ecoboostsho
New member
Thanks. I will give that a shot as I do have some small gaps to fix. The cover flexes quite a bit as well which helps but it isn't perfect.dalum said:
Sealing Airaid Intake
- Thread starter boostedflex
- Start date
After much trial and error I decided that I am done with the K&N typhoon. I loved the sound but it hurt performance so out it came. I got a really good deal on a new Airaid intake. With some of the positive results on here I decided why not. I installed the intake and excited I took it for a drive. I was immediately disappointed, IATs were even higher than the K&N? WTF?? And even worse was that when you got on the throttle IAT went even higher? Again WTF?? So pull the car back into the garage and wanting to take a hammer to the intake I decided to check the seal to the hood with some chalk. Wow it barely touched in 3 locations with major gaps in between. Ok that is a real problem. I had some weather so stripping left over from another project and I did this.
All I can say is damn what a difference, I know it looks a bit ghetto but I will look for a permanent solution. I know where Airaid was going with the design and it's solid. The weather stripping on the hood from the factory does a great job of sealing the front of the box. But the back was horrid. With this setup the Intake temps were pretty much 1 degree above ambient and didn't climb much when stopped. Maybe 2 or 3 above ambient. The kicker is when I went to WOT IAT dropped like a stone to ambient and the car pulled way better. Dare I say even better than the stock intake. I hope to get out to the track to do some testing this weekend and see what happens, but I would be really surprised if the Airaid doesn't run faster than the stock intake.
Btw did I mention that I have a K&N typhoon for sale?
All I can say is damn what a difference, I know it looks a bit ghetto but I will look for a permanent solution. I know where Airaid was going with the design and it's solid. The weather stripping on the hood from the factory does a great job of sealing the front of the box. But the back was horrid. With this setup the Intake temps were pretty much 1 degree above ambient and didn't climb much when stopped. Maybe 2 or 3 above ambient. The kicker is when I went to WOT IAT dropped like a stone to ambient and the car pulled way better. Dare I say even better than the stock intake. I hope to get out to the track to do some testing this weekend and see what happens, but I would be really surprised if the Airaid doesn't run faster than the stock intake.
Btw did I mention that I have a K&N typhoon for sale?
I really think it is that simple, I can't stress enough the difference before and after. It's 29C here today. Before I added the weather stripping on top of the one that came with the intake IAT was at cruising 40C when I stepped on it it went to 50C???? That's a difference of 20C (that's over 120F). After I added the foam it dropped to ambient at WOT. The math doesn't get any easier that that.
ecoboostsho
New member
Doh...they have taller weather stripping? I'm starting to feel dumb for not asking...oh well at least my cover should look nice.
Wilson said:
When I get it I'll be sure to post my results. The track will be the ultimate test. I am going to do the same as I did with the K&N. However just driving around today I can see that with the additional height performance is a lot different. It really pulls harder, it's a holiday on Monday and there is a few of us heading to the track. I'll bring both stock and modified Airaid and take it from there.
FoMoCoSHO said:
Like pretty much all CAI's it was tested on a dyno with the hood open. The data logging and such we do here could be considered a bit OCD lol. The design was sound but the delivery was missing a crucial piece. I do agree these CAIs should be road tested by the manufacture to ensure that stuff like this doesn't happen. If they backed up the dyno number with some road data logging, this would sell a lot more CAIs for sure.
kinder said:I think the cover setup is a more professional and secure design. Weather stripping is a good quick fix but not a permeable one I bet.
IMO.
The cover is a better solution for sure, most of the higher end intakes are sealed with some type of window to see the filter. I did purchase some plexi to make a cover, however this may prove to be more difficult than I thought. On the SHO the filter is taller than the box at the front of the unit. I will play around with it and see what happens. But if the new taller blade weather stripping works then bonus.
Some great ideas! Short term I took the weather stripping off my K&N and put it on the Airaid . The K&N uses a flatter top design to it's weather stripping. Which allowed easier placement of the foam that I placed on top of that. I have to admit in person it doesn't look all that bad. I wish it was black however it was the only one I could find that expanded to 1 inch. This stuff is more like memory foam and is designed for high heat applications. One step at a time eh?
The difference in this simple mod is crazy, IAT is dramatically reduced the biggest change is when heat soak sets in. I parked the car today and it sat for about an hour. Got back into it and IAT was reading 57C (135F) ambient was 26C (78F). As I left the parking lot IAT started to drop right away. I had to step on it to get into traffic. IAT went from just over 37C (100F) to ambient in just a few seconds. And then rebounded back a little higher when I let off the gas. I believe that for every 10F the temp drops you gain 1/10 of a second in the 1/4 or about that.