Cold-Air Intakes (CAI) for 88-91 CRX Illegal

[Gregg]

As some of you know, two of the front-running CRX's in the country were protested at this year's ARRC for running what are commonly known as cold-air intakes or CAI. As one of those two cars won the ITA race on the track but then lost the protest, the findings were appealed.

The CoA has just rendered their decisions....
Attachment 519
Attachment 520

I know that there has been a fair share of past debate about this in this very forum, but, it should now be clear that if/until there is a rules change, cold-air intakes for the 88-91 Civic/CRX (and by extension the 2nd-gen Integra) are not legal in Improved Touring.

[Chip42]

Amen.

[Gary L]

+1

[iambhooper]

The findings appear to be the same.

So whats the actual feeling on this... is it ok to use an aftermarket cold air type intake as long as it remains in the engine compartment, or within the original intakes confines? I could envision senario's that given the age of many of our IT cars such parts might be not be easy to come by, either tossed away or damaged, where one would have to use an aftermarket intake.

hoop

[Xian]

Aftermarket underhood intakes are still completely legal. These cars were running a loooong filter on a tube design that placed the filter in the vehicle wheelwell... the CRX did not pull air from the fender in stock configuration.

[iambhooper]

Gotcha! You know, the pickup for the stock Fiero intake was in the quarter panel behind the drivers side, leading into a canister air filter b4 going into the TB. Which might actually be a illegal in a stock location per the ruling.

[GKR_17]

Gotcha! You know, the pickup for the stock Fiero intake was in the quarter panel behind the drivers side, leading into a canister air filter b4 going into the TB. Which might actually be a illegal in a stock location per the ruling.

No, the stock location is perfectly legal.

[rhygin]

Hah... shouda seen the intake on the ITB Golf that I saw at the Lime Rock NARRC this year. I saw it through the grill... and thought... hmmmmmm....

When Black Betty was a street/track car I had fabricated a NACA duct into the headlight cover and the intake temps dropped by about a LOT of degrees on a hot day and yes... I measured it with a multimeter. The drop in the intake charge temp was staggering.

Somewhere I heard the rumor that 10 degrees is roughly 1 hp (for the technical people, I will say uncle right now and I have nothing to back it up except for some bench racing talk). The gain wouda been on the order of 6 - 7 hp. Yikes....

not to start a holy war here... but I would love that intake back and the 6 hp... everyone else could do the same.

[gran racing]

Remember guys, this is a ruling on this the 88 - 91 CRX and CAIs and just like Xian said " ... the CRX did not pull air from the fender in stock configuration." There are some cars out there where the original air source was from the fender (not talking about a resinator). There's a reason I have the OEM shope manual for my car ear marked on that page.

I'm not sure where the Golf III pulls air from OEM, although now you've got me more curious.

[Xian]

x2 for what Dave said... some cars DO pull from the fender/bumper/grill/etc. For THOSE cars it is 100% legal to have an intake running to that location. Your options for air "pickup" are Stock Location or Underhood.

[RexRacer19]

While this particular case does specifically name the 88-91 Civic/CRX, the ruling should make it easier to get the grey out of this rule when applying it to other makes/models. It should serve as notice to folks that want to try and push the limits on it.

Did the OEM intake source air from inside or outside of the engine compartment? Yes or No?

[Knestis]

Hah... shouda seen the intake on the ITB Golf that I saw at the Lime Rock NARRC this year. I saw it through the grill... and thought... hmmmmmm....

The MkIII Golf takes its air from inside of the engine compartment. Remember that "in the engine compartment" means "anywhere in the engine compartment."

Now, the fact that you could see it through the grill raises another potential issue. I can't foresee a combination of legal allowances under which I could, say, use a narrower radiator and put the air intake inside the engine compartment, but right in a blast of air coming through the grill...

K

[shwah]

And the MkII Golf came two ways - one pulled air from the passenger fender, the other from a duct behind the passenger headlight. Both are nice choices.

[gran racing]

That's weird. Any idea why they made the change? Doesn't matter - just curious.

[JeffYoung]

Ok, then next question. TR8 picks up air from two fairly small holes in each inner fender well, which takes a tortured path down to the airstream in front of the wheel well.

So what does that mean? Are any modifications allowed to get a filter down there? Or am I "stuck" with the stock holes?

I suspect that latter, which is fine and which I frankly hope is the correct rule because if not, using the "stock location" rule to open up intake paths is a can of worms I don't think we want to open up.

[dickita15]

Now, the fact that you could see it through the grill raises another potential issue. I can't foresee a combination of legal allowances under which I could, say, use a narrower radiator and put the air intake inside the engine compartment, but right in a blast of air coming through the grill...

K

Any radiator may be used, provided it is mounted in the original location, maintains the same plane as the original core and requires no body or structure modifications to install. No new openings created by fitting an alternate radiator may be used for the purpose of ducting air to the engine.

They already thought of that.

[Xian]

So what does that mean? Are any modifications allowed to get a filter down there? Or am I "stuck" with the stock holes?

I think this paragraph speaks for itself.

9.3.B.iii.Z

Any modification is allowed that will enable the intake air to be sourced from the stock location. This includes but is not limited to radiusing, drilling, clearancing, creation of new or expansion of existing holes in the body work. Nitrous Oxide (NOS) injection is also permissible via update/backdate and on ITS cars with V8 engine.

If it doesn't say you can... then you can't Where is there an allowance that let's you modify anything to route your intake?

[JeffYoung]

It's a complicated but compelling (although wrong) argument to me. I also think I phrased the problematic "free" part of the rules wrong. I'm not talking about modifying the stock hole, I'm talking about how I use it.

a. You can pickup air from either (a) the stock location or (b) anywhere in the engine compartment.

b. Air hoses, pipes, tubing, etc. ahead of the carb or throttle body are free.

I think the rules allow you, in my case, to snake a tube down the hole in the inner fender wall and run it to a cone or panel filter out in the airstream by the radiator. While I say allow this, I don't think this is the intent of the rule nor do I think it should be allowed.

"Stock" location means to me using the EXACT setup outside of the engine bay as was used stock. Tacking on the free tubing/pipes/etc. rule outside of the engine bay is where you start opening this up to snorkels and such that we don't want.

[Xian]

Ahhhh... I see where you're going and disagree. I think what you described is exactly what the rules are meant to allow. The "stock location" is a fixed point in space and If you have holes thru which the air was pulled originally, then you should be able to route intake tubing to/thru those holes (stock location) and then run them to a cone or panel filter. The rules states location requirements for sourcing air but doesn't state that stock compenents be used to obtain the air.

I don't see where it states that the "open intake tubing" is tied to the "anywhere in the engine compartment" verbiage and exclusionary of the "stock location" allowance.

[Gary L]

Jeff - IMO, you're going as far right as the Mosers went left!

If your car sourced air outside the engine compartment, you can, too. If the primary source of air was inside the engine compartment, you can't. No, you can't cut holes, or enlarge holes, or other monkey business, because there are other rules that disallow that sort of thing. But otherwise, the rule essentially says intake plumbing is free, so long as the air source is correct.

But hey, while we're picking nits, try this one on... the Volvo 142 sourced air outside the engine compartment through a sizable hole (at least as big as the throttle) in the RH radiator support panel. But the stock plastic intake snorkel that went through that hole was protected by a thick rubber doughtnut. Can I remove the doughnut when I (legally) get rid of the intake snorkel?

On edit: The "doughnut" is a grommet that is designed to be held in place by the sheet metal.