airbox vs air filter
 

Any of you teccy wizards out there know which is best on a set of motorbike carbs:

An airbox with a cone filter on the front or a pipercross large dome filter

The reason i ask is a friend has a stage rally mk 2 escort with throttle bodies and a pipercross dome filter (PX600 type) he had it rolling roaded and the guy explained if he converted to an airbox and filter on the front (like a plenum chamber) he would get another 5-10 BHP

Any thoughts would be appreciated

An airbox worked well on the car I built to race for Teamtrain and it gave more umph out of the corners but top end suffered,maybe down to fuelling as never got to rolling road with it.

The problem you tend to get with cone or dome filters is heatsoak.
As there is nothing to sheild the filter from sucking in hot air, thats exactly what it does.
With an airbox, although not perfect, it does keep the intake air cooler than a cone filter, although a cone filter will suck in more air.

The trade off is always going to be flow vs temperature.

There is a bit of middle ground with products like the Pipercross Viper and such like.

i am fitting bike carbs you see and was going to buy a air filter like this:

http://media.photobucket.com/image/p..._baseplate.jpg

but then after speaking to a friend who explained his story about his escort i thought something like this may be better:

http://www.regals-motorsport.co.uk/p...27561_zoom.jpg

i could then just put a normal cone filter on the end of the plenum

My zx9r ran like crap with a foam filter on. When i fitted the bikes air box it felt like a different engine, downside the airbox is huge and sticks through the bonnet. Not sure the effect on a car engine with bike carbs though.

HTH Dan

bike engines usualy run much better with genuine bike airboxes iirc its the effect of harmonics on very short inlet lenths and high revs