ZXMustang
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
Not talking power here just strictly IAT. I have my roush blower installed and the lids still work but fit like garbage now, so I decided to try a commute with them off. Boy did that go wrong. IATs while driving were almost ambient to the degree. Once you stop though, they would shoot up to 150-160 seeing a max of 168*. Ambient temps were about 98* today in FL.
Now with that said, the second you start rolling, they would come back down basically to ambient again. I was quite surprised the large degree swing and I thought once they were baked, it was going to be 5-10 or more over ambient. But that never happened.
Now lids back on, same commute loop about an hour later. Same 98 ambient temps. It was a completely different story. Rolling IATs were consistently 5-10 over ambient. Nothing exciting. Once stopped for a few minutes at idle, they didnt shoot up to 160+ but worst I saw was about 128*. So it was much less of a swing from stop to go, but it was still higher overall.
Once I started rolling again, I could tell the lids were baked and it took about 10 minutes of driving vs 1 minute or so, so the IATs to come back down to the 5-10 over ambient.
I would say for most applications like drag or for street driving, run LIDS ON. If you are on track for 20-30 minutes and needs the most cooling you can get with a stock car/tune, run the lids off. The lower IATs will generally help out spark advance and be more of a help than any flow advantage you have getting all your air from the grille inlet vs engine inlet/grille combos.
I went back to lids on and was much more comfortable seeing the IATs never breach 130 in about 100f heat vs getting to almost 170. Again, in the lids off scenario, they would come back down real fast, but not fast enough if you were say in line at the local drag strip and getting ready to make a pass. after the hit, they would likely still be 140+ by the time you made it to the end - killing any IAT spark adder you could have had.
What are yall's experience lids off vs on with the stock intakes?
Now with that said, the second you start rolling, they would come back down basically to ambient again. I was quite surprised the large degree swing and I thought once they were baked, it was going to be 5-10 or more over ambient. But that never happened.
Now lids back on, same commute loop about an hour later. Same 98 ambient temps. It was a completely different story. Rolling IATs were consistently 5-10 over ambient. Nothing exciting. Once stopped for a few minutes at idle, they didnt shoot up to 160+ but worst I saw was about 128*. So it was much less of a swing from stop to go, but it was still higher overall.
Once I started rolling again, I could tell the lids were baked and it took about 10 minutes of driving vs 1 minute or so, so the IATs to come back down to the 5-10 over ambient.
I would say for most applications like drag or for street driving, run LIDS ON. If you are on track for 20-30 minutes and needs the most cooling you can get with a stock car/tune, run the lids off. The lower IATs will generally help out spark advance and be more of a help than any flow advantage you have getting all your air from the grille inlet vs engine inlet/grille combos.
I went back to lids on and was much more comfortable seeing the IATs never breach 130 in about 100f heat vs getting to almost 170. Again, in the lids off scenario, they would come back down real fast, but not fast enough if you were say in line at the local drag strip and getting ready to make a pass. after the hit, they would likely still be 140+ by the time you made it to the end - killing any IAT spark adder you could have had.
What are yall's experience lids off vs on with the stock intakes?
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