The Oldsmobile Connection

strokercutlass · Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 379 Location: Wis

73 delta, you hit the nail on the head..it was used primarily for a quicker warmup..it diverted the warm air off the exhaust maifold into the carb, so it idled better and in general, ran at a cold idle, before the choke would compensate....if you remove it it may run a bit rougher when cold, but alot can be adjusted out by adjusting the choke a bit....if you want to go to a different air cleaner, for some reason

86Delta · Joined: 06 Nov 2003 Posts: 281 Location: NJ, USA

i really wish people would stop calling a simple cone filter a 'cold air intake'. a cold air intake to me would involve some kind of duct to the grill or a little scoop under the bumper (like they sell for Mustangs). personally, i don't think it is worth the effort so i'm sticking with my stock air box with my drop in K&N filter.

speedyguy · Joined: 14 Jun 2003 Posts: 18 Location: California

Ok the CAI is a cold air intake and yes it uses a box to separate the engine heat /air from the intake.

Simple but it works.

The biggest issue is the units out there are not protected from the heat so eventually (A few minutes) the box and tube is heated to the same temp as the engine bay thus reducing the thermal benefits.

So a pipe and a box is needed and they need to be made with a insulating material or coating to reduce heat transfer.

So yes a cone filter on the end of a tube is just the beginning and not the final solution. If the cone filter is close to the area behind the headlight where most of the air comes in then it will work alot better but still a proper box is recommended for full effect.

Ty
Domestic Performance

88delta88 · Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 2407 Location: Canada

ding ding ding ding ding....
Yeah. I know about this... and I promise you I'll get my pictures up soon, and mine's still working beutifully!

OldsGuy · Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 269 Location: Lees Summit MO

Guys, strokercutlass knows his stuff, pay attention.

A question, or comment, I guess. Concerning the "smooth as glass" issue, with older carburetted cars it is a common thing to warn against polishing the intake runners when porting your heads to avoid the condition of the fuel particles "dropping" out of the air flow. It has been stated that the smooth runner walls impede the atomization of the fuel. There is an argument against that however, some people say the faster the air/fuel mixture moves the better, this maintains effective atomization. The argument goes back and forth, counter arguments everywhere, Iv'e witnessed this specifically on ROP, remember that one guys? Anyway, with the fuel injected cars, especially the modern port injection systems, where the fuel is introduced in the ports (behind the valves in the lower intake I guess) would the big argument about polishing the ports then become a moot point? I believe the fact about cooler air being denser and therefore maintaining more efficient combustion to be true, drag racers have laptops with weather stations on them (why else be concerned about a 1 degree drop in temperature?).

I have an older carburetted car, one thing I am going to do is utilize cold air induction. I may not look as "cool" as an open element K&N filter assembly, but I believe it will work.

Any ideas or comments on this?

Psyco Diver 69 · Joined: 21 Sep 2003 Posts: 207 Location: South NJ

OldsGuy wrote: I have an older carburetted car, one thing I am going to do is utilize cold air induction. I may not look as "cool" as an open element K&N filter assembly, but I believe it will work.

Any ideas or comments on this?

Try the older W30 ram air where they use 2 4" ducts from under the bumper to the air cleaner. It seamed pretty effective. I plan to run that setup on my 442 along with the W25 ram air hood (I'm going to have tons of cold air then)

OldsGuy · Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 269 Location: Lees Summit MO

Jake, I know what you are talking about. There is a company that sells air boxes and accessories for cold air intake on just about any muscle car application. Various diamaters, various snout angles both single and double, and various drops. All a guy has to do is route them to the bumper like you said. Good point about the W30 stuff except it is usually quite expensive on places like ebay, I guess it is the "W30" name that does it.

I saw a little MOPAR where the guy routed fresh cold air from the bottom of the windshield, he plumbed his air by cutting a hole in the firewall, no a/c to worry about, then using 4 in tubing to the stock air cleaner housing. Pretty good setup for home-made. That is a good place to get fresh air that is under pressure, right at the bottom of the windshield. Ever notice that is the place where they get the fresh air for the circulation system on most cars?

I know somebody in Sedalia MO that used Sears shop vac accessories and hoses to route air from the bumper like you said, looks pretty good, all new and black.

81olds · Joined: 23 Feb 2004 Posts: 1

i noticed theres a air temp sencor or i think it is on the bottom of the air box on my 3.8 just wondering where you guys think i should put it on my cold air intake so it reads right ?? :?

Brando · Joined: 06 Jun 2003 Posts: 3067 Location: Michigan, USA

Stick it in the tube of your cold air intake, drill a hole, and mount it in there....you'll get a proper reading that way....

TOC Admin
Brando

88delta88 · Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 2407 Location: Canada

have a look at my cold air intake, maybe it'll give you some ideas.

I had to extend the wires on the sensor so it would reach way up behind the headlight. I drilled and tapped a small hole in my cone filter and inserted it right in there, so it gets a good reading on the air it sucks.

I'd like to insulate my intake one of these days, not sure if that'll make a big difference, but it works in theory. Maybe I'll have to do the coolant mod for my intake aswell...

Wagonmaster/primerdeath · Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 15 Location: Maine

colder air does help...there's all kinds of way to do it some actually hinder the car's perfromance...I'm thinking of running a hose from the aircleaner snorkel to behind the grille some-how, got any ideas?

88delta88 · Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 2407 Location: Canada

my old 79 caddy had some sort of ram air system in it... It was just a plastic duct by one of the grilles, and a flexible tube between the duct and the air cleaner snorkel.

Although, when I got the car, the only part that was left was the duct by the grille... Everything else was left to the imagination. (not much to imagine)

OldsGuy · Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 269 Location: Lees Summit MO

Drawing air from in front of, or at least on the same plane of, the radiator gets air before it has absorbed heat from the coolant system. 88Delta88, I looked at your website pictures, good ideas and good workmanship. If you could get the air filter element in front of the radiator I think you would be happy with that, probably the improvement you noticed was due to the less restriction your present setup offers compared to stock. I like the work you did on the trunk mount battery and sound system too.

I go to junk yards often and see lots of stock air induction systems that have various ways of drawing air from in front of the radiator, most are of molded plastic, some are long and narrow 1" by 8" positioned beside the radiator, usually on the opposite side of the battery. look in early 80's cars or late 70's cars before fuel injection was used or transverse v6 fwd. Those might be your best bets. Most of those would be 3" diamater systems or less, but probably more than enough volumetric potential for the 3.8L engines' needs. Good luck.

88delta88 · Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 2407 Location: Canada

thanks for the comments oldsguy!

metallica_r · Joined: 31 Jan 2004 Posts: 64 Location: corydon, indiana

i was wondering how to go about relocating the battery on a 1994 olds cutlass ceria s. it has a 3.1 litre and i have a short air intake on it. the filter is strait on the throttle body. and how to go about making a cold air intake for it. thanks and i hope you guys can help me.