So the last post on cold air intakes got me thinking. I have considered all kinds of things to cool down the intake temp. Here are a few. Fabricate a fan and bracket for the stock intercooler, heat taping the intake itself, better heat shield between the turbo and the intake box. Something I noticed today while checking my oil at a fill up. On the B5 A4, the intake is one the passenger side and draws from right above the condenser, which gets quite hot. On the oppiste side there is a matching vent but it is closed off. It is located right at the front of the intake manifold. So if I cut the inside of that vent so that it is open like the airbox side it would allow quite a bit of fresh air to flow right at the intake. Granted, the intake air has already passed through the intercooler at that point, but it seems like a real simple thing to do and it could help a bit. If you try this, be very careful, the backside of that closed off vent has two vac hoses running within about a 1/4 inch of the plastic that needs to be cut. Just make sure to unclip these and move them out of the way. What do you guys think? I figure any way to keep the engine cooler is a good thing, right? I'll just block it off in the winter.

 

I just got a bit confused as to how it would be routed. Maybe a pic or diagram would help me - I'm a bit brain fried tonight.

 

Well, it's just opposite the intake vent. Literally the same place just on the drivers side. And, at least to start with, I was just going to cut the inside of the vent out so it's open not closed. Basically it would just allow fresh air to flow in to the engine compartment from the grill and cool down the drivers side of the engine. I hope that made sense. I'll get a pic of exactly the vent I mean. I may need your help posting a pic though.

 

I know what yah mean..I dont think it would make a noticable difference but could help to lower under hood temps

 

That part I understand.
What were you going to do from that point? How were you planning on routing the "fresh" air? I don't see how, "...it would allow quite a bit of fresh air to flow right at the intake." I'm still perplexed. I'm intrigued, but still perplexed.

 

Well, I was going to just let the air flow in right at the manifold. It could be pretty easily directed by just fabricating a little duct work out of plastic, but I thought I'd see how much (it at all) it drops intake temp and or if the fan kicks on any less frequently. I just figure in the heat that any amount of outside air you could get into the engine compartment has to do some good. I'm going to try and attach a picture of where that blocked off vent is (number 2 is the blocked off one in question). We'll see if that works...

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OK... the duct work would be an interesting project. Sort of like my ram-air project I completed a while ago. It took some creativity, but it finally came together.

 

Well, I'm into it now. I cut that vent tonight and I'm working on the duct work now. We'll see. Did you post pics of the ram air duct work inside? I saw the head light mod, nice work by the way. What did you do with the airbox? And are you still using the stock MAF?

 

Ok, I've got it done. I drilled out the four corners and then used a saw to cut the whole thing out. The fan bracket is behind this, so when I cut it out I had to follow that contour when I cut it out. After I cut it out I filed it down so it looks finished like the airbox intake side. I have not finished the fabrication of the ducting yet, mostly because I haven't decided where to duct the air to. As I'm sure the air is going to cool only, not offer any noticeable performance increase, I thought I'd see how it did without any ducting first. In addition to cutting out this vent I removed the rubber seal that separates the engine compartment from the space where the battery and ECU is housed. I also removed the molded plastic piece that covers that area. I did this so that the air beong brought in through the newly opened vent would flow through the engine compartment and up and out over the windshield. I have not yet driven with the computer hooked up to check the various temps for any change, but that's next. It'll be interesting to see how much that cools things down. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

 

It's not the stock MAF.

The airbox is cut and ducted.

No pics yet.

Your idea for removing the stripping is very good. I have a buddy with a 2001 S4 who did the very same thing. He did it to reduce heat buildup, too. He's on a much larger project for ducting air into the engine bay... he's custom fabricating vents into his hood.