I have had my car for about 9 months and put a K & N CAI in it about 6 months ago. Sounds better than before but not sure I picked up anything on the butt dyno. That being said most of last summer I ran around 200 to maybe 215 on my way home from work with temps close to or at 90 degrees. Now I am running 215-225 on 80 degree days. I am worried that it may get worse as summer progresses.
I know the arguments: It's not really a CAI as it's pulling air from the hot engine bay. The OEM is a true CAI leave it alone etc etc.
I like the sound along with my gundo so if there is no issue running around 215-220 then I can just let it be.
If on the other hand it causes problems then I will switch back to the OEM box.

Anyone with a CAI intake feel free to chime in here with your experience.
You don't have to respond here and at 6sp if you are like me and on both

Thanks
Caesar

 

I assume you're talking about oil temp - CAI has no effect on oil temps.

 

Something to consider if you want cooler operating oil temps. The Porsche 3rd radiator lowered my oil temp ~15-20*F... I recently added an FVD oil pan/baffle with cooling fins and extra oil capacity. It seems to have cooled things down another ~5-10*F. We've had some 98*F temp days here lately and under hard driving conditions I've been hitting 235*F oil temp max... much better than the 250-275*F I've seen prior to these mods.

 

I am talking about oil temps. Man, shows how little I know. Would have thought hotter air(since it's not really a CAI) running through the engine would raise both water temp and oil temp up. Guess not. Any ideas as to why it seems to be running hotter than 9 months ago during similar temps

 

know you're talking oil temp but check out front radiators to see if there is a build up of leaves, etc in corners- if so clean out and see if this helps at all- it should help with water temp if nothing else.

 

So what's the optimal oil temperature? Mine stays around 200 F, might go to 215 F on occasion but it's pretty cold where I live.

 

Perfect range. Your XW-40 oil is at optimum 40 weight viscosity. The same here. Even less than 215*F under hard driving conditions, but ambients were cooperating lately and I have low temp t-stat & 3-rd rad installed.
=L=

 

Hi James,
Did you switch to Motul yet? Are the above temps on M1 or X-Cess?
Cheers,

Luke

 

Your engine running lean perhaps with CAI?
Check spark plugs first, I guess....

 

Hey Luke, I'm about to... but I still have MB-1 in her. Wanted to wait until I got some triple digit heat to get a decent baseline to compare the two oils. We hit 98*F last week so the change over to X-Cess should take place within the next 2 wks.

 

Please let us know the results of that comparison. I am very curious.
Ughhh....98*F, good Lord. We are trying to crack the 60F barrier, raining cats and dogs, haven't seen the sun in last two or three days.
Sorry for hi-jacking this thread (AGAIN)....

 

I know... it's been the coolest temps we've had in years. When is summer going to get here so I can start this comparison!

 

Well, assuming the CAI is the cause of the increase in engine temperature and this has you searching the web to get some assurance that's not a problem that's good enough in my book to qualify for "if on the other hand it causes problems I will switch back to the OEM box" to switch back to the OEM box.

While the increase in temperature is not dire -- 'course we can't know if the increase will be linear as the ambient temperature increases -- it is an increase in temperature. Not what I want to see from a CAI. It not only doesn't live up to its billing it raises the operating temperature of the engine.

There is a concern that with the engine being fed heated air this can bring about the onset of detonation earlier and the DME might run out of ignition timing adjustment to deal with detonation before detonation goes away.

Really, I'd just go back to the OEM box and remove all concerns.

 

I responded to your post on 6Speedonline forum about this issue. It seems that most people believe that the air from a CAI is much hotter than the OEM box. I do not subscribe to this due to my research. Regardless, your car is designed to operate over a very broad range of ambient temperatures with no issues (winter to summer). The ECU monitors the inlet air temp and adjust the A/F to insure that the car will run good.

Gibbo205 purchased an X-51 airbox which is very similar in design to the OEM box in your car and mine except it is made of CF and one very big difference is that the intake has a larger inside diameter. You may reason that a larger intake would be a good thing, right? The bigger the intake the less restriction the more air to the engine - which is the objective to get more power (i.e. forced induction). The problem is that the MAF sensor is mounted in this intake pipe and the ECU expect the inside daimeter to be 86 mm - it is calibrated for this. The X-51 box is 90 mm, which means that about 9.5% more air will be going into the engine than the ECU thinks because it is just a dumb sensor. The ECU with stock x-51 air boxes are calibrated for the larger intake by Porsche. Through testing, Gibbo determined that the A/F ratio was running about 9.5% higher than design (14.7 vs 13.5). He had a tuner adjust the map in the ECU to correct the issue - simple.

Back to you - what is the inside diameter of your CAI where your MAF is mounted? Is the intake the same size as the OEM intake? If not, you may be running lean and this will generate more heat and could damage your engine and a third radiator, different oil, or a lower temperature thermostat are not the solution. All of these may be a good idea but not to address a lean running engine. Adjustment of the A/F is the solution for this. If you get detonation because you are running too lean it is too late to try and cool it with the oil system that is cooled with the water system. You have to address this at the source (the A/F). A simple way to determine this is get someone to test your A/F at the exhaust (portable system) while you drive the car or on a dyno.

Good luck!

 

Just out of curiosity, are you driving the car similarly before and after? Since you like the sound more...could you be driving a bit more spirited?

In my case, I write down my water and oil temps every time I drive the car, as well as a note on how I drove the car, plus some notes on outside temperature, tire pressures, etc. When I flipped through my notes, I noticed something that *might* explain your temperature increase. Just a shot in the dark, though....

On easy drives (outside temps in the 70s for me), my oil temp was about 190-200F. Generally I noted it was below 200. So lets say 190. The times I noted I took a 'spirited' drive...which is my lingo for trying to push the limits of the car on the windy mountainous road where I live, temps hit something like 225. Speeds would have been less than 60 MPH in both cases. I just can't go much faster on these roads. Overall, I hit higher RPMs in first and 2nd is what it amounts to. So, a change in driving style and increased RPMs in my case results in ~30F temperature change.

Is it possible you like the sounds of the CAI, or are just pushing the car harder to feel the effects of the CAI, and are running at higher RPMs? That could account for the increased temps even if your overall speeds are not that much different.

Just a thought....