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Tag: Subaru WRX

  • Understanding Intakes – Cold Air and Short Ram

    Understanding Intakes – Cold Air and Short Ram

    Thousands of individual components work together to help your vehicle operate at its peak performance level.  All those components would be inefficient if fuel, spark, and oxygen were missing from the operating equation.  This article will concentrate on the oxygen your vehicle breathes and how we can improve the oxygen quality to improve performance.     

    So, how does your vehicle get the oxygen it needs?  

    Through the vehicle’s intake system.  The air intake system will bring air from outside the vehicle, into the intake manifold and create an air/fuel mixture.  This mixture is then ignited within the engine’s cylinders, providing you with Power! 

    Many times, the stock, or OEM, intake system is restrictive and does not supply the volume of air needed, at the temperature needed, to help drive performance.  There are several ways to address this OEM limitation and a new intake system, either a Short Ram Intake (SRI) or Cold Air Intake (CAI), will help to quickly remedy this situation.  The question is, which intake system is right for you?

    Short Ram Intake (SRI)

    Most OEM vehicles contain a resonator and silencer box to reduce the induction noise associated with the intake.  The resulting impact of these items, besides the fact the induction noise we want to hear is reduced, is that they restrict the airflow into the intake manifold.  

    A SRI eliminates both the resonator and silencer box and provides air with a more direct path into the manifold and increases power.  The system will also help provide you with a much better induction noise.  

    One issue that comes with a SRI is the quality of air it is delivering as the intake is exposed in your engine bay.  The air in your engine bay is generally warmer than the air you would have received through the airbox due to the engine heating the air around it.  Although the power is increased through less resistance, the warmer air decreases the overall performance gains seen with other intake types.     

    Cold Air Intake (CAI)

    CAI systems aim to solve the warm engine bay air issue by providing you with two intake filter position options.  The first option is by using a longer intake tube to help route the intake filter lower in the engine bay or into the fender well.  Having a low-placed filter is great for taking in cooler air, but it is also a location that could potentially hydrolock the engine by pulling in water.  Pulling water into your engine can cause significant damage and defeats any performance improvements you would have seen from the intake. 

    The second option is using a closed airbox, that is fed outside air, with a more direct flow for the air to travel.  Many CAI are designed this way for daily-driven vehicles and utilize the factory air box location.  This design helps to provide the vehicle with a shorter distance for the air to travel, colder air through a new closed-box location, and virtually eliminates the concern for hydrolock.    

    Which Is Right For You?

    Not all intakes are created equal.  From quality to performance perspective, there are TONS of choices and each delivers a different result.  An intake is a key component to overall vehicle performance as it will not operate properly without it getting the oxygen it needs.  Our Recommendation:  Get a high-quality product that is going to deliver proven results.   

    At National Speed, we go to JLT, Cobb, APR, Cold Air Inductions for our customer projects and they consistently deliver great results.  The mass majority of our staged packages include a CAI that was specially selected for your vehicle based on hundreds of installations and dyno pulls.   

  • Air Oil Separator (AOS) vs Catch Can

    Air Oil Separator (AOS) vs Catch Can

     

    For this article, we will look at the application of an Air Oil Separator from IAG to a 2015+ Subaru WRX featuring the FA20 engine.   Some features will vary from vehicle to vehicle, but overall terms and features should be applicable between various makes/models.

    What is an Air Oil Separator (AOS) and what does it do?

    The AOS, sometimes called the Octopus, is meant to help during the combustion process by keeping oil vapors out of the intake tract and the engine combustion chamber. 

    You might be asking yourself, “Why is oil getting into the tract/combustion chamber in the first place?” 

    To answer that question, we need to look at the Positive Crankcase Ventilation system (PCV) which it is decades old technology.  The PCV system was developed to reduce emission, crankcase pressure, oil leaks and blow-by.   The PCV helps to reduce blow-by at seals and gaskets by removing crankcase gasses generated by the combustion process.   The PCV from the factory is not as efficient as it should be and can allow oil to make it by the piston rings (blow-by), into the combustion chamber, thereby creating the potential for smoke, loss of power, decreased gas mileage, and even catastrophic engine failure leading to expensive repair bills.

    As oil vapor makes it back into the engine, engine knock can occur.   Engine knock is an audible sound that you can hear and occurs when the combustion of the piston is coupled with a combustion of oil vapors in the cylinder.   This secondary combustion (that should not be there) is the “knock” that can destroy an engine.

    The AOS helps to reduce blowby, creating a cleaner system and delivers oil back into the intake manifold and out of your combustion chamber.  

    What is a Catch Can and what does it do?

    To keep this simple…think of the Catch Can doing everything that the AOS can do, but with one big difference; it catches the oil and does not recirculate it into the engine.  A Catch Can requires ongoing oversight and maintenance as Can itself must be emptied. 

    The Octopus – Hoses and Functions

    The AOS is sometimes referred to as the “Octopus” because of the multiple hoses, attached to ports, that come off the part.  Ports are located on the side, top and bottom of the product.    

    Side – 3 ports – To relieve crankcase pressure

    • Two that go to the valve cover breather ports, one on each side of the engine.
    • One on the top of the block, under the intake, which is the main drain line where the oil gets redeposited.

    Bottom – 1 port

    • Drain Port – dumps the oil back into the port on the top of the block

    Coolant Ports

    • Idea is to route coolant through these to help the AOS to reach the same temperature as the engine.
    • Helps to prevent condensation and water making into the

    Top – 3 ports

    • Two go into crank case ventilation.
    • One to the new in-line PCV on the intake manifold

    Summary

    AOS systems can help your vehicle’s engine last longer and run cleaner.   Many of our Staged Packages feature AOS products and you can read through the options, or reach out to us directly, to determine which package is right for you.   National Speed can help to order and install this in no time…it’s time to get one today.