Before installing my cold air mod, I would drive home from work, pop open the hood and feel the air bridge - VERY HOT. In addition, a scan tool told me that intake air temps exceeded 140F at times. After the cold air mod, I did the same thing, only this time, the airbridge was cool to the touch. Granted, the OEM placement of the airbox is much better than the old air filter-on-the-carburator setups, but the stock C5 filter placement (even with Blackwing) is NOT considered a cold air system.

 

[QUOTE=Dave68 a scan tool told me that intake air temps exceeded 140F at times.

but the stock C5 filter placement (even with Blackwing) is NOT considered a cold air system.[/QUOTE]

Good information.

Ambient air is140 degrees around the radiator shroud.....

That's pretty cut and dry.

 

It has to be fresh air to be cold air ,......................the twin flow system lays down, right in front of the cold air intakes, witch you make active any number of ways it may not be the very best but,.........your car wont blow up in flames

 

The Vararam does indeed draw in colder air than the Blackwing.

The air going through the Vararam ducts is from outside the nose of the car and is sent straight back to the throttle body after entering the duct. The air the Vararam intake system captures is at outside temperature.

The Blackwing draws in air which has made it under the hood and has had a chance to rise in temperature.

Take a look in front of your radiator shroud which is where the Blackwing sits. You will see that there is not much of an opening in front of the Blackwing for it to draw cool air from.

 

OK, I've thought about it. I don't care if I run a Blackwing, Vararam or Fridgedaire. That cold air you keep talking about doesn't amount to a hill of beans. I run a Blackwing because it was available when I was looking. I also looked at what the high performance guys were running.

You got cold air and ram air. You just put the supercharger industry out of business. What amazes me is the number of people that actually believe this crap.

Bob

 

Easy, I think most of the guys are just trying to provide information.

As mentioned,I have run both Vararam and Blackwing. You can sit there and naysay as someone who has no first hand experience with both, but the fact is the cold air intakes are a little quicker, as exidenced by 20+ Blackwing and 20+VR runs. The feel is noticable. I'm not saying the ram air works or not, but I can say it's faster. Blackwing is still a good piece, just not the best anymore. After Iwas sure there was no hydrolock risk with the Vararam, I made the change.

 

Very many of the quickest C5s here are running the Vararam. In fact most of the owners of the quickest C5s who participated in a listing of the quickest normally aspirated A4s on this board are running some form of cold air intake, either the Vararam or the Vortex. And usually the Vararam. The Blackwing is on a lot of cars here, but the quickest are usually running something else.

If cold air does not amount to a hill of beans, then how come people run faster times in cool weather than they do in hot weather?

When people say "cold" air they (should) mean relative to underhood air.

No one is saying that a Vararam is more effective than a supercharger, but some are touting it as the best bolt on intake system out there. There may be some validity in that.

I have the Vararam on my car now after removing the Blackwing, and so far so good. I fully expect a documentable performance increase.

 

Check out Ft Wayne and let me know what they're putting on their high performance packages.

And if you're going to quote what I said, get it right. I said "That cold air you keep talking about". They were talking about the difference in air temp between the Blackwing and the Vararam.

I'm outta this one.

Bob

 

Oh, I quoted you right, its word for word. I pressed the "quote" button on your post before my reply. I'd rather look at Cartek and some of the others.

But before you go, what is your take on so many of the quickest normally aspirated C5s here running the Vararam vs the Blackwing? Is it coincidence?

Go over to the drag racing section go over to Z06Vettes.com and see what everyone running the really good numbers is using. More often than not it ain't the Blackwing.

The funny thing about the "Cold air does not mean a hill of beans" and that the " Blackwing takes in the same temperature air" folks is that if this is true then by extension they have to say that:

1. All of the people who have cut their radiator shrouds to let in air have done so for nothing. Thats whether they are using Blackwings, Halltechs, or Vortexs. If the radiator shroud was cut, it was a useless endeavor because any intake sitting on top of an uncut radiator shroud with uncut foglight shrouds is taking in cool air anyway..... air that is every bit as cool as the Vararam takes in.

2. Anyone with an underhood intake who has drilled holes into, or gone with, perforated foglight shrouds has done so for nothing. If you already have a Blackwing, then there is no point in putting holes into your foglight shrouds.

3. When the Blackwing was offered by vendors here, with a cut radiator shroud and airbox lid modification a few years back, but fell out of favor due to frequent reports of surging issues....... well this was really bogus anyway...... as there was never any potential gain to be had with a Blackwing covered by a lid over a cut radiator shroud in the first place.

 

I have to agree with Dave68 on this one. His instructions for the cool air intake are VERY detailed. I think the stinger with the cool air intake has to be one of the best intakes out there; here are the instructions for the CAI.
http://www.conceptualpolymer.com/corvette_c5_corner.htm