[PINITI]

We all have this FULL Belly pan under our engine bay. One direction of thought is that it allows air to pass under car and may prove to be more aero dynamic that way. - At the same time, cooler air is NOT entering the engine bay area - therefore trapping the warm engine air. (supplemental sources are needed) / another thought ; since only warm air is there, could that be a reason why many of us experience warm air flow into the cabin when we have our A/C off? - overall the hood, the engine cover and the belly pan all trap and recirculate warm not COLD air! does this make sense to you ? Would it be wise to slice off the rear half of the Belly pan?

 

[TEX35B16]

Funny you should mention it. I came real close to pulling out the whole left front well plastic shroud last night. After crawling under the fron end looking for some imaginary panel to remove; i thought I could remove just the bottom plate area. I'm here to tell you , you can't . It is part of a much larger piece. so much for that approach. Back to the directing air approach.

 

[PINITI]

got the idea by looking under car and realizing that if you carved/cut out an area between 2 or 3 bolts, you would leave the pan secure while allowing more air flow. (that's one supplemental air source/cold - the other is your center air scoop/forced)

 

[Sincity]

Isn't that pan there for high speed staibility?

 

[MustGoFastR]

Yes, it is an aerodynamic aid; I wouldn't lose it. It does have openings in places to let air enter, but without really seeing the flow characteristics inside the engine bay, it's hard to say what's getting where. As has been discussed elsewhere, it should be relatively easy to pipe additional fresh air to the area from the stock center scoop, so give it a shot and see what happens.

 

[TEX35B16]

Steve do you have an exploded parts view. I was busy drinking beer, when you were elbows deep under the hood. Thanks :shock:

 

[MustGoFastR]

No, I don't. If you're looking to put the center scoop back in, just give me a call at home and I can talk you through it; it's just the to parts of the scoop and two push fasteners.

 

[PINITI]

if you look closely at sonoman1 's post/thread about his stillen strut tower brace , you will notice not only his Injen CAI (complete) , but also he left his factory center air scoop in place. / he seems to be having some sucess / could it be? idunno, just speculating! - i just can't tell if he added any extension on it to further direct the air flow toward the filter. maybe he can tell us. sonoman, did you? can ne1 tell by looking at those pics.? did he open up an air flow hole in the belly pan ? did you, dave?

 

[Sincity]

I'm not sure if center scoop will make any difference even if you add extension to go down into wheel well area. The wheel well area should have sufficient airflow from the bumper cover grill area.

 

[PINITI]

key words are "should have" / get down there and LOOK!

 

[esemes]

you're onto it....

the CAI, although may be getting a cooler, denser charge of intake air, is not maximizing on the fx. It is in an area that is not designed to receive pressure.....

i was thinking, awhile back.....


1) LHS foglamp housing GUTTED and an intake channeled to it (if this works, the RHS could also be done, to add a bit more.....)
i always drove w/o the fog's on, as my upgraded (IMO) bulbs were very intense, and left no viusual improvement from the fogs anyway


most recently, after reading up on this INjen part, i was kinda thinking.......

2) CAI elbowed OPPOSITE of its direction now, eg: re-routed to the center of the grille, (behind, of course), where the static pressure is at its greatest (and guaranteed to be much higher than it is now....)

--if hydrolock is a concern, a simple bypass valve/foam curtain could be implemented to help resist H²O inhalation.....

/back under my rock/

eSe

 

[Sincity]

key words are "should have" / get down there and LOOK!

Went down there and looked. The center opening in the bumper cover feeds air into the condenser and radiator. The only area where I see air getting in is from the suspension openings and that is probably where the CAI is scavenging air along with the air inside the engine compartment. I suppose one can perforate some openings underneath the CAI to allow additonal scavenging. Also, you may also want to perforate the area in front of the spoiler underneath the LH foglamp. See pic:

 

[Sincity]

Anyone brave enough to perforate the black portion of the bumper cover to allow more air in? I'm not ready to.......

 

[particlefx]

Would it be possible to reach the existing openings to do a test first?

 

[curtiside]

Would it be possible to reach the existing openings to do a test first?

In the muscle-car days, the car mags showed how to perform an air pressure test so that you built your custom ram-air hood in a place that would actually give better air flow. A similar test could probably be done with the FX.

If I remember correctly (this was many years ago), you use a 1/8" or so tube filled with water. You place the inet of the tube where you intend to place the air intake. You route the tube into the car's interior with the tube making a dip between its input and the cockpit. You fill the tube with water to fill the dip so that its level is visible in the cockpit.

You now have a tube of water that will move based on the air pressure on the intake end. You mark the position of the water level at rest then you drive the car. At speed, you mark the position of the water level. If the level in the cockpit raises, you have more air pressure and if it lowers you have vacuum.

You can take different readings with the tube located at different locations to see which ones provide more pressure. The locations with higher pressure would create more airflow if a hole was cut there.

 

[TEX35B16]

The most telling angle; is the look from above, looking down the cavity where the Filter fits. It is fairly tight as MGFR noted , when he stated that the Injen filter was smaller than on his Stillen unit, due to the space confinement. I have little doubt that increasing the air will help. I will go after this along with cleaning the MAF tonight. (Got bogged down in a movie last night.) I'll not answer any questions concerning the movie-thank you very much for not asking. I am a little worried about the MAF sensor, being subjected to injector cleaner. When I pulled it out couple of nights ago, and blew on it; there was a shiney metal side and a plastic side, and a cavity in the front . Wher do I squirt this stuff? In the cavity? along the shiney side? Do i need to keep it off of the plastic area? I am a little unsure about this and don't want to screw this thing up.

 

[MustGoFastR]

You should be ok to spray everywhere as long as you use the right stuff. I wouldn't go with what was pictured earlier (that just looked like a can of compressed gas) or injector cleaner (not sure what's in it), personally. They make an electronics cleaner that is a non-residue solvent (I have a can at home, but don't recall what the main ingredient is). Something like denatured alcohol or brake cleaner might work as well. I can't get on My350Z from work, but if you search there, this topic was covered; you might be able to learn a bit more. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to clean it, but I REALLY don't think that's what the problem is; I can gaurantee that it isn't any dirtier than it was before the Injen install (I removed and immediately transplanted it without touching any part of the sensor). As for the airflow, InjenTech hasn't said anything about it and unless they blew cold air diorectly onto the filter during their dyno tests, I doubt that will do much either, but it doesn't hurt to try. Process of elimination is the way to go about it, but I already feel like we're grasping for straws here.

 

[TEX35B16]

I'm looking for the straw that will help me justify $280.

 

[PINITI]

Update bump: Food for thought! *** Has Anybody sliced off the rear half of the Engine Belly pan Yet?

Have you ever given any thought to slicing off the rear half of the plastic engine belly pan? :idea: It may be aerodynamic, however it also seems to "TRAP" alot of MPG/HP robbing Hot engine air. If it weren't there, wouldn't more cooler air be allowed to circulate around the engine bay?

Wouldn't this help the engine run cooler, therefore improve performance & MPG's?

 

[IronChef2005]

Piniti, I see what you're trying to do but at what cost? Cutting into the stock Infiniti belly pan could result in poor aerodynamics at speed and increased exposure to water, mud, crud, and rust. It seems very risky for what will most likely be an impercepatble possible gain in horsepower and mileage.