danbrazda

There's a reason this is in the newbie section, so stick with me here...

-Why wouldn't Ram Air work? I see all kinds of info on the internet saying Ram Air is all hype and strictly for looks. Isn't the principle behind Turbos, Superchargers and the like to get as much air into the intake as possible so you can burn more fuel and make more power?

-People say the WS6 Ram Air System does nothing except look cool. If the scoops on the hood were sealed how could the airflow to the intake be as good?

-Explain how after market lids make more power? They retain more volume in the lid but how does that equate to more volume through the throttle body?

I'll leave it there for now. Sorry if these are dumb questions but as I said, that's why they are here in the Newb section.

LS1W66

The Ram Air hoods are NOT sealed to the Airbox and they have baffles inside to deflect water and keep it out of the engine. These 2 things make the hoods marginal at best. Do they help supply cool fresh air ? Yes is there a raming effect ? No.
But as has been stated on here and many other boards before if the Hoods were sealed to the airbox and the baffles removed you would still only gain about 3HP at 100+ mph.

As for the Air lid the restriction is the Oval part where the resonators are. Putting on an aftermarket Airlid will eliminate this turbulente area smoothing out the flow to the MAF and therefore make more power.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

^ What he said. It's all correct.

chaman

iTrader: (5)

Yep...nailed it. Think of the "Ram Air" more in terms of a cool looking CAI (cold air induction system).

danbrazda

Gotcha. Still seems a bit weird that removing the baffles and sealing to the air box only adds 3HP at 100mph. Isn't that the concept of the cold Air Intake systems that supposedly add a lot more HP than that (ie- adding outside air vs hot air from the engine compartment)?

LS1W66

The reality is to be more functional the scoops would need to be more prominent (either farther out or higher up off the hood) and that would not be as astheticaly appealing.

edzsilverss

iTrader: (4)

Keep in mind that most of the air that gets feed into the engine comes from the bottom of the car and not "just" the hood/ram air. That's why most do the free ram air mod on top of the hood version along with a shitload more money and mods. Look at my sig lol.

mikedamageinc

iTrader: (49)

There is always a ton of questions about this and while it does seem like ram air should do a little at least, it's not worth the time people put into it. It doesnt take an engineering expert to know that fresh air is always better but the reason turbos and s/c work is because they compress the air, not just move it faster (which has been discussed at great lengths).

But what should be the final answer comes from recent articles in Car and Driver, Road and Track, etc about the new Ferrari 458 Italia. Ferrari claims the ram air system makes a whopping 5 hp at 200 mph. The fact is, most of our cars wont hit 200 and dont go too much over 110-150 in the quarter. So along the same lines you might get 3-4 hp tops at that speed. And the ricers that always talk about squeezing every last hp dont even hit 100 so you're talking 2-3 if you're lucky.

Bottom line is, do the free ram air mod if you want a few FREE ponies, get a ram air hood if you like the LOOKS. Get a turbo or s/c if you want the POWER.