athens7 Posted June 23, 2010 Share Posted June 23, 2010 New Odyssey PC680 with over-priced hold down. It fits beautifully in front of the heater box, which is blocked off most of the year, and allows the relocation of the air intake away from the back of the motor (surrounded by exhaust headers and coolant hoses). Now if I can figure out the duct routing, I think I can create a cold air intake box around the air intake. Even without the box, it seems likely that this is a better way to get air into the engine than the original Caterham USA arrangement. This also fixed my intermittent temperature gauge failure, which turns out to have been caused by the Banner's inability to maintain voltage under starter load, causing the gauge to think the car was off. The last picture is the original set up, which included the distributor and plug wires that have been replaced by a coil on plug setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDingo8MyBaby Posted June 23, 2010 Share Posted June 23, 2010 Has anyone ever run their filter into the passenger footwell? I imagine it'd be prett loud...but I imagine the air would be considerably cooler... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athens7 Posted June 23, 2010 Author Share Posted June 23, 2010 That was a conversation my mechanic and I had; however, the ECU is located right below the old battery location (fun if battery acid ever leaked!), and the intake noise problem concerns me. My plan is to run a trumpet type air inlet at the radiator and some 3" air duct hose along the right side of the engine compartment to the new air filter location, ultimately adding walls (plexi?) to create a CAI:drool:. If only my mind's eye can be converted to reality... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pksurveyor Posted June 24, 2010 Share Posted June 24, 2010 I had to replace the SV's ECU due to battery acid leaking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scannon Posted June 24, 2010 Share Posted June 24, 2010 My plan is to run a trumpet type air inlet at the radiator and some 3" air duct hose along the right side of the engine compartment to the new air filter location, ultimately adding walls (plexi?) to create a CAI:drool:. If only my mind's eye can be converted to reality... FWIW, it might be easier to move the filter up front and run the duct back to the throttle body. It would save building a box around the filter and be cleaner looking. I like the way moving the battery cleaned up your engine compartment. You might want to consider moving the battery down to the bottom of the frame under the intake manifold. Helps with a lower center of gravity and would further cleanup the firewall area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athens7 Posted June 24, 2010 Author Share Posted June 24, 2010 FWIW, it might be easier to move the filter up front and run the duct back to the throttle body. It would save building a box around the filter and be cleaner looking. That is an interesting idea. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breezy7 Posted June 24, 2010 Share Posted June 24, 2010 Brad: I have a similar arrangment on my SVT that you are considering. I made a simple intake and bracket that mounts above the radiator to carry a few feet of ducting back to the air filter. It should be better than the stock setup but still must have alot of heat gain due to the mounting near the radiator and the normal underhood heat. I should try a scan gauge and see if it affects the intake temp. Have you considered putting a NACA duct in the hood? I have thought about it but haven't convinced my self to start cutting! It could feed the filter directly or a cold air box in the area vacated by your battery. Good idea about moving the filter to original battery location, I may have to do the same, never crossed my mind to do that. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athens7 Posted November 26, 2010 Author Share Posted November 26, 2010 (edited) Some time passes... Here is the finished product. LOTS of data logging showed a straight duct was more important than the type of intake nozzle, or whether the intake started at the grille or further back. I now get intake air at 5 degrees over ambient at cruise, and only 7 degrees over ambient under autocross conditions (an improvement of 15 degrees or more), all without losing my heater, which I use in the winter, or cutting the bonnet. The plexi wind blocker surrounding the radiator is a bit hard to spot, but it routes air both to the CAI and through the radiator, and does not increase cockpit temperatures (a concern I had as common wisdom says SVs are cooler than S3s because of additional airflow around the engine). I did drop the charcoal canister a little bit, btw, but it's still there. Edited November 26, 2010 by athens7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croc Posted November 26, 2010 Share Posted November 26, 2010 Some time passes... Here is the finished product. LOTS of data logging showed a straight duct was more important than the type of intake nozzle, or whether the intake started at the grille or further back. That looks quite a neat solution. Clearly you spent a lot of time testing this - the end result was not one I would have intuited as the best but it must work best as shown by your datalogging results. How significant were the differences to the other CAI alternatives you experimented with - significant or minimal? Also what were you using for datalogging? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athens7 Posted November 26, 2010 Author Share Posted November 26, 2010 Data logging was done using my Diablosport Predator ECU tuner, which includes a variety of data logging options. 2 limiting factors in the choice of location were keeping the heater and not cutting the bonnet. Variances in temperature were not huge, 2-5 degrees among the best options (15+ degrees better than without any assembly), but a couple of design elements became identifiable. Eliminating curves in the intake ducting was more important than the size of the intake opening (we tried Pegasus Racing intake ducts to increase intake area, but they necessitated bending the duct). Having the opening back at the radiator generated cooler temperatures than having the duct opening at the grille, probably due to the bending issue again. The rearward intake opening also reduces the amount of moisture and trash that could make its way back to the air box area. The air blocker around the radiator increased air flow to the duct. Insulating the air box was very important, as heat soak from the hot engine compartment had more impact on intake temperatures than any duct location. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boxologist Posted November 26, 2010 Share Posted November 26, 2010 nice work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pksurveyor Posted November 26, 2010 Share Posted November 26, 2010 The duct work look like the same configuartion as a couple of EP Caterham running in the Houston area SCCA. They aslo run a straight duct from the grill to the back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbwever Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Athens7 love the set up and i am thinking of doing something similar to my 2007 sv two questions 1 doesn't your engine run hotter with the air dams blocking the airflow 2 the wires that feed the plug on the air intake seem short to make that bend did you do anything special or did you make twist with the standard wires and plug i was afraid i was going to have to splice extensions to the wires Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taber10 Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Brad, I agree--really looks neat, and must improve the air temp into the motor. Not to hijack the thread, but yours is the first (I haven't seen that many!) Caterham Zetec SVT with the "powered by SVT" spark plug cover. I think Caterham omitted them as they don't fit over the VCT Solenoid and under the bonnet in "stock" shape. Did you cut the front couple of inches off of yours? I cut off the "top" of one I got on eBay so that it doesn't cover the VCTS, but the option on your motor looks better in some aspects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athens7 Posted February 28, 2015 Author Share Posted February 28, 2015 I sold this car about 3 years ago, so my memories of specifics are a little foggy. mbwever, if you're referring to the plexi shield, I think airflow through the radiator is more important than airflow around the engine. The SV body allows for more airflow around the engine from underneath as well. The short answer to your question is that I never saw any increase in engine temp as the result of the plexi shield. Also, no modification was necessary to the wiring associated with the air intake. Taber10, I got that plug cover from a Ford dealer in NC back in 2007 or 2008, when they were still available. It was his idea to trim the front of the cover on an angle to clear the bonnet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now