Ram Air vs. Cold Air Intake and Smooth Throttle Body Elbow

Just got my WS6 outta storage today and was pondering the advantages/disadvantages of my ram air. It's a '97 so the filter housing is sealed to the hood for a true "ram air" effect. My dad has a 95 T/A with a smooth elbow and cold air intake so I decided I would swap setups and find out for myself when the weather gets nicer. This will include a vacuum gauge reading at speed to test for any "ram air boost". Will also monitor the IAT and other factor using a scan tool and take a snapshot at a predetermined speed and rpm. Both setups will be run using my state of the art butt dyno aswell. Has anybody done this or have any insight?

my bet is the ram air will be better. check out ls1tech.com and see what those guys say.

Tried this once upon a time. Most of what I found was speculation and people saying their cai was better because that is what they had. Will try to find a thread that has some better content. My ram air has a total of 6 inches between the filter and TB with at straight shot into the TB. The cai has at least 2.5 feet and 2 90 degree bends. If anything I am expecting better throttle response out of the ram air.

Not trying to be a Dick hole. That being said ... I think your wasting your time trying all these things . Just leave the ram air on and call it a day.


And theres no such thing as Ram air boost .....

I have seen some dyno comparisons in past threads some years back on ls cars, but there was maybe a 3-5 HP difference at the wheels.

It boils down to filter and the bellows.

Ram air with a k&n and the intake silencer removed should make the best power.

The name of the game is getting air in the fastest with the least amount of restrictions.

I wasn't saying there is a such thing as ram air boost. But if you ask the guys on ls1 tech they will tell you that you would get 1 psi boost per 100 mph. I disagree and would just like to generate some factual data opposed to speculation. I plan to keep my current setup, but it will cost $0 to do this comparison.

Above you said RAM air boost. But anyways , Good luck on results . May I suggest a tornado for the intake tube . Saves gas and gains HP. But you may need a tune for that.

it is possible to get a very small amount of "boost" per say on a NA engine. the easiest way to check that out is your volumetric efficiency. if its over 100% you have achieved that. and its not rally hard to do. just get good flowing parts that work well together. it just means your getting slightly more air than the atmosphere can supply on its own. it has much to do with harmonics. my hptuners can tell you your VE.

3vs197 wrote:

it is possible to get a very small amount of "boost" per say on a NA engine. the easiest way to check that out is your volumetric efficiency. if its over 100% you have achieved that. and its not rally hard to do. just get good flowing parts that work well together. it just means your getting slightly more air than the atmosphere can supply on its own. it has much to do with harmonics. my hptuners can tell you your VE.

i would like to see proof of this.

IDK if you can do it with ram air but i know you can infact get over 100% VE on a properly matched cam intake and head combo. sword fighter is right it does have to do with pulses in the intake mani.......... the funny thing is when people flow test intakes and heads it is only part of the deal when you get into HUGE money of people like IRL and other endless budget type engine programs they actually have a pulsed flow bench that you can change "cam profile" to find the sweet spot.

Nightrunner he had the boost thing in quotes. Must have forgot the Smiley face.

I think its cool that he wants to get actual data.

That said I think that the v6 bellows is the best you can put on an f body.

Ya ... picking out faces on my phone is kinda hard. But I do sometimes. But either way.


Going for technicality is different from going for "gains" that's why at first I said your wasting your time. But I'd be curious to see what the difference is with efficiency . But I bet its pretty much a wash between those two .........




Btw Steve. Who is sword fighter ?

Quote :

i would like to see proof of this

i can post up my hptuners log of my car hitting about 105%. look at like pro stock engines, they hit about 120%. there is multiple wave harmonics. when the intake valve closes the air bounces around back and forth against the intake valve, and depending on runner length and rpm you can set what wave you want it to hit on. the 1st wave is impossible because its simply to fast but a high rpm short runner combo can hit on the second wave but most cars hit on the third wave. and when the intake valve opens up right as the air is about to slam agianst it, thats where you can get over 100% efficiency. cause its moving faster than the atmosphere can push it.

3vs197 wrote:

Quote :

i would like to see proof of this

i can post up my hptuners log of my car hitting about 105%. look at like pro stock engines, they hit about 120%. there is multiple wave harmonics. when the intake valve closes the air bounces around back and forth against the intake valve, and depending on runner length and rpm you can set what wave you want it to hit on. the 1st wave is impossible because its simply to fast but a high rpm short runner combo can hit on the second wave but most cars hit on the third wave. and when the intake valve opens up right as the air is about to slam agianst it, thats where you can get over 100% efficiency. cause its moving faster than the atmosphere can push it.

i was just about to say that...

sword fighter must be a word mask = t ye must be a word mask

Oh I get it now

well isn't that fucking nice.

sword fighter
peter
chris
matt
preston
logan
anthony
steve
brian
corey
zac
dwight
stosh

oh cool, looks like everyone else got the same treatment...

Thats what I'm going for. Not saying I will make 1000 more hp at speed because my ram air is rammin' away or anything rediculous like that. Just tryin to compare two popular setups. IAT and MAF are going to be the elements of most concern. MAP and an actual vacuum reading are going in purely out of curiosity.

Im curious to see if there really is any gain as i plan on getting ws6 hood someday and might want to switch to a ram air setup if it shows gain.

And if nothing else it looks nice.

Agreed.

Soooooooo.....:.......... what's the verdict on your at home experiment chief?

I dont think hes conducted it yet. The car came out of storage last week and we just put tires on it wednseday

Slacker s I'm ready to take off my RAM air off if the cai makes even 1/2 HP more :.............NOT