amgalex

I don't know about you guys but I always run with obd2 reader devices such as Nitrod in my car so I can see all the specs of the engine, temp, timing etc..
Anyways intake temperature of the e55s with normal driving on a 70 degree day is around 90-100 degrees which is higher than most cars and I suppose its because intake box sits on top of the engine and gets hot from radiating heat.
I think for every 10 degrees rise in temperature there is around 5hp loss on an engine, so just by insulating the air box to the point of 5 degree difference would be worth 10 hp or more . Very inexpensive mod and should be cheap to do.
Anyone else check their temps with obd2 reader?

Anyone try insulating the intake box and what were the results?

saintz

Alex, are you thinking it's the box or the intake tubes that are the problem?

amgalex

Well intake tubes contribute some im sure but if you look at the airbox, it sits right on top of the Intake plenum of the engine which get very hot and radiates heat unto the airbox.

ProjectC55

Insulating the box is a very popular mod. Quite a few good threads on it could be found.

ducks

whats the recommended insulation type?

amgalex

I think some type of Styrofoam insulation would work good.
Im not sure reflective type would work good since intake box almost touches the manifold.

ProjectC55

Google thermotec.

saintz

Just under the box, is that the consensus? I had a hard time finding anything definite.

armaniE55

C43 Is looking Tight!

Nocturnal-G

How would one go about of insulating the box? Can it be done by hand or would a professional need to do it?

nicobaires

any more info on this?

ProjectC55

Thankyou brother!

trinitony

Fixed it fa ya...

saintz

Ok, did some more reading

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...s-results.html

It appears that the tubes do very little to warm the air. I guess the velocity through the tube is high and air spends little time there.

The airbox does appear to heatsoak. Partially no doubt because it's on top of the engine. Also, I would guess that since the filter elements are large, air expands and slows down as it passes through the filter. This would allow for heating to happen more easily, as the air lingers here longer.


It appears a true spacer for the intake manifold would do a good job in separating the hot engine from the intake. Next best appears to be a thermal insulator for the airbox bottom. This won't be as effective, since heat will still move through the mounts of the airbox (solids conduct heat better than the air between the airbox and engine).

There also appears to be a "ram air" type scoop that can help direct more cold air towards the intake tube. I might look into this some more.

For now, I'm thinking either a heat reflective tape, such as for HVAC use, stuck to the bottom of the airbox, or a heat insulation pad, sitting between the two.

ProjectC55

The best air intake setup for your car would be the way they have the E430 and ML55 setup hands down. Blackbennzzzzz(CLK55K) myself and MBenzman,W211E55k and CLK55K are using these setups presently on our cars.

You can put spacers under the intake mani all you want,as long as the airbox is sitting on top of the intake manifold,you will always have a problem with hot air entering the motor.

nicobaires

Could you post pics and instructions of that set up?

AMS Performance

The OEM airbox plastic is already a great insulating material and it does block out most of the engines heat. If you really want to reduce engine heat on a budget, get a set of used stock manifolds and ceramic coat them on the out side, cure them and then reinstall and that should block out the majority of the engine bay heat from the source instead of doing a bandaid solution. It will also improve cooling as well since engine bay heat will reduce by roughly 80%. The rest of the heat comes from the waste air from the radiator. hope that helps.

saintz

Yeah, I guess that is a real advantage of the side mounted airbox versus the on-engine type.

saintz

Just to clarify, that's saying to coat the exhaust manifold. You could also coat the intake manifold, but that wouldn't be nearly as effective. I wonder if heat wrap would be easier.

AMS Performance

Coating the intake manifold is again an indirect solution. The source of the heat is the exhaust manifolds, so go straight to the source. Get a high quality ceramic based cured coating (not just those simple black paints that have ceramic in them like some manufacturers use that come right off). Now if you are really OCD, you could just ceramic coat your intake & exhaust manifolds but that is A LOT of work so its not really worth it, headers alone will take care of majority of the engine bay heat.

The stock log manifolds are shaped odd and wrapping them is not really an option. Also wrapping is an extremely ghetto solution and usually wrap = rust. You would also get an after market manifold such as ours, then ceramic coat it via jethot (or etc) so you make more power & reduce heat.

Hope that helps,
~AMS~