hehe I knew youd have to answer that one Joe! but whatever you say, and a lot of it makes sense, as an ex-engineer I simply cannot accept theoretical arguments that dont match the facts that I see every day in my car, having experimented with many different induction systems.
It is only in the last year or so that aftermarket manufacturers have been going back to the airbox principle rather than pushing induction kits, but Ive been changing my induction system every few months and trying different things for the last three years! The fact of the matter is that at speed with my ram-induction system and my engine, there is a noticeable leaning of the inlet charge in proportion to the speed you are driving at, above around 75mph. This was with the fuel map and pressure staying standard. TO compensate for the increased volume of air entering the cylinders, the fuelling had to be adjusted on the chip to get a greater and more even fuel supply at the upper half of the revs, and fuel pressure was slightly increased.
As you know, the simple fact is that the more power you want your engine to make, the more air/fuel charge you must burn, in the correct proprtion. By increasing the air volume with the ram induction and having to increase the fuel side by fiddling with the chip and the fuel pressure, I have achieved that. It pulls like a train on the motorway and it didnt before. The AFR at between half throttle and WOT demonstrably goes totally lean at high speed (without extra fuelling to compensate) which it doesnt at low speed.
Maybe there is some other, more complex explanation of why all these effects that I expected have been happening following my installation of this system. Or maybe its just that my simple theory was correct and it has been borne out in practice?
BTW Im pretty sure that the inlet air is no colder being rammed in from a front mounted ram-scoop than it is from being sucked in from the calm, much more sealed area in front of the wheelarch - on a standard 16v this is just behind the foglight and panelled off, there are no effective heat sources anywhere near it.
