Air intake - keeping the engine temp down - Trial

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love2fly

Flying the Mountains of the NW
Joined
Sep 7, 2004
Threads
507
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2,142
For the past month or so I have been working on trying to lower the air intake temperature for the carburetor intake in my stock 82 FJ45 for the brutal summer temperatures that are just starting.
I used a turbo remote temperature analyzer that I use on checking aircraft turbo’s and other things. Pretty handy device for this check.
I installed the remote sender at the inlet of my air horn on the air filter housing to see what kind of temps were under the hood while stopped and while driving at different speeds.
Without a doubt I was not surprised on the outcome.
When stopped at a light after 20 minutes of driving - at idle with an OAT (our side air temp) of 85 deg the analyzer read 132 deg of hot air entering the air cleaner’s inlet horn. While driving at around 45 MPH the reading from ram air into the stock engine compartment was 97 deg a 35 deg difference. At a higher speed the reading was 95 deg with same OAT. While in four wheel drive and in LOW the temp was up around close to 200 deg. So I had to find a cold air intake device other than a snorkel.
A snorkel is mainly just for crossing deep water and needs a cretin amount of ram airspeed to travel the length of the tube to the carbs inbox to make some difference in temp in the summer. At low off road speeds on dry land pretty much just helps with any dust but still susceptible and so far I have had no need for a snorkel, maybe one day.
I needed close forced cool air. So what I am about to contribute to my fellow 45 and 40 owners is my attempt to beat the heat. For what its worth.
With my finding for my rig, the closer the better for a cold intake set up. My engine air filter housing inlet horn is pretty much right up front but not enough cold air entering due mostly the radiator sets just to the right side of the intake horn blocking or causing a vortex of incoming ram air.
Step one - need to be close to the housing inlet horn, so cut a 3 1/8” hole at the lower part of the left fender skirt.
Step two - cleaned up the edge of the hole and installed edging trim around the inside of the hole.
Step three - found 3” x 3’ round flex tube.
Step four - cut a 2.5” x 3” section of exhaust tube I had left over form my Ford Bronco days. Used as a splicer section between tube and tube inlet.
Step five - I had a aircraft 3” instrument mount that I converted to the tube inlet holder.
Step six - used two 3.25” hose clamps for tube.
Step seven - install as seen. Temporally pushed the end of the 3” tube into the air filter
housing horn until I can fix it were can be disconnected/installed with some ease .
Grant you to everything good there is a bad, I just have to work around the bad.
The good - The cold/warm ram air inlet seems to be in a good spot for ram air.
Tested at 94 degs OAT- at light, stopped – 76 deg, driving 60 degs. It works.
(I'm sure each FJ is different this is just my findings)
Water from road wheel in a turn has no effect as ingesting water spray “so far”.
Oh yes lots better on the throttle responses, enough to notice.
The bad - Stay ahead or way back of any vehicles on dirt roads as the inlet is bumper high and will ingest dust. I have a cyclone air filter system with a K&N filter so I am not too concerned, yet.
If you cross deep water streams disconnect the system.
On rainy days or winter disconnect. I suspect that carb icing may happen. My tube has a high vertical climb to the inlet so small amounts of water droplets will vaporize before entering the engine.
So there you go something to think about when you’re out off roaming around in the heat or just around town.
Please - comments are truly welcome as maybe I missed something or someone has a better way, that’s what I like about this web site; we are all in it together.
Stay cool.

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Interesting work. I've always suspected some pretty high temps for air drawn under a hood--good to know some numbers.

I suppose you could try to fit a small intercooler as on a turbo'd engine, but space and location, and again the temp of the drawn air, are an issue.

I wonder if the air intakes as used on the US imported 40 series, with the intake closer to the front of the vehicle, makes any substantial difference in the incoming carb air temp?

It's an idea worth pursuing for those of us in high temp parts of the world.
I personally would prefer something less visible, but some good food for thought here.
Thanks for sharing.
 
Comming from a hot rod back ground ram air induction is not nearly as effective as cowl induction. I have a 67 camaro with a cowl induction hood that draws air from the low presure area at the base of the windshield, gm engineers figured this out way back when and it works! I once tied a string to the back of the cowl hood and when I jumped on it! The string sucked back into the hood! Great for a landcruiser as it would be high up on the cowl! Maybe an fj45 cowl hood, wait fj45's arent very fast? ? Duh? Anyway, good stuff love2fly!
 
I was not myself too fond of mounting something on the outside front on the 45 but this area was as good as I could find and close to the inlet of the air filter housing. As whitey45 mention low pressure areas were a good start but that to is not easy on a 45/40 to find and not to big on messing with the hood.
I am sure that some of the 40/45s will have a bit of a different reading if taken. I am pretty sure that the US newer models with all the parts and pieces under the hood along with the emissions equipment have temps that exceed what I had. My 1980 40 had the induction part of the filter housing pretty close to the front of the cowl but never checked it for temp. Always on all my rigs I open the hood after a good long hot drive and let them air a bit. I know that helps cause when I open the hood its like a blowtorch of heat. Anything helps.
 
Did some clean up and some driving this morning. Definitely a better throttle response with the cooler unrestricted air even with a now temp of 87 and climbing. That's about all I think its going to offer but I am now glad I did it. I hated to cut the 3" hole but being the only modification to the body I can live with that. Put some door screen around the inlet until I can make something a bit more professional looking. Now to get ready to enjoy the 4th of July
(working) and hope you all have a safe and fun day and night.

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Did you consider a snorkel?
 
:beer:Hi Kevin, yeah as stated in the initial part of this post I wanted a more direct and a shorter avenue to the air cleaner housing inlet with cooler air. The snorkel at idle only pulls some much air and has a bit of a distance to travel and also needs to be at a speed where the engine is pulling all the air in with the assist of some ram air. My friend with a Jeep has a snorkel installed and it looks cool and it does pull air with the V8 but it travels so far to the air box. We put a piece of toilet paper up to his intake on the snorkel at idle and it barely draws air but for my short run it pulls a bit more than his telling me less travel better draw of air and more. I just finished this install of the outside air cooling tube on this 45 and I must say it really does help. We have had temps in the 98-99 and it is performing much better that sucking the very hot air in the engine compartment especially at idle such as at a stop light as last year in the heat. I properly will install a snorkel at a later date for the river crossings but for now I am only wanting that cooler air for that old 2F beast.
Cheers :beer::beer::beer:
 
I may put a remote-reading thermometer in my air intake and play around with this idea - thanks for showing your experiment and the results.
 
My pleasure, but do remember that 40-45 engine air filters air intake horns in different year models are located in different areas in the bay. Mine is close to the front and to the side of the radiator. I think that most of the hot air is radiating from the radiator and the engine block by air vortex (guess) up and around and to the front to what may be a dead zone for air movment. For a loaded US emissions model I would think in the summer months the engine carb is sucking in some heavy heat. Mine is a simple Non US emissions clean model.
Just came back from a 60 mile off road overnighter with 100 degrees temp heading up and it ran as if it was only 56-60 degrees out. Heat is a good thing but to much is bad especially if the carb is digesting lots of it. I will also add again that the throttle response and smoothness (in this rig) is defiantly better, with a lighter touch of foot pressure. Again I am not saying this is a more power thing, new idea type thing , or whatever for everyone, It just works for my rig.
 
My 45 has added louvers in the hood [they were on the rig when I bought it] that keep under hood temps lower. Also I think that the 6 and 8 blade direct drive fans are going to be a factor over a stock clutch fan in a later rig.

I'd also wonder what effect taking the splash shields off of the framerails would have [assuming you still have them] for getting more air circulation under the hood.

My 45 tends to run on the cool side [big 4 core rad, 170 thermostat, hood louvers and no splash shields] With OAT at the century mark, highway driving is still sub 160 degrees and off road between 170-180. Interestingly enough, over 4th of July weekend [when I installed the new sliding window] I got the best MPGs I've had in a while with the higher operating temps [right at 14mpg]

Best

Mark A.
 
In this posting my main concern was the high temp hot air that was entering the carburetor as from the direct or indirect outside air. Routing a more direct input ram air intake was defiantly a success in my case for the carburetor, and the findings were a bit alarming on what the air circulation temperatures that are under the hood.
We tested my friends 80 FJ40 with results in the high 200s (OAT 93 driving 30-40 mph) but depending were we put the sensor in the engine compartment it would change any were from 200-170 degrees. The FJ60 was about the same. That makes me believe that we have different pockets of air in the engine compartment , low air pockets , and high air pockets, that tends to keep some parts of the engine cooler or higher in temperatures as we drive. If we look at any engine with a heat signature device it would be interesting to see the different areas receiving the most heat, wonder what yours is like under the hood with the lovers you have installed compared to others. Are they ram lovers or reversed? The old FJ40-45 are not in any way aerodynamically designed for heat control under the hood as we see today, but a bit of owner ingenuities can go a long way. The old cast engine blocks and heads are just a big heat sink compared to engines of today.
I guess we just have to live with what we have, to a point.

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With my project we too have opted to get fresh air into the motor...since I am running a GTurbo'd 1HD-FT, I can use all the cool intake air that I can get. 60 Series cleaner, with an 80 series top, fresh air coming from the side-vent which originally fed the heater. Modifications courtesy of Toploader and OrangeFJ45. With the lift it would take over 4' of water to give the rig any issues.

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That is a wonderful set up. I am sure you will get some positive cool air from outside with that and the draw from the engine. Looks as the side vent is facing to the rear. Can you flip the vent for more ram air?
 
That is a wonderful set up. I am sure you will get some positive cool air from outside with that and the draw from the engine. Looks as the side vent is facing to the rear. Can you flip the vent for more ram air?

Yes, it does face backwards at a 45 degree angle, but can be rotated in any direction...the issue with Ram Air is that the truck would need to be going much faster than I would ever plan on driving it to make a difference. IIRC someone did the math for a Safari snorkel on an 80 series and it was a <1% benefit even if over 65mph. Many folks even run their snorkel head backwards with no ill effect. With the turbo I was focused on having as big and un-restricted of an opening as possible, and outside of the engine compartment.
 

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