Forced Air

[mattyg92]

has anyone installed the diffuser forced air that replaces the front license plate?

did it work? is it hard to do?

 

[vetteboy86]

I was thinking about this mod, in fact i almost did it. I eventually put in what Mid America calls Vortex Ram Air. I compared the two and i decided not to change the front clip on my car. To do the Ram Air all you do is modify your fan shroud, which is hidden from the naked eye. Then the air filter intalls in front of the radiator, and intern the bottom spoiler on the car forces air up into the new location of the air filter. After i installed it I noticed a difference at higher speeds, which is where i wanted more power. Off the line my car was fast, but after 60 it didn't pull as hard. For the Money i think the Ram Air was worth it. But whatever you feel comfortable doing with your car.


Good luck

 

[Skant]

A friend of mine has won all sorts of club racing and autocrossing awards, and his car has the intake that replaces the license plate. According to him, it's expensive... it's difficult to install... but it's better. And it does work. Clearly it is the best design for performance... short, wide, direct, and right in the air flow.

There are other things you could do to get horse power for the money... but they'd bump the car into a higher class.


Btw... the MidAmerica catalog rather understates the work that must be done to install this thing. Cutting the crash bar and welding and other such work is needed. To have a good shop do it, you're talking about somewhere in the vicinity of a grand for this system all told.

- Skant

 

[tlong]

Ram Charging

I would think cutting the shroud and diverting critical cooling circulation to the intake would raise the temp on an already warm running system.

The ram air positive pressure starts at 45 mph and produces 5-10 horses. It may help a bit. A guy at Bowling Green 50th plowed his nose through standing water with that license plate intake. Icarus flew too near the sun. New motor for him. There is a serious risk/expense/reward situation on this mod.

 

[Moonunit 451]

A guy at Bowling Green 50th plowed his nose through standing water with that license plate intake. Icarus flew too near the sun. New motor for him. There is a serious risk/expense/reward situation on this mod.

First I've heard of anything like this. Any discussion on this issue that I've read hasn't discussed standing water, but I guess that would be something to consider.

That's the kind of thing that would be almost impossible to avoid in some circumstances. I may have to reconsider, might be a mod for a for a fair weather climate or a garage queen.

There are a few people up here in the rainy NW that have these and have never had problems even in the heaviest rain, Hmm, how fast was this guy going and how much water :confused

 

[mattyg92]

Well the main reason i was thinking of doing this is because i need to get my nose repainted and the "corvette" license plate is damaged and needs replacement, so i fiqure why not install this? i do not drive it in bad weather, and the vehicle gets about 3k miles max per year.

thanks for all the suggestions, i will think about it but i found a web site where it is 100.00 less than the other corvette stores

 

[Moonunit 451]

Well, don't keep It to yourself man, POST IT!

 

[mattyg92]

http://www.lingenfelter.com/lingenfelter/product.asp?dept%5Fid=16&pf%5Fid=52

 

[Moonunit 451]

Thanks. That is within $1 of the other two places I have looked recently. You missd it I just sold one that would have worked and looked good on your car for under $300. I didn't realize it was for the later models when I got it from another forum member or it would be in my car right now rather than sitting in a box waiting for a check to clear :cry

 

[Red 90 L98 Coupe]

A guy at Bowling Green 50th plowed his nose through standing water with that license plate intake. Icarus flew too near the sun. New motor for him. There is a serious risk/expense/reward situation on this mod.

The question I would be asking is how much water he went through. I have had the forced air intake on my car for over a year and have been caught in numerous heavy rainstorms in my car, many at highway speeds where I have had no choice but to sit behind a car at 60-ish mph copping their spray - so far no problems (touch wood) . I have no doubt there is a risk of engine damage if enough water is ingested but I would think the biggest risk would be from passing cars splashing water across your car as they drive past in deep puddles (I have had one very close call this way).

I can't provide any quantifiable performance data that says this system will improve engine power but I think it has to help contribute something given that it forces cooler air into the engine via the most direct route (as mentioned earlier).

Keep your eye out for second hand systems - I bought mine for a significant saving by buying used. Installing it is a major job in my opinion, not long after I started cutting (of which there is a fair amount) I found myself asking the question "Do I really want to be doing this?" I have no regrets since I got it fully installed though.

 

[tlong]

Submarine

The car with the diffuser plowed into a very deep puddle on the entrance to a motel. The angle of attack put the nose at the water level and hydro-locked the cylinders because of the straight into the plenum set up. The low visibility and cocktails undoubtedly helped the wrong decision to 'go for it'.

I guess you're OK in plain rain, but it can happen under circumstances such as these. I don't see it as such a huge surprise with that intake in place. A cut shroud Vortex is susceptible as well.

I thought nobody drove these in the rain anyway.

 

[Ken]

Tim, did you see the April issue of Corvette Fever magazine? It has an article on my friend Alex Kawana, aka "U-Boat Commander", who did just that with his C5 - he submerged his front end and ruined the engine shortly after he got the Corvette.

 

[mattyg92]

well i just ordered it from lingenfelter on line


my car hardly ever goes in the rain so i should be ok
i figured if i did get caught in a rain storm, i would diconnect the one part of the air box.

if you guys want i can take pictures of the install

 

[garycr14]

Forced Air Induction

I have installed the forced air induction on my "94". I seems to work good, but I have yet to really give it a go as my tranny was giving me some problems. The car should be back for the shop tomorrow, so with everything working well, I should be able to tell you what I think. The installation was not very difficult, but very unnerving. First off you will have to cut a rather large hole were the license plate goes. There is styrafoam under the plastic bumper. You will have to cut the cross member at the top of the bumper, get out the sawsall, but be very careful. I have not had the crossmember rewelded, but I plan on doing so for support. After everything was cut, it was almost impossible to hook the air cleaner to the ducting by myself, so I had my son-in-law come over to help, I would suggest you plan on having someone available to help. I found it easier to partially lower the hood when connecting. Once it was all in, it looked good, but you can definatly hear the air being sucked in. Sounds cool to me.

Short of a monsoon, the rain shouldn't hurt you, but be very careful about flooded areas, remember water does not compress, thus you will break your rods, pistons, or whatever else gets in the way.

Good Luck

 

[garycr14]

Ram Intake

I would think cutting the shroud and diverting critical cooling circulation to the intake would raise the temp on an already warm running system.

The ram air positive pressure starts at 45 mph and produces 5-10 horses. It may help a bit. A guy at Bowling Green 50th plowed his nose through standing water with that license plate intake. Icarus flew too near the sun. New motor for him. There is a serious risk/expense/reward situation on this mod.

You do not cut the air shroud at all. If you notice the air dam for the radiator is below the license plate, under the bumper, so it does not effect airflow at all.

 

[Red 90 L98 Coupe]

The car with the diffuser plowed into a very deep puddle on the entrance to a motel. The angle of attack put the nose at the water level and hydro-locked the cylinders because of the straight into the plenum set up. The low visibility and cocktails undoubtedly helped the wrong decision to 'go for it'.

I guess you're OK in plain rain, but it can happen under circumstances such as these. I don't see it as such a huge surprise with that intake in place. A cut shroud Vortex is susceptible as well.

No arguements here. Like all mods, there is a downside and with cold air setups you better hope you don't hydrolock your motor in extreme weather or freakish circumstances.

I thought nobody drove these in the rain anyway.

I hate driving my car in the rain but you wouldn't believe some of the doozies I have been caught in. The chance of getting caught in rain seems to be proportionate to the amount of cleaning effort you have put in on your car...

 

[CKA_Racing]

First I've heard of anything like this. Any discussion on this issue that I've read hasn't discussed standing water, but I guess that would be something to consider.

That's the kind of thing that would be almost impossible to avoid in some circumstances. I may have to reconsider, might be a mod for a for a fair weather climate or a garage queen.

There are a few people up here in the rainy NW that have these and have never had problems even in the heaviest rain, Hmm, how fast was this guy going and how much water :confused

Are you kidding? Our C4, C5 vettes don't do to well in stock condition going thru deep water that most others cars can make it thru. If you add a big hole in the front license plate section you are obviously making it worse. Even the systems the that require cutting the shroud will allow water to be sucked in.
I don't need to read about it in some post to understand what could potentially happen. The back country roads in my area are really dark, no street lights. The roads flood bad in lots of areas. You can not see the standing water. Can you imagine driving thru if you are not familiar with the roads and hit deep standing water. These are the sort of potential problems you may run into. If your vette is a garage queen, track car or never gets driven in storms or soon after they pass, you may never have an issue.

 

[mattyg92]

Mine is mainly a garage queen, sorry

i do drive it and put about 4k miles a year on it but if it looks like rain, it stays in!!

 

[Skant]

He killed it by getting into a 'puddle' that was deep enough to submerge the _BUMPER_?

Any vette will get wrecked by puddles that deep... if not by water ingestion into the engine, then by flooding water into the differentials (which have open breathers!) and other vital areas. It's a sports car, not a 4x4. There's no part of this car which is happy to be submerged.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a condition that will kill a car with one of these air intake modifications that wouldn't also kill a stock car.

Prior to this thread, I had often heard of worries that rain might be a problem for these intakes... but have never ever heard from anyone of it ever actually happening. Now I've heard of it happening, but the conditions as described were frankly reduciluous to be driving a low slung sports car in.


Also... V8's are pretty tough in general, and they _can_ survive hydrolock even if it happens. I've hydrolocked a V8 before (not the vette... it was a K5 Blazer in nearly 5 feet of water... where the deepest water it could safely wade through was about 3-4 feet deep.. I misjudged the depth), and it didn't hurt it one bit. Doesn't mean it will always survive, but hydrolock isn't necessarily death of the engine even if it did happen... which it won't unless you're driving in conditions that a vette really shouldn't be driven in in the first place.

- Skant

 

[garycr14]

A little water

Back in the old carberator days, we use to clean the carbon off of the valves by dripping water from a garden hose down the carb barrel. Durring a rain, or evan a storm, I doubt that enough water could be ingested through the openning, through the air cleaner, up the ducting, and all the way into the engine. You would have to drive it into a knee deep pond to have a hydro-lock problem. Tje biggest problem I have had is that the air filter needs to be changed more often.

Just my opinion.