Induction kit for valver- Is it worth it

[JonL]

I am thinking of getting an induction kit for my valver and i have heard varying stories about whether this is a good buy or not. Can anyone shed any light on this issue? If the answer is yes buy one, what one should i look at and what sort of power increase(if any) should i see. I currently have a Janspeed cat and Janspeed full stainless from the cat back.



Cheers

 

[ian h]

ive heard that hill powers ones are the best to go for, they offer an under bumper scoop for cold air in-take, very cool, ive got a pipercross on mine, dont notice any power gains but makes it sound superb!! if i was buying now tho would def go for the hill power one!

 

[Alex M]

I have a PiperX ind. Kit and it has been on and off several times. You will not gain any power, and if there is insufficient cold air reaching it, youll actually probably lose some. However they sound wonderfull, specially on a valver as the kits goes directly onto throttle housing, within an inch or so of throttle flap. Aint seen hill powers one, but heard good things as it comes with a decent cold air duct. This is one area of valver tuning that nobody has really produced the goodies in an off the shelf way, hillpower is closest and the best option to buy. However the best solutioncant be bought yet and a decent home made job (no viper kit for valver) with good ducting and probably the filter cone sealed, is a good project.



Alex M

 

[Nick Read]

In a word, NO.

Ive got something planned with a BMC carbon airbox that I will report on once it arrives in the next couple of weeks.

 

[wongy008]

get it if u want noise and yes it makes a ex noise but if u want to go for speed its a big no no if u do a lot of town driving.too much hot air in the engine bay. lots of people out of this club that have vavlers would of got one then went back to std aribox with perf element

wongy

 

[Ben j]

nope

 

[weight]

nope

 

[cliocup]

I have just taken off my K&N ind kit and replaced it with a standard air box and standard filter.

After a good few miles and runs in varying conditions, i have to say;

Doesnt seem to matter what you run, its the same speed. You lose the scream of the K&N at 5000-7000 revs but thats about it. The K&N is probably a bit better when revving high but cant really tell the difference.

There are so many other variables (fuel load, number of passengers, engine temp, air temp, tyre pressures etc etc) that you never get two runs that are comparable.

My opinion? Run whatever you want. A lot of performance changes are often only in the mind anyway...

 

[BRUN]

get a performance element instead, much better on the 16v and Willy, they run too hot for an induction kit

if you like the noise though get the hill power one, it has a proper feed and is still partially open

ive got a hill power kit on my RT

 

[wongy008]

cliocup

i dont know how u drive ur car but i would say its def noticeable straight away. on cold days there is little difference but try driving a valver or willy with an ind kit when the external temp is 25oC + there is just no or little low down pool and the car is very very boggy

up you to. but yes most ppl love that noise. its def one of the best ind sounds of any hatch

wongy

 

[Ray1916V]

thing is, is that the power gains from an induction are so minimal anyway that u wouldnt feel the "extra gain" anyway.

ppl like irvine and the f1 drivers struggle to feel an extra 15/20bhp when the fueling is altered when they are out on the track and can only tell when the lap times come in, so really in hindsight, theres not a hope that ud feel the diference from +2/3bhp from the induction kit.

at the end of the day kits like piperx produce a cracking roar and the HP one aint too bad either. id deffo warn against the k and n as it seems to suffer even more from hot air exposure due to it being metal and not cotton, something liek that anyway.

best thing to do, if ur on a budget, get a piperx, then case it in some heat proof material, then run some cold air feeds right up to the dam thing and leave it at that, it will make a little difference over the open plan induction.

if ur not on a budget - try modding a viper or bmc carbon sealed induction to fit ur clio

hehe i dont have to worry cos i got a 19 but until the bmc is sat under my bonnet im hooking up the feeds.

Ray

 

[JonL]

Hmmm well i may well stick with my current from bumper vent air feel directly to the air box, and then maybe get a performance element. Thanks for your advice peeps

 

[Matbrown]

Well just to throw a spanner in the works!

Running at york yesterday i couldnt get into the 14s with a K&N replacement element so i swapped it back to the 57i and i got constant 14.9s



Mat.

 

[Ben j]

is yours force vented to the bumper?

 

[Matbrown]

No,



But i do take the headlight out!!!



Mat.

 

[wongy008]

ok then

fair enough but the air could of got colder and denser later in the day or yes it may work well if you cain it all the time keeping the car in top of revs range. but for town driving and with a head lamp still in place its just too boggy low down and not good for punchy town driving.

discuss

wongy

 

[Ben j]

u drive down the road with your headlight missing!?

 

[Nick Read]

Yeah I was wondering how youd get on Mat. The headlight out would definitely help with the IK because really the cone is bound to flow better just because of its shape and size. Have you tried normal road driving with the IK and the airbox? You should find that most of the time (with the headlight in!) itll be better with the airbox on.

Ray - Ive had a BMC airbox on order since June, hopefully arriving this week. Once its in Im gonna quarter mile it and see if I can take a couple of tenths off my times. Im just gonna jubilee clip a Samco bend onto the throttle body at one end, the carbon box at the other, then the standard airbox hook up pipe will go onto the bottom of the carbon airbox.

 

[maciek]

hi Nick where do you plan to feed it from? mean is the intake in normal (this funny in front of the wheel, vertical pos.? or something rather forced

cos ill posibly try to do something with me intake. right now i have a K&N panel, but would like to try a BMC-or others- VIper & lookalikes. You have a normal throttle body dont you?

Maciek

 

[Matbrown]

Ben,

Dont think the police would like that!

Nick,

The only time i really feel a benefit is when ive been sitting talking for a while with the engine running but most of the time im driving flat out so i think im more suited to an induction kit, wanna try the Hillpower one and get them all on the strip or RR and see which is best for my car!



Mat.

 

[Matty]

Got my BMC CDA fitted on friday. Took 3 hours. RR is quoting 148 at the flywheel now against standard 137 bhp with just a Magnex cat back system and teh CDA. Feels a whole lot better than the K&N hot air sucker I used to have.

 

[maciek]

how much @ the wheels - what sort of transmission loss it calculated?

its a very nice topic - results on various RRs quite unbelivable are the differences... lol

 

[Matty]

RR quoted 126bhp at the wheels. Used 15 per cent as transmission loss.

 

[BRUN]

what did it quote for the other figure at the wheels ?

 

[Matty]

RR test was done after fitting the CDA and driving it to the RR place. Did not go through the hassle of putting the K&N back on to find out what it was before. Sure it would have been much less anyway. First time I have had a RR done and I was well scared, especially as they were astounded that Renault quote 72k miles for the 1st cambelt change. Mine having done 65k and being revved to hell for ages.

 

[philglover]

Had a thought jon - why not get an iduction kit anyway and enjoy it for the winter. It seems that the downfall with them is the heat under the bonnet, with the winter closing in and all this nice cold air, it might be worth fitting it and taking it off when it starts to get warm again, what do you reckon?

 

[maciek]

i think that under bonnet of a valver its always too hot, no matter how clod its outside

 

[Paul16V]

I got a K and N. I like it. hisses and growls. But im hopefully gonna design a carbon box and make it myself. Should be interestin

 

[Nick Read]

Mat - if it works for you then fair enough. Would be a good idea to try different things on the dragstrip and see what comes up best. I know you always carry your full tool set in a trailer behind you, so swapping them over is no problem!

Maciek - I already force the Renault airbox anyway -a forward facing ram scoop in the bumper leads into a 70mm pipe that connects to the standard airbox feed; the whole induction tract is only 60-70cm long from the scoop to the airbox and has one fairly gentle s-bend in it. It definitely does force air in at almost any speed although the most noticeable effect is at around 80mph and over. I can tell you this for a fact because the other day I noticed that on the motorway when I went full throttle the air/fuel ratio was richer than it normally was. Thought perhaps the air filter was clogged and was gonna check it out, then while I was swapping my wheels around, I noticed that the induction tract had come loose in the wheelarch! Hence the over-rich mixture because the box was only sucking in air rather than having it forced in. This effect was not down to the fact that it might have been sucking in less dense hot air, because the open end of the induction was still right down in the wheelarch where there was cold air - it just wasnt being forced.

Matty - glad youve got the CDA on mate. Guess what - Im still waiting and bloody Samco still havent made up my connecting hose after about 8 weeks of waiting. How did you get on with the adaptor plate? I wouldnt mind a photo of your setup...can you email me anything about it? nick@cliosport.net

 

[Captain Slarty]

Nick, one day you will accept that the ram air effect does not do anything for you..

I take it you are using a fully calibrated instantaneous gas analyser for these mixture readings... ???

or,

perhaps a cheapo lambda light jobbie that wont work effectively.. the manufacturer does not use the lamdba for WOT due to innacuracies, time delays and lambda bandwidth.. so why should you believe what it is saying.. ?

Another Myth, another waste of dosh.

Joe.

 

[Captain Slarty]

guys..

taking the headlight out is probably one of the most lufdicrous things I have heard of... that is really a joke.........

 

[Matbrown]

Cheers Joe,

Im here to entertain!



Mat.

 

[Nick Read]

Joe just shut up - youve always got a smart nonsense answer for everything and youd say black was white just to argue with someone and try to force your ideas on people. Ive had enough of it.

 

[Captain Slarty]

is black not white ????.

you really need to chill out dood... and not by removing a headlight...

 

[Matbrown]

LOL

Dont let anyones comments bother you Nick!

I dont even know if it makes a difference, but it gives me a psychological advantage.



Mat.

 

[Ben j]

quote: Nick, one day you will accept that the ram air effect does not do anything for you..



um captain are u not the one creating a turbo!! what the hell do u think thats doing!!??

 

[Pysco]

A turbo is a pump, it does work on the air and pumps it into the engine, the ram air effect can in no way increase the pressure of air entering the engine above atmospheric.

 

[Ben j]

it still rams air into the engine!

 

[Pysco]

yeah, but it does work on it, it increases the pressure above atmospheric, which the ram air effect dont!!!

 

[Ben j]

oh yeah ... wasnt doubting that at all but the theory of a normal ram air system acheiving nothing is obviously proven wrong as the turbo is the same theory just a lot higher pressure.... that was what i meant...