Would this increas performance? And what extent would it have to be for the increase to be recordable? Please discuss
Heat proof airbox? WTF do you mean? the ABS plastic ones are heat proof - they dont melt when sat above the motor. One that are not heat proof melt into a poodle and do not work!
Sorry should of explained a bit better ( having a bit of a slow day) what I mean is that if you could prevent the airbox from becoming warm from the engine would you have colder thus denser air going into the chamber?
You could always line the outside of the airbox with a silver reflective tape/flexible heat-shield materials, which might help - Not sure it'd make much difference though.
I understand what you're getting at slof. Theoretically yes is your answer as the main reason for an airbox is to create a volume of still air from which the engine may breath, thus allowing an even air pressure rather than turbulent air, harmonics also come into it but that's another contributing factor entirely. Which is why cones on the inlets are no longer used. Now onto your question, I think what you're asking for is essentially a coolbox who's temperature is the same or lower than the ambient temperature in that undertank zone. You'd be looking at a heat deflector if on the box or a heat shield away from the box- 5-10mm. The easiest way to start if you really wanted the hassle would be as suggested, foil. put a heat strip in the box and run it to get a baseline temperature. You can use foil or preferably gold foil as this is probably one of the best heat reflectors. F1 roadcar engine bay and Formula1 airboxes being a prime example of where its used. I played with a jacketed airbox once, where there was a gap between the skins to allow air to pass through and out in an attempt to actively cool the box, however the issue lay in exit air, as any cooler in that way will only work if you can exit the air into a low pressure area, otherwise its just convection doing the work. However the inlet velocity was annoyingly high and intake area for this would have to be packaged along with all the other junk going on at the front of the bike (drag wasn't a factor at this point, but that's another issue) In a nutshell, ask yourself what speeds and use you're doing with it, if its sub 100 most of the time then you'd never really see the benefit of what you're trying to achieve. Is it measurable? Yes it is, But if you do want to line the underside fo your airbox with gold foil I'd be very interested to see the resulting data. The complex and costly way (Kope)... If you do have access to datalogging try this: Inlet air temp (preferably at 100mm intervals down the tract) Inlet air velocity Plenum internal temp airbox external temp engine case temp underneath the airbox air temp between engine case and airbox Petot Tube to measure baseline air pressure (leading edge of vehicle in a zone of unturbulent air) Inlet air pressure Plenum Pressure across several sections to determine stagnant areas. All that vs velocity and engine speed and you're golden. You could add to this, but this lot coupled with a structured test schedule should do it. . If you don't have any datalogging capability, You're essentially looking for the temperature values of: The air coming in and the air once it's in the airbox. (this determines variation if any between inlet and plenum (probably next to nothing) The temp inside the airbox The temp between airbox and tank the temp below and behind the airbox. Cover the airbox in gold or silver heatshielding foil measure results and collect data (reading heat strip temps) Doing it with the heatshielding first is better as theoretically it should be cooler. so.. when you remove the heatshielding, the heatstrips will record a higher temp. (saving you the cost of heatstrips as they don't 'cool down', just show the highest temperature achieved).
