D1984
forum member
I have the PMAS "CAI". I think it looks OK, sounds awesome, and flows awesome. But it sucks in a ton of hot air from the engine bay. The "heat shield" is a joke that fits like garbage and is not sealed off whatsoever. When I'm cruising, it's no big deal. I have a Steeda upper grille and Boss/CS lower fascia so everything is really open. IATs cruising and on my WOT datalogs are at the most 10 degrees F above ambient, most of the time right at or a degree or two above ambient, even without the heat shield (no difference in IATs between heat shield vs. no heat shield on my car), so once it's moving it's fine. But when I am stopped, the IATs start rising fast and significantly whether the heat shield is installed or not. You can definitely feel the car being sluggish off the line after sitting at a stoplight. At the track, I think this would hurt my quarter mile times since it doesn't drop down to an acceptable level until I'm going like 40-50mph.
The MAF housing is made out of aluminum, then there is a silicone sleeve followed by a plastic elbow and another silicone sleeve that connects to the TB. Just feeling it with your hand, you can see the aluminum MAF housing (which is quite large and makes up about 30% of the overall length of the unit) gets EXTREMELY hot vs. the plastic and silicone.
I decided to go to Home Depot and pick up a roll of adhesive pipe wrap insulation tape: http://www.homedepot.com/p/E-O-2-in-x-15-ft-Foam-and-Foil-Pipe-Wrap-Insulation-Tape-FV15H/100174724
The only part of the intake I wrapped is that aluminum MAF housing and the silicone section attached to it. I did a quick job just to test it. It looks super ghetto, I'll probably redo it later. I might do the elbow too but that doesn't sit very close to the headers and really doesn't even feel that hot compared to the rest.
I tested it by letting it sit in my garage after about a 30 minute drive (I was datalogging for my tuner today). The outside temps were about 81 degrees when I test it with no wrap, and about 86 degrees when I tested it with the wrap. AC on or off only showed about a 2 degree difference F, sometimes higher sometimes lower, not a significant amount in my opinion. IATs as measured live by my Diablosport Intune are as follows:
No wrap: 68-70 F degrees above ambient
Wrap: 47-49 F degrees above ambient
So the ghetto Home Depot wrap on only about half of the intake tube was good for a 21 degree F difference in idle IATs. Pretty significant if you ask me. I figure it will help the IATs drop a lot more as I'm pulling up to the line at the drag strip.
Here's a blurry picture of how it looks. Pretty damn ugly but it doesn't bother me. I'll redo it later so it's just a continuous wrap all the way around with no gaps.
temp image upload
I also took my breathers off today and reinstalled my factory PCV (with Ecoboost passenger side PCV valve) as I've been reading some not so great things about engine longevity with breathers and really don't want to deal with cleaning them all the time anyways, but that's a little off topic.
EDIT: And you might be able to spot my zip tie that's holding the driver side PCV hose at a certain position when it comes out of the inlet on the PMAS intake. That's another fitment issue with this thing. The PCV hose is at a pretty big angle compared to the inlet on the PMAS, to the point where it actually broke it loose when I managed to connect it (it's a metal piece that sticks through the plastic elbow and is secured by glue) and I'm sure would create a vacuum leak. So with the zip tie it holds the hose at an angle where it can go straight into the inlet instead of pull it to the side.
The MAF housing is made out of aluminum, then there is a silicone sleeve followed by a plastic elbow and another silicone sleeve that connects to the TB. Just feeling it with your hand, you can see the aluminum MAF housing (which is quite large and makes up about 30% of the overall length of the unit) gets EXTREMELY hot vs. the plastic and silicone.
I decided to go to Home Depot and pick up a roll of adhesive pipe wrap insulation tape: http://www.homedepot.com/p/E-O-2-in-x-15-ft-Foam-and-Foil-Pipe-Wrap-Insulation-Tape-FV15H/100174724
The only part of the intake I wrapped is that aluminum MAF housing and the silicone section attached to it. I did a quick job just to test it. It looks super ghetto, I'll probably redo it later. I might do the elbow too but that doesn't sit very close to the headers and really doesn't even feel that hot compared to the rest.
I tested it by letting it sit in my garage after about a 30 minute drive (I was datalogging for my tuner today). The outside temps were about 81 degrees when I test it with no wrap, and about 86 degrees when I tested it with the wrap. AC on or off only showed about a 2 degree difference F, sometimes higher sometimes lower, not a significant amount in my opinion. IATs as measured live by my Diablosport Intune are as follows:
No wrap: 68-70 F degrees above ambient
Wrap: 47-49 F degrees above ambient
So the ghetto Home Depot wrap on only about half of the intake tube was good for a 21 degree F difference in idle IATs. Pretty significant if you ask me. I figure it will help the IATs drop a lot more as I'm pulling up to the line at the drag strip.
Here's a blurry picture of how it looks. Pretty damn ugly but it doesn't bother me. I'll redo it later so it's just a continuous wrap all the way around with no gaps.
temp image uploadI also took my breathers off today and reinstalled my factory PCV (with Ecoboost passenger side PCV valve) as I've been reading some not so great things about engine longevity with breathers and really don't want to deal with cleaning them all the time anyways, but that's a little off topic.
EDIT: And you might be able to spot my zip tie that's holding the driver side PCV hose at a certain position when it comes out of the inlet on the PMAS intake. That's another fitment issue with this thing. The PCV hose is at a pretty big angle compared to the inlet on the PMAS, to the point where it actually broke it loose when I managed to connect it (it's a metal piece that sticks through the plastic elbow and is secured by glue) and I'm sure would create a vacuum leak. So with the zip tie it holds the hose at an angle where it can go straight into the inlet instead of pull it to the side.
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