Ok this may be dumb but....
brother in law uses a k&n drop in, in his f150. the other day he got some idea and decided to drill holes in the air box top. keeping the filter in place but to let more air in. would this have any relevance? would it make any sense in our mini's?

i'm eventually going to get around to a cai (k&n typhoon i think) but this just got me thinking/wondering what i'd get on a thread if i asked that

 

hot air

 

Do not do this! You are a MINI owner not a teenage ricer driving a Civic.

 

hot dirty air bypassing the filter panel? iirc, the fresh air comes up from the bottom.

 

So hey seriously... don't do this on a MINI. You'll be banned from NAM.

 

hehehe banning

 

 

ha, i never said i was gonna do it. just wondered what people thought. don't worry.
i haven't got feedback from the f150.
but as he said when he told me he was doing it, he can get another for 20$ if it's a mistake.

 

when the New Mini was new, this was the first intake mod done. This and the Hot Air Intake. You can do a variation of this by making the hole to the cowl area bigger to get more fresh air in that way.

Anyway, modding is about trying things and finding out what works. I'm a big fan of low cost experimentation. Don't let the nay sayers get you down....

Matt

 

There is modding and then there is destroying your car. In r53 enlarging the cowl makes sense. In the r56 drilling holes in the intake box just won't work considering that it gets most of its air from the bottom of the intake box.

 

just buy a cold air intake you will never regret that, and you will love the new sound

 

how can any of those intakes we see being sold be considred a CAI, it's an open pod sitting over and behind the engine!

Hasn't anyone heard of heat soak?

 

Defenders of speed FTW

 

^^^ what he said.

if you don't have the funds right now, just hold out. then you'll have a stock box that you can put back onto the car if you ever need to.

 

The only actual CAI (outside ambient temp)

 

Bigger freakin' holes to the cowl!

Also, read the OP. It says that someone drilled holes in the top of an F150 air box. I personally don't know what side of the filter an F150 gets it's air from, but I'm guessing that wasn't the filtered side of the box.

Also, on the subject of HAIs. I actually instrumented my car and tested the HAI on the R53. With no baffling to keep hot air from the radiator away from the filter, there was NO CHANGE in air density in the engine. And you got improved throttle response. With a baffle to keep the hot radiator air from the filter, (home made Al sheet bent on wood and pop-rivited into place), I got more dense air than stock. All for the price of a K&N filter on the TB and about 2 hours time. It would have been interesting to find out just how well my $35 intake stacked up to the ones that were sold for $100-$200.....



Anyway, I don't think you all should be dumping on someone who's asking a question.

Matt

ps, to the OP, drill the holes in the bottom of the box so that they go back to the cowl and you should see some benefit! the DoS piece is good, but this would be a much cheaper way forward! As you can tell by the photo above, I like hacking stuff !

 

i drilled the airbox in my previous car and it sounded awesome....was quicker too!

 

I didn't want to seem I was dumping on him. I just don't want to see him mess his car up or make a ghetto mod, that is the kinda of stuff you see on low low low end cars that people should not be modding in the first place. And the cowl you speak of is not in the R56. We have and intake hole to the right of the grille when you open the hood which feeds air to the intake box. Also ya the DOS is the only true CAI for the R56 but there are numerous aftermarket intakes out there

 

OP, if you want to experiment, make sure you do not bye pass the filter by drilling on the top filter housing. Drill on the side facing the passenger compartment for colder air and on the lower filter housing only.

 

is in the eye of the beholder, and I don't know of a single car that the owner shouldn't be modding if they want to. As an example, the lowly Geo Metro is a favorite of the hypermilers. Also, one of them with a gutted interior and a hyabusa engine with a chain drive won one of the "24 hours of LeMons" races.

The R53 also has a tube from in front of the radiator that gets cold air and small hole into the cowl area, so the concepts of the two cars aren't that different. My point is that thinking about low cost changes to the 1st gen cars is EXACTLY how lots of the tried and true products that we now think of as the gold standard for the car came to be. Just cause the 2nd gen is newer doesn't mean that the very same path cannot be followed. Also, there is the question of price. Sure we can all go out and buy product X, Y or Z and bolt it up, or have someone else bolt it up for us. We can also figure out how to get most of that benefit, or sometimes even more, for a lot less cash. What's wrong with that? From where I sit, nothing.

Matt

 

Moddifying the stock air box is a very common practice in other car communities. For example, every Audi S4 that leaves my shop.... leaves with a single 3 inch whole drilled in the lower half of the air box.

If anyone wants to donate a stock airbox, I can test gains by modding the stock air box (I own a dyno).

Let me know!

 

I totally agree with this.

 

+1, I think I "swiss cheesed" the airbox on my MK III GTI, sounded pretty mean!

 

Go with it mod it how you want to but, I just don't agree with just randomly drilling holes and adding random household parts on your car. One if you drill the airbox you just voided the warranty on it. Now not saying drilling the intake is illegal but, in you statement people have tried different things to get the R53 where it is today some of those mods can be illegal( ie not CARB or DOT approved). Some of the mods that I can think of that are illegal is using pvc as intake tubing, welding a coffe can on your exhaust, and going as as to remove the exhaust. There is a certain level of pride you should take in your car and redneck, ricer, and numerous other names modding is just not the way to get there. Thats just how I feel about it. I have more respect for someone who makes an educated descion and purchase a product with some kind of R&D or have the technical know how to be able to build their own parts. But good thing we have this forum so that we can share our points of view.

 

HEy bro this is what i say.....U paid for your car so do what you want..BUT ALWAYS THINK before u do.............




*previous owner of an evo DEATH BY HYDROLOCK*