Hot air intake?

[fanamingo]

Different cars respond differently to intake air temperature with regards to fuel economy. Like fuzzy explained, warmer air reduces pumping losses. This often results in better fuel economy at the expense of reduced peak power. This may work well for cruising conditions, but may noticeably hurt acceleration and hill climbing ability. I've heard that cars using MAP (Manifold Absolute Pressure), as opposed to MAF (Mass Air Flow), sensors respond better to WAIs.

Another advantage of a WAI is faster engine warmup times. The WAI recycles initial heat loss as an engine is warming up. Cold engines get significantly worse fuel economy than warm ones, so a WAI will have a bigger impact in cold weather. The Prius III will use a similar concept by warming the engine coolant with exhaust heat as the engine is warming up.

[drimportracing]

An extreme example: http://schou.dk/hvce/ - Dale

[MateriaPanama]

that was a very interesting example, but i couldnt help but think that something important got lost in translation

[vtec-e]

I had a hot air intake on my civic. Temps got up to 80 deg celsius one day but mostly 60 deg celsius. Tried it for a while and i had a good loss of power but i got 67mpg imperial out of it so it wasn't all bad. It had (has!! it's still in the shed giving me dirty looks!!) a lean burn engine so it was set up to cope with hot air from the start! I don't think honda had that in mind though!

ollie

[phoebeisis]

It might be easier to heat the fuel than the air. You could wrap a heating element around the fuel line close to the injector and under the vehicle from the tank forward, and start heating the cold fuel about 5 minutes before you start the car.
I would guess heating the fuel to maybe 40-50 degrees.

degrees centigrade should be safe enough,and not cause any boiling/vapor lock.

There isn't any place to get "warm air" for a car on initial start up, but you can certainly heat.

Aren't their electric wraps-tapes- that folks wrap around their water pipes before freezes. Obviously, you have to be careful heating gasoline, maybe a little less cautious with diesel.

If you heat about 120 cm of fuel line you'll probably heat 100 cc of fuel( 1/12 gallon)-easily enough for start up and a few minutes of running.

Charlie

[JusBringIt]

I have a map sensor, and from what I've experienced, my car responds really well to a warm air intake. Usually in summer months, the intake air is pretty warm, however at times it wont be warm enough for me early mornings and cool evenings.

[drimportracing]

Originally Posted by phoebeisis

...you have to be careful heating gasoline...- Charlie

495 Fahrenheit gasoline will self ignite without spark. You could place a block heater on a fuel cell and still be safe from combustion.

Related info:
If you heat the air to 220 Fahrenheit with the hot water from the radiator and place a strengthened gas cell (welded steel 1/4" plate, with pressure release valve) under vacuum you can vaporize gasoline with super-high fuel efficiency. There are other obstacles but it is possible.

Tom Ogle, a young ex-con(his patent: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...&RS=PN/4177779 ) got 100mpg with a big 1970 Ford Galaxie with a V8, he surmissed a 4 cylinder could get over 250mpg, before he found a particular nasty financial backer/partner (he had as many as 50 people to claim partial ownership to his invention) then mysteriously died from pain medication and alcohol. He had previously told friends that he thought his drinks had been drugged at a pool hall where he was know to play billiards for money. Sad.

I figure along those efficiency lines a 3 cylinder could get 300mpg. I would settle for half of that and hypermile the rest. -- Dale

[MateriaPanama]

interesting technology but i dont think this Tom was familiar with he law of diminishing returns