Ram air intake question
 

I just made a ram air intake for my 85 280ce and I still have to connect the crankcase breather hose and the hose the connects to the bottom of the housing but I still took the car out for a test run. I noticed there is better throttle response and more low end power. The question I have is that can this hurt these m110 engines, I've never heard of a high flowing intake hurt a engine but my knowledge is with American motors. Any info would help, thanks

Discounting the last decade or so, Mercedes has been known to build very robust engines with scant few exceptions. I don't think the M110 is one of those exceptions and I'd be astounded if you could break one naturally aspirated.

Did you sacrifice a fog lamp for the air inlet?

Let's see pics of this DIY ram air intake.

Who needs a turbo when you've got "ram air"
http://www.musclecardiy.com/wp-conte...2016/05/15.jpg
At 240mph you'll have one whole entire PSI.

I'm not buying the "noticeable" improvement either. Unless you're doing 70+ there's not an appreciable increase in intake manifold pressure. Placebo effect?

Insufficient filtration can hurt an M110.

Sixto
98 E320s sedan and wagon

It's not a whole lot of power but cruising around I don't have to shift down as much, it just pulls better in the low rpm range. I'll try and get picks up. It's nothing special but it works

More noise = More power

"Ram air " is a myth, as shown in your attachment. I believe that formula only applies to an isentropic diffuser, and automotive ambient air intakes are far from that, but the intake geometry on a jet engine comes pretty close.

The main advantage of drawing ambient air is lower temperature. Engines gain about one percent power for every 10 deg. F decrease in inlet temperature, so assuming a difference of 30 to 80 degrees between ambient and engine compartment depending on speed and other conditions, the improvement is real.

Duke

Considering that the factory air inlet is a "cold air" inlet, I'm not buying improvements from a "ram air" intake for the temperature reasons either. Unless the OP was missing the inlet snorkel...

Agree with Diseasel plus the underhood temperature decreases to ambient as soon as the car starts moving at any reasonable speed. If one is idling in traffic or moving slowly, no power benefit accrues from an alleged C.A.I.

If what you guys are saying is there is no real difference between a ram air intake to a cold air, I can't agree with you but I do agree with the fact that it's not noticable enough for a small horsepower vehicle or worth the troubles to try and make one. But I can say that the intake I made does make a difference in certain areas and I still have to finish building it and do more testing but I've never had a vehicle that didn't gain something from a high flowing intake over a stock setup. I promise I'll put some pictures up soon.

If our guy's system made the intake tract longer, it would resonate at a lower RPM and possibly increase low end power. However, without instrumented testing, results are not verifiable.

Your cold air intake is probably making less power. I wouldn't worry about it.

I had a smash up that broke the air intake filter box 95 E320/ M104, and found the car wouldnt run without the filter installed. It seemed to need the intake resistance of the filter box/filter to have a steady idle and without it connected, it surges and dies. Could possibly be a vacuum leak back behind the MAF sensor at another joint being affected, and I misdiagnosed..who knows. but if you do need some intake resistance..ram air would mess that up totally. Your system may vary, not familiar.