XR4 Cold Air Intake

[Luke Plaizier]

I've been ruminating and disliking the Mountune 'Hot Box', or those that put pods on their Fiesta intakes just to suck in all that hot engine bay air.

The Mountune solution looks professional but has holes everywhere, and will suck in just as much hot air as without the box, but the box is needed to pass Australian compliance.

So I'm doing some researching on my own to see if I can come up with a 3D printed solution for a revised intake system that is sealed and can draw air in from over the radiator or through the lower grill. This is road-car focussed so I'd not be keen on the lower fog replacement options I've seen.

The first thing I looked at was the factory solution - for both the 1.6 and XR4 over-the-radiator intake plastics. And interestingly there is already a difference. The 1.6 draws air just through the hole in the top cross member, by the XR4 draws are through that AND through a gap over the cross member itself.

Of note, the profile of the top cross member on the XR4 and 1.6 is different, so the XR4 intake will not fit on the 1.6 or vice versa.

Cross Member intake 'hole' - this image from a roadgoing XR4.



The 1.6 Intake shroud:



This is the XR4 shroud just loosely sitting in place:



Comparisons of the 1.6 and XR4 shrouds - the XR4 is noticeably higher due to the space above the cross-beam that allows it to draw more air, and the tube is offset to clear the XR4 send-throttle body vs the 1.6 'within the intake manifold' throttle body:





Lukeyson