ram air?

[206er]

Ive had this idea in the back of my head for a while:
why not do away with the long intake system on the ej22e and make a ram air setup? This would locate the MAF onto the throttle body, have a small bend into an airbox with a flat filter, which would seal against the bottom of the hood under a hood scoop. locate the PVC hookups whereever they would fit.
the big question:
will changing the intake length and volume screw with the MAF reading?
if that is not a problem:
how bad of a bottom end loss would there be?
could any mpg increase result?
what about a cone filter on the end of the MAF/throttle body?
any bad effects on the PCV system from loss of vacuum or would this be a none issue?
pretty much the first mod I did was de-snorkus, didnt notice a thing.
TIA for any input.

[Legacy777]

A setup like that wouldn't really work too well with the MAF setup. You'd get lot's of turbulance, which would screw up the air flow metering.

I've heard of some impreza guys doing something similar, and that's the issues they ran into.

[dzx]

Cars don't go fast enough to actually benefit from ram air.

[napphappy]

I thought about dooing that when I had an NA. I agree with Joshs proposed problem.
The only other problem is how to route you PCV stuff anf your idle air.
I say do it any way. I always thought it would be cool. It would be loud as hell at WOT.

[sammydafish]

Cars don't go fast enough to actually benefit from ram air.

not true, the gains are not enormous, but a well designed scoop can generate a pretty good amount of pressure and provide the same effect as a higher baro reading. This will occur at speeds as low as around 40mph. Noise, filter life and the risk of bringing on water are a few reasons why you don't see OEM manufacturers do it to a large extent. Though they do do it. Subaru has this on all the new cars where the airbox breathes in part from a duct above the radiator. VW, Audi and some GM cars do this too off the top of my head. Not full ram air, but the best compromise and OEM can make.

[rallysam]

If I know how to use Bernouli's equation properly, then you get 0.66 psi gain at 60mph. That will increase your horsepower by what? 4hp maybe? Even worse, at 30mph you wonly get 0.16 psi gain. That's maybe 1hp?

It's cool, but if function is what you're after, then it's not worth a lot of effort. I could probably get greater improvement by spending about 1 minute tweaking my manual boost controller to a slightly better setting, and I don't bother with that.

[Subtle]

The Alfa Romeo GTZ of the early 1960s was the 1600 equivalent of the Ferrari GTO.

It has a ram intake that is beautifully engineered and fabricated. With reducing and then expanding cones it fed into two twin choke Webers with
hoses to match the pressure on float chambers to the pressure of the ram air.

The N/A 1600 put out 170 bhp,with probably 6 or 7 due to the ram, which intake was only slightly lower than the carbs. With only 1600cc,
they had to get power where they could. Also it added HP without extra revs, which was critical for long races.

In 1964 it took class wins in the Sebring 12-hours, the Tour de France, Targa Florio, Nurburgring 1000 Kilometers, Le Mans, Coups des Alps and the Tour de Corse to name only the big races.

[206er]

you have to also factor in how much free'er flowing and colder air would help out, in addition to the ram air effect.
I dont think I am going to try it just because I am worried about what it will do to torque which is neede in such a heavy car, and I would rather not cut holes in my hood just yet.
maybe I will try it if I ever get the motor into a light chassis.