Giggity

So did you take the lid off the filter box?

I'm not sure how removing the cosmetic shrouds around the engine bay and the noise dampening cover over the enine could have a snowball's chance in Dante's inferno of producing any kind of noticeable performance.

y2ks2k

To throw more random fire on the thread...

I kind of tossed opinions of this thread off and just did my usual grind as I usually do

I have about 100 miles on my tank of gas with 100% of my usual driving (5 miles back and forth to work and nothing more).

I was utterly shocked... completely.

For the first time in my 8000 miles (1.5 years) I broke over 20 mpg. My average has been strait up 17.9 miles since I bought the thing for each and every fill up. Same gas from the same Chevron thats had 100% time in the tank.

This was at the same time it was 90+ for days and I was rolling around with AC on. And if you think I was taking it easy on the car.. Talk To the WSP who gave me a ticket on I5 yesterday for speeding (ug).

Who knows, this could be related, but I find it hard for me not to put the imperial evidence together.. who knows.

I never made any more claims then it all feels better by the seat of my pants.

CoasterG

iTrader: (1)

You have to be running your 350 insanely hard in order to be only getting 17mph. After a year on average combo city/highway driving I get 24mph, if its highway only it goes up to 28 mph. And I push my 350 pretty well especially on the highway, it just soaks it up and loves it though.

I could see heat being the issue, the various reasons that have been expressed in the past are: aerodynamics (which I tend to believe to some degree, the dust and dirst in there tends to accumulate in certain patterns showing air flow patterns), cosmetics. They do trap heat really well, just go to the track and after a few runs the amount of heat buildup is very noticable.

sykocus

iTrader: (1)

As far as i remember the plastic engine covers do not cover the intake "scoop" thats under the hood at all. Unless someone has a picture of how the engine covers cover the actual intake. I not sure how taking them lets the car breath more. I can see if you are doing laps around a track having the covers off would help reduce heat building up in the engine bay. Other then that I think it's mental. The car sounds louder (faster) so people feel like they are going faster.

y2ks2k

Take it off and look for yourself. Like I said, I popped it off in literaly 15 seconds.

y2ks2k

Picture with front cover on:




Picture with the front cover off:




What you’ll notice with the cover off in the picture is that you just opened up a strait path from the front grill strait to the intake. With the cover on, the intake pulls its air from above the plastic piece with no path at all from air to go from outside to the intake. Basically with the cover on, you are pulling air from the engine bay, the engine is sucking air, you only get a little bit of fresh air through the small air slits down in the front.. With the cover off, at any speed, air traveling into the front grill can travel strait into the intake. The engine has a fresh air supply hitting it strait on (aka the "cold air intake theory).
Even a dyno should be able to notice a difference, especially if they have a nice cool fan blowing hard from the front.

Someone should test further I say.



Actually, if you look at the picture with the plastic peice, you can see the patern in dirt that the air takes to the intake.

y2ks2k

Heres an example of air flow using my elite photoshop cs2 skills.


On



Off

jimmyjazz

Don't forget the huge lump on the under side of the hood, I don't think the airflow is very good period.

Evitzee

Why not remove the hood, then the airflow will really be good. Unless you can provide some dyno charts, and detailed fuel consumption figures under the same driving conditions, your contention that there is a measurable difference is just conjecture and will, most likely, not be backed up by real world conditions. You'll have to provide some real data to get me to believe it. But if you think there is a difference go ahead and keep removing bits and pieces.

y2ks2k

Have you tried it?

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

I believe Toyota engineers know what they're doing.
I'll keep my covers on.
They look great!

EBMCS03

Alright all this talk people believing and not believing I'm going to try it for a month or so... I'm going to take off just the front piece though. It sounds like you guys are saying the two side pieces and the top engine cover really doesnt help its the front piece that does... so I wouldnt mind more power and better gas milage...

Plus I've been meaning to check how those M-Tech Bulbs were doing of mine... Last time I checked some silver star bulbs bought at a local store in another car they were all black and was almost burnt... the glass was deformed a little... look like it was drawing too much power and over heating


Ya they do... but you can ALWAYS make something better.

llamaboiz

maybe to keep it from burning the paint on the hood? is the only reason i could see a car manufacturer to put such a... err... un-ducted/un-sealed type of cheepo plastic cover... everytime i pop the hood, i never bothered to look up to see if theres a heat type shield on the hood...

Sorry lubox, i know you know your stuff but just how do you know it holds in a 'crazy' amount of heat? How were you able to measure it? and what were the results? Is there any real reason for the shield other than astethics? Is there any type of aero effect underhood for the ducting of hot air towards the windshield vents?

Yea sounds silly but ever see the winglets on the F1 cars? Our cars are Toyota's after all and just look how well were beating Spyker and HONDA

jackblack7

I just popped mine off too, just because I've never done it before and I wanted to see what it looks like underneath. I'll leave it off for a week or two to see if I notice any difference in performance/fuel efficiency. It's pretty obvious though that airflow is better without the cover. Whether it makes a difference in performance, we'll just have to see.

mort

I have noticed in the summer months when I wear sandals, that the weight reduction from no socks, has dramatically improved the performance of my IS….almost scary fast now, just like the TV ad says. My girlfriend insists on not driving with me unless I wear socks, as just a bit to fast for her. Since I refuse to wear socks with sandals, I have suggested to her just no sock but in Snow mode…..see what happens. Hope we can resolve this, as it is becoming a real issue in our relationship.