[s-bend]

this is courtesy of the guys at helix13.com 1. open hood 2. take ducttape and close off the 4 open slots on underside of hood in front of your hoodscoop 3. close hood 4.$send thankyou check to helix13

[mn_angrybeats]

Whats that meant to do then ??

[ficcion]

More explanation please....

[s-bend]

it has nothing to do with radiator flow. these slots are in front of the hood seal .. which is the rubber seal that runs over top of your snorkel and across the front. by closing these off it forces any air hitting the front of your car to go into the snorkel or go thru your radiator, both results are better than simply letting this pressurized air bleed off to no good effect . those slots serve no design purpose, but are simply stamped into the under hood as stiffeners. in any street or race car, you want any air hitting the front of the car to -DO- something ,either feed an intake or go thru the radiator. any air that bleeds around is wasted cooling.

[s-bend]

sorry, but i forgot this, if you follow where the air exits you will see this air never goes thru the face of the intercooler. all the air for the intercooler comes from your hood scoop, which is why there is sealing foam on your hood to seal against the top of the intercooler.

[Grinder]

What you're saying makes very little sense to me. Well, i understand that you dont want to lose the air, but as far as what the duct tape is doing....i'm lost. Maybe i've gotta go pop the bonnet and see what you're talking about...

[jlm]

when the hood is closed, the air taken in through the grill (not the scoop) can go three places: intake snorkel to blower/manifold; radiator; or through the mentioned 4 holes which bleed off air between the hood layers. seal off the 4 holes with duct tape.

the intercooler only draws air from the scoop and isn't related.

[rroorryy]

When you open the hood, look at the underside. In front of the hood scoop are 4 rectangle shaped holes about 1" X 3" in size. I believe these are the one's he's talking about. I taped mine up tonite and will give it a try tomorrow.

[CurtP]

Still doesn't make any sense on the MCS since it's supercharged. What it sounds like is a ghetto style "Ram Air" mod, which I don't see it doing much since the supercharger will suck what it needs on the inlet side.

Even a true Ram Air setup doesn't do much until you reach speeds well over the posted limits.

[jlivingood]

I overheard this conversation and understood they actually tried it on the dyno as a joke and it made a bigger difference than several air intake kits on the market. Go figure. I need to look under my hood again and snap a picture so I make sure I understand the physics of what is happening.

Jason

[dukesantos]

Well I hope this works for you guys. I will be astounded if BMW's engineers overlooked this.

[jlm]

it was my car on the dyno and we were convinced the improvement was real.

the result, along with the standard air filter replacement, seems to show that the S benefits from getting more air supply. that blower is getting choked down. Furthermore, we did this with the car atationary, using a wimpy fan for cooling, so any ram air effect was of little consequence, normal or enhanced.

Take a look at those holes and the way intake air gets collected by the hood sealing on the rubber gasket and you will see the thinking.

Better yet, Helix is hosting a "Dyno Day" on Dec 14. get your butt over there and test your own car; this would be very informative, especially if several cars can be compared.

check our their post in the US Meetings forum.

[s-bend]

did i mention this was FREE every manufacturer misses things in the first generation of production. BMW is too busy with M3 motors that blow up..i think the engineers may have missed something there...in truth the downside to this is...NO WAIT..it's FREE

[jlivingood]

First step for more power - clean off those leaves from your intercooler!

[jlivingood]

Here are the holes...

[jlivingood]

Looks to me like the 4 holes, when patched up, allows more air to build up before (in front of) the black sealing strip. Looks like that should then push more air into the duct pushing air into the intake.

[jlivingood]

Ultimately, I think the idea is to push more air into here...

[Dom]

if that's the principle... it might work on the cooper and standard airbox... could have effects on engine bay temperature

Dom

[jlm]

my car had the rogue intake; we measured 3.5 hp increase by adding the tape mod. such an unbelievable result that we ran it twice to be sure.

as far as air flow in general, i believe the low pressure generated under the car while moving helps to extract under-hood hot air. under-hood supply air goes first through the scoop, intercooler, over the intake manifold and head and then out under the car. Air coming in the grill goes through the radiator and around the block and out or into the intake snoot. if some ot that air went into the four holes, it would get sucked through the space between hood outer and inner layers, leking out toward the rear and then out the bottom. not much of it would get directed into the engine compartment per se.

my conclusion is that if such a simple mod can make a difference, the air supply is fertile ground for considerably more improvements.

[Keith]

I have added the duct tape to my car and will see if I see any difference tomorrow. I had not noticed this path in to the air box. My posts here covered other changes to add air to the Rogue CAI that complement this fix: http://www.mini2.com/forum/showthrea...1&pagenumber=2

One thing confuses me - I can't see how the duct tape fix would help when stationary. How did it make such a difference on a dyno?