Are You Dense? Importance of Air Density in Making Power | Tuner Univ... http://www.tuneruniversity.com/blog/2012/05/are-you-dense-importance-...

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Are You Dense? Importance of Air Density in Making Power

Air is a combination of gasses, primarily nitrogen (about 78%), Oxygen
(~20.95%) and to a much smaller extent Argon, CO2 and other trace
elements.

All gasses expand when heated up, meaning that their molecules spread
out and thus fewer molecules occupy the same amount of space. Thus,
hot air has less oxygen and cold air has more. Today we’re going to talk
about how important air density is and how you can maximize your power
production by paying close attention to charge temps. We’re also going to look at how air density varies when
under boost and when at atmospheric pressures and how temperature can actually cancel out boost – if it’s not
controlled!

The more tightly packed the air (the colder it is), the more oxygen we can cram into the cylinder to create power.
This is similar to the idea of forced induction (turbo/supercharging), by compressing air we can also force more
molecules into the engine with each stroke. However, in naturally aspirated engines, one of our only tricks to
cram air into the cylinders is by breathing in the coldest air possible.

So the eternal battle over “short ram” versus “cold air” intake systems usually revolves around intake
temperature. Short ram intakes for most vehicles place the conic air filter under the hood and thus are subjected
to higher than ambient temperatures whereas cold air intakes take in roughly ambient temperature air.

Factory intake systems vary, but most of them are of the “cold air” variety in that they draw air from an area that
is typically close to or at the temperature of the air around the car. Some heating of the intake charge does occur,
especially at small throttle angles. However, especially at wide open throttle, the intake charge is
moving so fast and the temperature differential between the air and the surfaces it’s in contact
with so small, there’s VERY little temperature rise in the intake charge.

Now, understand that if you’re driving around town at part throttle and then snap the throttle open, the intake
air it initially pulls in will be slightly warmer than atmospheric (usually about 10 degrees warmer in a stock or
CAI type setup). Are their gains to be had by keeping underhood temps down? It’s good to do in general (if
nothing else to protect components from hot exhaust headers), but don’t expect any miracles and except in the
case where you’ve added a huge heat source (like say, a big turbo) I wouldn’t be too concerned with this.

Getting the coldest air we can get though, is definitely important and below I’m going to show you why.

Using the chart below then, we can see that at 30 degrees air has a density of 0.081 lb/ft^3 and at 60 degrees it

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Are You Dense? Importance of Air Density in Making Power | Tuner Univ... http://www.tuneruniversity.com/blog/2012/05/are-you-dense-importance-...

has a density of 0.076 lb/ft^3. That’s roughly a 6% difference in the amount of actual air being ingested and thus
we can see that even a small hike in intake temperatures can make a pretty big difference in power output
experienced in the real world. When intake temperatures are higher (perhaps due to lower speeds/higher
radiator loads/heat soak/whatever), the differences are much more dramatic.

The old rule of thumb is that for every 10 degree hike in intake temperature, there’s roughly a 1% loss in power
production. This is a really rough rule that in practice can vary quite a bit, but it gives you an idea of the
importance of intake temperature.

Below is a charge of air density at differing temperatures as well as at atmospheric pressure (NA) and for
comparison, at a very low boost pressure. Notice how much more density you get with a good turbo or
supercharger setup.

Air Temperature Density (lb/ft^3) at Sea Level Density (lb/ft^3) at

(Fahrenheit) (0psi) 5psi

30 0.081 0.109

40 0.080 0.107

50 0.078 0.105

60 0.076 0.102

70 0.075 0.101

80 0.074 0.099

90 0.072 0.097

100 0.071 0.095

120 0.069 0.092

140 0.066 0.089

150 0.065 0.087

200 0.060 0.081

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