dyno and retest... I am just looking on improving what I already have... Same thing with my exhaust...

 

I think sufficient work has been done by the 250-300HP gang to show that our engines are NOT starved of air in normal circumstances, and cowl induction seems to work well enough... folks have shown that the stock and JCW intakes can maintain internal airbox temps at or quite close to ambient... so I'm not convinced that lack of "cold" air is a limiting factor here.... at least not with the sealed airboxes. With the sheet metal airboxes, well, yeah, then you may be sucking engine bay air into an enclosure that easily heat soaks...

 

BTW - the Dinan is a FINE intake, IMHO.

 

I had my DDM intake with stock tube for a while. I then bought an Alta tube here on NAM. The louder sound from the SC was noticable and very nice.

 

All I know is from driving around town, I've taken cleaner to my airbox, and as soon as I spray it on, it evaporates... I can only imagine what my intake temp is... I have noticed that any outside temp 50 degrees or lower, I'm back up to 15 PSI...anything over that and my boost drops to like 12.5-13 PSI...

 

no it is, Thats why I havent gotten rid of it... Im not gunna either its actually made well... as well as stockk and jcw... just wanted a ram air system... I would only be tinkering with the stock system...

 

sheet metal airbox.... tight little engine bay.... lots of things that make heat.... I wonder why the airbox is hot?

This is why many of us have ditched the sheet metal "CAI" systems for ones that do a better job creating an insulated, isolated airbox... versus sheet metal ovens where we can install our air filters...

 

But is there any hard evidence that these "plastic/composit" intakes are better than sheet metal ones? Curious... If so, I'm gonna be pissed as I sold my stock one...

 

ABS plastic thermal conductivity, 0.17 W/(m*K)
Stainless steel thermal conductivity, 12.11 ~ 45.0 W/(m*K) Range is due to the multitude of steels available.
Aluminum, 200 W/(m*K)

The lower the number, the better it insulates.

 

I guess that depends on what kind of "hard evidence" you're looking for. Most of the RMW cars making 250+ HP are using non-sheet-metal intakes. The only people who seem to be complaining about intake temps are running sheet metal intakes.... I know DrPhil has gathered a bunch of data and ended up building his own double-wall intake and ram-air type duct... but I don't know how much data he gathered on JCW/Dinan/stock type boxes vs. single-wall sheet metal boxes...

 

No, I don't have data on the stock/JCW/Dinan boxes, although PARTSMAN has measured temps using his Dinan box and they are very close to ambient. And yes, I have built a forced fresh air duct system for my double-walled box--the fresh coming from the bonnet scoop (which is 4x the stock scoop in open area, taking advantage of the IC being off-center.) I have logged thousands of temperature readings, and only under extreme stop-go traffic conditions is airbox temperature a real problem. As said above, air is not really the biggest problem a MCS owner faces--witness RMW cars getting 250whp with the stock IC. Fuel ends up being the big problem--or lack thereof--an why people go to 440 and bigger injectors with aftermarket heads.

 

Hmm, The plastic gets kinda hot IMO after some driving out here in cali... Maybe I will try just reflective insulated tape and not take it farther than that... even though I do wanna try to make a true ram air intake system

 

The plastic certainly gets hot... the question is, how efficiently does it actually transfer heat into the interior of the box from the outside? The much lower thermal conductivity of the plastic material would allow the outside surface of the box to be significantly hotter than the inside surface - with the material slowly transferring exterior heat to the inside of the box, where it then heats the air (or the air cools the surface, depending on whether you are the box or the air ). Versus sheetmetal, which basically acts like a heat sink, channeling heat from the outside of the box to the inside wall (and air) very efficiently. In this case, efficient=bad.

 

i have felt the inside and it is hotter than ambient by like 20 degrees...