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Ps design velocity stacks fitted to my M3

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10 minutes ago, Paddybrown23 said:

God that looks good! I've seen stuff like this before. I don't really know much about engines, what exactly do these do? 

It's a new design / airbox for the m3. 

Theres not many air boxes on a m3 that produce power gains. Most loose power. Recently there is oem, Eventuri and the csl carbon fibre intake. Pete who used to be part of redish motorsport has his own business and had developed these. These give the car some decent power gains and the noise is unreal 

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Hi my names is Pete, I am the owner of PSDesigns. I am not a sponsor on the site so will need to be careful how I post regards this product but I thought I would answer the question regards Heat Soak. Thanks for the positive comments and for raising this question, I knew that it would only be a matter of time before someone mentioned “Heat Soak”!

Before I address the question I think it’s important to understand the phenomenon known as "heat soak" and the fear that it has instilled in so many forum regulars! “Heat Soak” occurs when the engine is turned off, not during engine running, especially on normally aspirated cars. It is also far more of an issue in forced induction applications. 

When an engine is switched off, the combustion process is terminated. This terminates the momentum of the crankshaft, which in turn stops the turning of the water pump. As the coolant is no longer being circulated, the engine block and cylinder temperature increase for a period of approximately 3 to 10 minutes, depending on the engine design and additional components, with an S54 for example this period is closer to the 10 minute mark due to the design and material of the engine block.

During this time, the engine block radiates heat to the air surrounding the engine, which is slowly cooling the engine. However, the cooling process occurs very slowly, and as a result, the temperature of the engine block transfers the heat to the coolant and in turn other components in the engine bay. The coolant temperature increases, which in turn increases the pressure inside the coolant system. This is why the vehicle's coolant temperature gauge increases over a period of time after the engine has been turned off and why it’s a rubbish idea to remove the expansion tank filler cap during this time! I’m sure we’ve all tried it!

The components that “Heat Soak” on an S54 OEM Intake system are the intake charge pipe and to a greater extent the “Intake Air Temperature” (IAT) Sensor located within the MAF (Mass Air Flow) Sensor. This is why companies sell IAT relocation kits. As said the “Heat Soak” occurs in the main when the engine is off and the car is no longer provided with a cool flow of fresh air, from either the fan or as a feed from the front of the car during driving. The oem airbox, (filter housing) and Intake Plenum can “Heat Soak” too during this period, during normal driving this does not occur, the cooling system does a good job of keeping the engine temp down, and a good feed of fresh air from outside the engine bay helps the engine run efficiently and keeps things cool.

The reason why K&N Style filters cause poor running and a reduction in power is not due to “heat soak” as defined above, the main reason is because they are “oiled” filters, the oil forms a coating on the IAT/MAF which over time degrades the sensor, They can also be more restrictive then an OEM filter as they are not oiled, The oil gets ingested by the engine and sticks on the IAT within the MAF on it’s way through the intake system. This reduces the sensors ability to withstand heat from the air surrounding it. Meaning the sensor can read false temps, (the engine believes the air temp to be higher than it actually is causing a reduction in power) The ECU will actually retard timing to compensate for these higher temps giving the reduction in power.

With regards to my Intake kit, for years racing teams, rally cars and engine builders have been running “Velocity Stacks” without any concerns for “Heat Soak”, it was with this in mind I spent a year researching what heat soak is and what it affects. I drive our demo car (my car) daily and have done for the last 2 years and now for over 20k miles. The key to the conversion is good ducting of cold air to maintain healthy cool air flow. The IAT Sensor I use in my kit, as with any other IAT sensor needs to be mounted to give an accurate representation of the air temp being seen by the engine/ecu. For that reason it's mounted between stacks 3/4 on a custom bracket or Carbon Fibre heat shield, depending on which option is chosen.

I have been monitoring iat's for the duration of the 2 years I've been running the conversion and can report that when driving iat's are no different to those with the OEM intake, if anything the conversion provides a better flow of cool air to the velocity stacks, as with the OEM intake or a Carbon Airbox this does creep up when stopped in traffic for example, but as soon as the car moves and air flow resumes the temps fall far quicker than with any other style intake, I've done extensive research into it.

The Velocity Stacks and Filters Cool very quickly due to the nature of the materials they are made from, when supplied with a cool flow of fresh air, far quicker than the OEM intake system which stays hot for ages! Anyone who has opened their bonnet after a drive and felt the temp of the Intake system knows how hot this can get, all that black plastic does a great job of retaining heat!

Here is a Rolling road printout showing Wheel Horse Power and Wheel Torque for my car, as you can see, no problems with the graphs, throttle response is unbelievable as the system is so unrestrictive. It also makes good power and more importantly reliability isn’t affected.


0F6C7417-7202-4CE9-818D-FE90003D62DE_zps

 

Hope this answers your question in a non-patronising manner, I thought it were important to establish what we were talking about and how the issue is addressed. All of my customers who have run my kit have been over the moon with it, none have reported any running problems or reductions in power, I can assure you, I wouldn’t be running it if there were any problems, I certainly wouldn't be selling it if I didn’t believe in it.

All the best,

Pete.

PSDesigns

Edited by PSDesigns
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