Turbo ram air intake?

[Drake_93]

I have an SBD400X turbo kit on my 10-series.
Also happen to have a full blown oil cooler, currently the oil cooler sits behind the right turn signal.
Currently doing some DIY work and dremelling out the fake vents for a cheap functional air vent. Planning on taking some aluminum stock and making small duct for the oil cooler just to push more air across it. Would it be beneficial to manufacture up a ram air intake for the turbo. I'm not directly looking for horsepower gains, just wanting to keep intake temps low.
Unfortunately I don't have any monitoring software/gauges but I'll be getting an ecutek cable soon.

[Hags86]

Where is the air intake now?

[Drake_93]

The intake is currently in the standard position for the kit. It's about 3 inches to the left of the driver side headlight, just behind the crossbar? (Area between the engine and the radiator fans) it's just under the front of the hood.

[FRS Justin]

The turbo is ran off the exhaust that determines the turbine speed the turbo is only going to pull what the turbo will allow so I say no it wont help a thing
The whole idea of a ram air is to force air in and the turbo is already doing that a hell of a lot more effectively than a ram air ever could

[Hags86]

I agree with FRS Justin. You won't get any Ram air but a good supply of cold air is beneficial. I'm not familiar with the kit but if it's getting fresh air (e.g no warm air after the radiator etc) then that's good enough.

[FRS Justin]

Originally Posted by Hags86

I agree with FRS Justin. You won't get any Ram air but a good supply of cold air is beneficial. I'm not familiar with the kit but if it's getting fresh air (e.g no warm air after the radiator etc) then that's good enough.

IMO I think the turbo will heat the air up past the temp of what is going in even from the engine bay. I think Hags86 is on to something with just a simple relocation might be the ticket

[Tcoat]

[FRS Justin]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

That's a N/A car so a ram air would work in that application......

[gtengr]

Ram air also helps a turbo because compressing from Pin to Pout requires less work input the higher Pin is. The effect is trivial at most speeds, so as others mentioned I'd just make sure it's getting air as close to ambient as possible and move on.

[Hags86]

For what it's worth here is mine. Custom built crash bar and shroud around the radiator and heat exchanger on the Water-to-Air intercooler. Fresh air is ducted from the enlarged front grill up into the intake which is thermally isolated from them radiators.

Engine oil and transmission coolers mounted where the foglight/indicator panel used to be.

[Drake_93]

Not quite sure if the wording was incorrect I guess... but the main idea for the duct work was getting the turbo to breath nearly pure ambient air, as compared to the considerably hotter engine compartment.

Here's a picture of the kit... not mine because the entire bay is way cleaner but, here you can see the position... it's up towards the front but it's only going to be getting hot air off the radiator

[Hags86]

Ok. Ram air refers to getting the high pressure air of a car traveling at speed to 'force' air into the engine. This is dubious benefit at best on a NA car but especially questionable you have a turbo doing that for you.

What you are talking about is a cold air intake. You definitely want one of those.

[FRS Justin]

If your running water to air you have the best possible cooling you can get don't worry about the air going in. you cant beat water to air. If you want to mod it work on cooling the water it will be the most beneficial
My bad I lost track of whos who lol

[xwd]

That kit isn't air to water, it's air to air. I think separating the intake from the hotter under hood air, especially near the turbo is a good idea, but in my experience if the intercooler is decent and has sufficient airflow it doesn't make a ton of difference. You could always remove the washer fluid bottle and put the filter down there