I left the snorkle tube in place which, now that you mention it, did little to help airflow. As far as sucking in hot air from the engine, the ambient intake temperature does go up when stopped at a traffic light, but drops down to within a few degrees of ambient once the car starts moving again.


With regard to the exhaust note, I wanted something a little more pronounced, but not sounding like a vintage muscle car. It's purely preference on my part. It took a few hundred miles for the sound to increase slightly in volume, but it's still not overbearing.

 

Have you ever mess with the idea of wrapping the Mina Housing with heatshield? I read in other Jaguar forum, someone wrapped it in heatshield foil much like the one in Ac and said that it helped the ambient temp quite a bit.

 

Interesting idea; would probably keep the intake air temperature down when stopped and idling. I might put it to a "scientific" test and compare the intake temp with and without insulation.

 

Report back when you do...I'm going to give it a shot as well

 

I temporarily removed the snorkel from the air filter area to see what the effect would be with a less restrictive air flow. Didn't notice a discernable difference in performance, but the intake air temperature spiked up very quickly at a light and stayed elevated until I started moving again, then it came down very slowly. With the snorkel installed, the intake air temperature stayed with a few degrees of ambient while driving, and ramped up very slowly when stopped. I also wrapped the Mina air intake box with insulation this evening, but haven' had a chance to drive it yet.

 

I take it that when you tried the snorkel it was with the standard filter box in place? I don't think insulation will make any difference - what is needed is a baffle plate between the area behind the rad and the area where the filter is positioned. That will make it easier for the engine to pull in non hot air via the wing and headlamp surround. Nature is soooo lazy that it will always take the easy way.

 

Hi Jim,


First of all, I'm using the Mina air filter kit which comes with a three-cornered box which bolts on the inner fender in place of the original OEM air box. The Mina "box" has rubber gasket material on its top edges which contacts the inner hood padding with the hood closed. It has similar rubber seals where the accordion hose enter the box. I've used additional self-adhesive insulation material on the inside of the box as well as on the small gap where the box meets the inner fender. It's basically as air tight as I can reasonably get it. Took a long drive with the car today, and am beginning to believe that it ran better with the snorkel tube removed, even though it was getting higher-tmperature air. Nature is indeed lazy, and the snorkel sits at a near right angle to the incoming air stream The snorkel is also curved a bit, and I/m wondering if those two factors are enough to impede the air stream. I'm going to do some side-by-side acceleration runs with and without the snorkel to see if I can detect a seat-of-the-pants difference and report back.

 

Thx for the experiment...I am waiting for the adapter to arrived and start my own experiments with the foil and snorkel

 

Out of curiosity, I removed the intake spout/snorkel and measured the intake opening and the discharge opening to the extent that I could (the openings are elliptical and tough to measure accurately). The nominal area of the intake opening is (very) approximately 4.70 square inches, while the discharge side opening area is about 7.8 square inches. That's a significant difference in area, in the neighborhood of 35-40%. Also the spout exits through the side fender well, twists, and ends up at about a 45 degree angle to the direction of the intake air, which doesn't help.


Please feel free to either confirm or correct my measurements; they are admittedly pretty rough.

 

You are right Max - hence my comment earlier that that's where the problem really lies. The question is .......... what to do about it. Obviously the baffle is needed to stop hot air coming across from the engine, so a bigger/better intake route is needed - preferably bigger in csa than the inlet pipe so there's a surplus of cool air.

I took a very quick look under my right hand drive bonnet (it was tipping with rain) and the area under/around the headlight might give some valuable cool air. In order to see if the wing location of the current snorkel position can be increased the wheelarch skin must be removed, but it might be possible to 'nibble' the sheet metal for a bigger hole.

Of course if you want to be REALLY flash - cut a new hole in the bonnet above the intake filter and put a false XKR grille over it but with the louvres sloping forward to guide air in.

 

I put the under axel system in this summer. IMO it really changed the car. I live in a very hilly area and my 2000 XK8 would have to downshift whilst going uphill. With the exhaust it does not. Pulls strong. Very pleasant exhaust note as well. With the top down you really get to appreciate it.

 

I too had looked at the wheel arch to improve cool air. The removal access panel in the wheel well looks inviting. Looked also to be a great place for rain water intrusion from wheel rotation.
Area around the headlamp may be the trick. I am looking at some type of air vent from the lower air dam. Rich

 

I agree with Hare on the Mina regarding the under-axle system having a better sound and a performance increase, bearing in mind that these are subjective judgements.


The latest on the air intake project; I spent some time seaing up the gaps in the Mina air box with self-adhesive insulation. I'm considering using an aerosol expanding foam, but am concerned that will make removing the air box to take off the right valve cover a problem. I also removed the "fuzzy" seal around opening in the inner fender, which increased the opening to 5-1/2" x 2-1/2" which roughly increases the intake area by a factor of 3 over the OEM snorkel opening. I let the car idle in my driveway for about 10 minutes, and noticed that the ambient intake air temperature increased, but by a very low rate, and never got over 15 degrees above the outside temperature.


So far, so good; now for the road test! A report and pictures of the air box and fender opening to follow.

 

The road test was very interesting and, in the absence of any test instruments, also subjective on my part. In "Normal" setting the initial throttle response seemed better, as did the sensation of acceleration when gradually giving it more gas. It still has that slight "hole" under 2,000 rpm if you hit it hard, but that's just a characteristic of the car. The response in "Sport" also felt better, as did the overall acceleration, and the howl between the Mina filter and the exhaust system was great!


There were a lot of small and not-so-small air gaps between the air box and the fender, and I spent this afternoon attempting to plug them with weatherstripping and self-adhesive insulation. The result wasn't pretty (see pictures), and after I drive the car for a bit more, I may end up going with the self-expanding spray insulation foam. Overall, I'm pleased with the result, and how relatively easy it was.

 

However, computers... I too have a mina exhaust and air filter installed. I have noticed changes in performance after a few hundred miles once the engine computer has adjusted to the new air filter/ exhaust. Kinda like when you do a hard battery reset. I do find the exhaust tones have improved after the computer relearn, ( particularly when cold, open loop), I am not so sure about the air filter. I have been having reduced performance here and again. Some on this site have stated they too have had some problems with the change air induction. Too much air?? I do love the sound on part to up throttle. I am trying items, filter covers and the sure to have a happy medium. Will let you know the results. Good luck to you as wll. Rich

 

That's nice...I think I am going to do that on mine too ..... where's my Santa Clause (UPS guys)? Just deliver me that dang adapter already!!

My Mina exhaust sounds much better now after a week...I do feel that combined with the intake sound I am pretty happy with it.... no x-pipe needed.

The only downside of the Mina exhaust is that it's pertruding when looking from behind the car (Yea I know I am missing a tow eye cover) I already have it but trying to find option of spending $200 to paint it or just plastidip it)

 

Yes finally I installed the Mina intake ...very easy and painless...initial test drive did confirm a quicker reaction on the gas pedal...and it sounds awesome....I measure the intake temp while moving and stopping....while moving the temp reads 19-21 centigrade and while stopping the temp hiked up to as high as 51 degree in a 67-70 weather.

I just bought


I hope it'll help with the temperature ...finger crossed.

 

Let us know how it works out in that application. Some of the reviews complained of the adhesive not holidng or the stuff delaminating. I'm probably going to use the expanding aerosol insulation foam on the openings along the bottom and the entry point of the intake duct. I would then use the heat shield product on all of the flat exterior surfaces of the air box. I don't know how much radiant heat effects the intake temperature in a high-velocity air stream, but it sure couldn't hurt. Also I"m thinking of making a sheet metal cover to close off the top of the air box since I don't know how effective the rubber gasket material on top of the box is in sealing it off from hot engine air. Now, the only issue is whether there is sufficient flow of air through the inner fender opening with wide open throttle. Don't know of an easy way to measure that.