Fitting a K&N to a 1.4!!

[340GLT]

Hi i have a K&N bolt on filter arriving 2moro for my car and was wondering eho else has had one fitted to there 1.4? I know how to fit the filter but the question is what to do with the hot air pipe coming from the metal shroud around the exhaust manifold?
Any ideas?
Cheers Adam

[5lab]

that should still input into the air filter in some way, or you'll get carb icing. i'd personally say its probably not worth it - you'd get better gains from an engine swap with a 1.7 or 1.7 turbo

[V6 Man]

I'm not entirely convinced by this carb icing theory, not here in the uk anyway. I never had the pre heat pipes on either of my 300's, nor my carb'd 744, nor my 164 and I never suffered any problems at all. The inlet manifold will warm up nearly as quickly as the exhaust manifold, and to my mind will be just as warm as the air from the warmer exhaust which has now cooled due to it travelling across the front of the car to the air box.
I'm not saying it isn't the case in all cars, just that I have yet to suffer from it.

[5lab]

think its a bit different in a 300 - theres a lot of space in there, compared to engine size, especially for a 1.4 - hell they even got the spare under there! the icing isnt really due (afaik) to just the air temperature - i think its the evaporated fuel that makes the carb even colder, thus freezing up some of the fuel..

[daffodil]

carb iceing on the 1.4 is only a problem if the flap in the air box is broken or the pre heat pipe is missing
this iceing normally happens at a steady speed when the car starts to loose power slowly until you grind to a halt...leave the car for a minute and the engine heat around the carb is enough to deice and off you go for the next 20 miles or so
the k&n filter i think will be difficult to get warm air into it, and at low ambient temperatures hence carb iceing may happen...good luck any way

[wjp01908]

The problem with carb icing is that it occurs fairly high up in the carb - ie a fair distance from the warm inlet manifold. The ice isn`t frozen fuel - it`s water vapour in the incoming air that condenses on the cold metal of the barrel - this is chilled by the evaporating fuel extracting large amounts of heat energy from the air (try googling "latent heat of evaporation") This builds up and acts in the same way as the choke making the car run richer and richer until it dies.

Warm air from the cover on the exhaust manifold is less likely to get cold enough to cause this condensation, and hence icing.

The problem is that colder air is better for power output (as long as it is warm enough to effectively vapourise the fuel) - being denser, there is actually more air per cylinder charge than with warm air. Which is why when the car is nice and toasty, you have a valve that switches to unheated air.

I have had symptoms very similar to carb icing before but have not been able to verify this.

I have considered an aftermarket air filter before, mainly to get some of the weight of the standard one off the top of the carb - I reckon the weight is one of the reasons the carbs always shake themselves to bits.

I`d be interested to hear how this one goes with regard to carb reliability

Will

[huskyracer]

Carb icing is caused by the action of the air flowing over the venturi inside the carb, as the air passes over it it speeds up massively, which causes it to cool down, when this happens the moisture in the air freezes, and ice starts to form around the venturi, which makes the venturi smaller, so the air goes faster, and gets cooled more, and more ice forms, anyone see where this is going??!!! As the ice forms around the venturi and its diameter is reduced, you make more manifold vacuum and pull much more fuel from the jets, and runs very rich, eventualy causing it to cut out completely. as soon as the engine stops running the ice will melt very quickly with engine heat. If your car stops, quickly look at the carb, if it has water droplets on the outside of the body, you are getting carb icing, usualy this will only happen when the ambient temp is very low, but if the preheat to the air filter does not work or the coolant pipes in the bottom of the carb dont have hot water running through them, you can get icing in nearly any weather condition, especialy when at a constant cruise speed.

[special]

ignore these muppets and fit the damn k&n so what if you get carb icing youl get over it the car will sound much meatier or go old school in 3 easy steps

1, remove air filter and air filter box

2, strech a pair of tights over carb (carefull not to foul any moving parts)

3, fire the car up give it some rev and hear it try to suck the world in

stick with 1.4 for the moment get used to the car cos some people cant handle 2.0l

(can they 5lab )


by the way you need cold air to go in to the carb not warm air thats why cars perform better in winter i know mine does cos cold airs denser

[jtbo]

I would like to have normal paper filter that fits straight to glt throttle body intake. Anyone has installed this kind filter before and have model numbers?

No, I don't wan't to install that ugly big thing, that is in stock glt, into engine room. K&N and others don't filter enough, so only choice is that stock filter from some weird car

[340GLT]

Well guys the filter arrived and i had a few probs!
When K&N said it was a bolt on its not! The base of the bolt on is all rubber, and the only way to fit it is to remove the studs that hold the original airbox to the carb. Then the prob is when the jubilee clip is tightened, the rubber fouls on the choke! So a mate of mine knocked up a brilliant bracket for me thats awesome.
Then for the testing, i took the car to my local common and did exactly what i normally do! Boot it! From the same position i do when i had the airbox on and i swear the car was like nearly 10 mph quicker! I kid you guys not i was amazed! And the car sounds F£$&*^G awesome it sounds like there is a monster under the bonnet! I can get so many people to look if i drop it down and boot it! Another thing is it doesnt sound much different when parked up in neutral! Its when your on the road you really notice the sound difference!

[340GLT]

Hi well i drove to college this morning and guess what? The carb F%%^£*$G froze on me! I had to do a roadside pit stop and change to the standard airbox! ANy ideas on solving the carb freezing problem?

[foggyjames]

Let this be a lesson....

Also beware of the potential need to re-jet, which may manifest itself on full throttle.

I hope my twin carbs don't suffer from this!

As I always say with air filters, they're not worth all the hot air....they're talked about endlessly, but they make relatively little difference. I don't think we're guilty of this here, but on certain forums if more mention was made of serious engineering work, and less of air filters and exhausts, there'd be a lot more fast cars there!

cheers

James

[340GLT]

Speakin of twin carbs did anyone do a twin kit for the 1400? If so any info?Cometothink of it is there any info on here of any of the R sport kits?
Cheers Adam

[Ali]

I had exactly the same problem with my car when fitting an aftermarket cone filter to the original housing and removing the original element, every morning on the way to uni on cold damp mornings i'd just lose power until it finally died on me. Not sure if the performance different is just an illusion due to the meaty roar it gives but i did think the car picked up easier. Can't really think how you could cure yours but with a closed round the outside cone filter you could possibly use the original thermostat and larger hot/cold air feed pipes? When i tested the thermostat with a heat gun it took a fair bit of warming to get the thermostat to move the flap over so i guess the car is running on warm air most of the time, just not sure how to make a better hot air feed and how much performance gain a better flowing hot air feed would make anyway!
ALi

[foggyjames]

Yeah, there's a post about the B14 R-Sport kit, and I have the B19 one ready to go on my 360. B19 R-Sport info is pretty common.

cheers

James