Cold air intake,,,

Mrvile

Lifer
Oct 16, 2004
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I been thinking. :Q Anyway I'm 15, and I don't drive yet, but I know a bit about car parts. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a cold air intake works by compressing the air that your car takes in so that it is colder, and since cold air carries more oxygen it helps your combustion reaction, right?

Anyway I was wondering if this could be used in a computer, taking the advantage of only the colder air. Say, I have a front fan that pushes a nice deal of air, then duct it so it goes through a narrower area before it gets to the CPU. Roughly like this: FAN >===< ANOTHER FAN, CPU. That way the air is sort of "compressed" in the smaller part of the duct, and as more air builds up there the air will be cooler, and the fan right next to my CPU will pick up the cold air and pull it across the hot heatsink, then right out the back exhaust.

Will it work the same way as it would in a car? I'm no genius and thought of this sitting bored in English class today, so it's just a thought. I figure I'd want a bit of positive pressure within the duct so that air builds up, so I would place my stronger 120mm fan to pull air in from outside, and the weaker 92mm fan on my CPU.

And if no one knows I'll go ahead and try it anyway, I mean I'll only be wasting about 26 cents worth of cardboard box and tape, and maybe half an hour of build time. Any thoughts?
 

BW86

Lifer
Jul 20, 2004
13,114
30
91
Correct me if I'm wrong, but a cold air intake works by compressing the air that your car takes in so that it is colder, and since cold air carries more oxygen it helps your combustion reaction, right?

all a cold-air intake does is route air from beneath the car that results in increased horsepower and torque since the air coming into the engine is cooler.
I guess you can pull colder air from the outside into your case.
 

Idleuser

Senior member
Sep 22, 2004
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NO a cold air intake will not work actually it doesn't even suck in cold air (vacume from the throttle body) All a cold air intake does is allow more "air flow" They only reason it's called a cold is because it's place on the bottom instead of sucking air from the engine compartment. A cold air intake has the same effect as a short ram if the temps stayed the same inside of the engine bay as same as the outside. Hince "cold air intake" really means taking air that isn't hot from outside the engine compartment
 

akira34

Golden Member
Jun 26, 2004
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Sort of how you get better performance when going to something like the FIPK gen2 intake over stock/factory original.

There are items you can put into the tube connecting the filter to your throttle body to accellerate the air (they sell them on tv and only, don't have the exact name, but they are small fans that make the air move faster). IF you were to do something like that, all you'd do is move more air into the case. If you don't have a good way to let the air leave the case, you could do more harm than good...
 

Idleuser

Senior member
Sep 22, 2004
882
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akira34: you mean the tornado? heheh it's a proven fact that those are just marketing gimmic it doesn't actually allow more air flow because the computer can only calculate X amount of air going inside of the combustion engine so it's pretty useless getting those device all together. That is ofcourse you upgrade all the other components LOL.

If you want to use a airduct you can just buy it at your local hardware store.
 

akira34

Golden Member
Jun 26, 2004
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I had a feeling it was a gimmic, but I might try it out anyway... eventually. I'll be getting a new mass air flow sensor before I'd get that anyway. Combine that with the new intake and dual exhaust that I've had installed, and I'll get a bit more power out of my engine... I've got other upgrades planned too... many upgrades... This is going to cost me more than my computers by the time I'm done... I might even spend more on this than I have in the past on computers (per year)...
 

Idleuser

Senior member
Sep 22, 2004
882
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btw, what kind of car do you drive? I think it would be better to elimate the AFM all together and go with an EMS but dyno tuning cost alot that is ofcouse you can get hooked up. You can always get something piggyback like a Air fuel controller but piggy backs is bad for the engine :( anyways this is going off topic hahaa.
 

Mrvile

Lifer
Oct 16, 2004
14,066
1
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lol thanks guys I did read somewhere (but I can't find the site, it was kind of a dictionary to aftermarket car parts such as CAI, exhaust, chips, etc.) that it compresses the air to make it colder (which would make sense) but oh well too bad it won't work. Just saved 26 cents and half an hour :p

For the record though my exhaust fan is exactly the same as my intake fan.
 

Dough1397

Senior member
Nov 3, 2004
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cool air is denser that warm air, which in a car is good cause you get more oxygen and air into the engine which is good (what do you think superchargers and turbos do? ) when it comes to heat thoough, less dense air is nice... look at space for example nearly a vacuum, heat is transfered very well out there, if astronauts didnt have their space suits, when the sun woudl shine on them they would bake to death(no joke)
 

dc5

Senior member
Jul 10, 2004
791
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cool air contains more atoms than warm air. thus, colder air will result in a greater combustion because there are more atoms "exploding".