A tale of intake restrictions on the EA82 (what's in YOUR fender?)

[Syonyk]

As I've posted a few times, I'd been trying to figure out why on earth my '92 Loyale was down on power - it wasn't as fast as my '87 GL, by a long shot, and there was no good reason. I suspected fuel or sensors, but couldn't find anything wrong.

 

After some fiddling with a vacuum gauge, I determined that my badgeless intake snorkel was collapsing under load, and choking the intake off. Fixed that, and things were MUCH better - it had a powerband that went up to 6000 RPM or so instead of 5000, and was much better at getting up to speed, holding speed, running with the AC on, etc.

 

Oddcomp was kind enough to give me a bit more useful info. Specifically, he informed me of the presence of a silencer in the fender. Me: "Silencer?" I didn't know it did anything other than suck air straight in. So... half an hour of cursing later, and I had the beast out. And suddenly, I realized why drilling out the airbox helps people. It bypasses this beast.

 

Having removed it, the throttle response is better (about 33% of the intake length was removed), it feels like there's a bit more power, and... the sound. Oh, the sound. I have an engine that makes noise now! On the throttle hard, and "vrURRRRR" - as opposed to "whoooosh."

 

This is the monster I pulled out.

 

 

 

This is all your engine breathes through, stock.

 

This is what an unsuspecting individual might be lead to believe the engine breathes through.

 

-=Russ=-

[Gloyale]

Just make sure you didn't leave it so that mud/snow/etc.. can get up there and clog it. I don't know how much deep mud/snow/water you deal with but I can tell you from experience (with a 90 ford ranger) that sucking water splash or mud up into the filter box is bad.

[mikeshoup]

That's the first thing I remove on a Subaru when I buy it, that damn little silencer.

[86ruguy]

yeah, i took out the one on the legacy too:headbang:

[GeneralDisorder]

Actually a automotive engineering major (IIRC), and respected member here flow tested those intake snorkels and they are not a restriction of significance to a stock EA82. The sound is deceiving - it has the psychological effect of making one think they are getting more power.

 

The badge on the rubber snorkel is definately a good find though - I hadn't payed it much attention before you mentioned it.

 

GD

[Syonyk]

I can believe that they're not horribly restrictive at stock power outputs. They're still ugly though, and IMO the car sounds MUCH better without it. :-)

 

Do you by chance have a link to that thread? I've looked, and I can't seem to find it. I'm also planning to put a slightly hotter Delta cam grind in my engine when I pull it out to reseal it (again - damned rear main), so I'll be flowing at least a bit more than stock.

 

I haven't gone back out with my vacuum gauge to check high RPM vacuum and see if it actually made a difference, but I can say the throttle response seems improved - it's happier to rev, which would be consistent with a shorter intake system. This evening I'm going to do some pulls with the vacuum gauge and see if it actually affected anything numerically.

 

I'm also posting this as a FYI - I've owned 3 EA82s, over about 4 years, and never knew these were in there.

 

-=Russ=-