Heatsheild air feed pipe, is this not harmful?

[G00SEY23]

Forgive me for sounding like a noob...

On my newly acquired mk1 clio 1.4 i have noticed there is a pipe feeding hot air from the exhaust manifold into the air intake, is this not a bad thing? If i am wrong and it is vice versa (cold air feed into the exhaust manifold to cool it) this is still a crap idea no? dividing off some of the cold air feed to simply attempt to cool something that is endlessly hot seems pointless.

Can somebody enlighten me on this? would it be more useful to aim this feed elsewhere to pump the hot air out of the bay? I only ask as i have never seen or heard of this on any other car ever.

Thanks.

 

[Ol’ Tarby]

It's normal. Stops carburettor icing when it's cold

 

[G00SEY23]

It's normal. Stops carburettor icing when it's cold

Didn't think this engine was carburetted being a '98 car and all, thought it would be fuel injection?

 

[G00SEY23]

after doing some research i have learned more about carburettors, spi, mpfi and direct injection. I think im right in saying this engine is SPI is it not?