Install a Volant CAI & Analyse it:

In preparation for the Kenne Bell supercharger that may get here some day, I wanted to ensure that I was getting the coolest air into my engine as possible. I had removed the snorkel on the stock air box of my ’96 Cobra, and installed a K&N air filter.

Using my Xcal2, and SCT’s LiveLink software, I logged my commute home and saw that my Intake Air Charge temperatures would go way up while I was stopped at stop lights, and then drop down while I was driving. I figured that when the car was in motion, there was plenty of cool air displacing the hot air in the engine compartment. But I figured when the car was stopped at the light, the air in the engine compartment would heat up, with plenty of hot air getting into the air box and fender.

I did some research about cool air intakes on the internet, and selected the Volant Cool Air Intake kit because it leaves the MAF sensor and filter in the stock location, but uses an airbox that fits perfectly into the hole in the fender that the stock snorkel goes into. There are no pipes with bends in front of the MAF sensor to cause turbulence, and I don’t have to move it all into the fender. Volant also claims that the material they use is a good insulator, so it keeps the air cooler than the stock material does. I decided to buy one and put it to the test.

The first challenge was to find one in stock. It turns out that Volant stopped making their CAI kit for the ’96-98 Cobras about a year ago. I finally found one on the Truck ‘N Vans Warehouse web site, and I ordered it. It turned out they only had one left and it was lost in their warehouse system. It took them a couple of weeks to locate it and get it shipped to me. You can still get Volant CAIs for the ’00-02 Cobras, and the ’96-02 GTs and 3.8s, but I am pretty sure I got the last available unit.

Installing the Volant Cool Air Intake kit:

1. The Volant ’96-98 Cobra kit has two bypass hose fittings, one for the stock 3/4” hose and one for a 5/8” hose. If you have a stock setup, you will need to buy a 5/8” cap to cap off that fitting as you will not use it. (I got mine at Winchester Auto Parts.) You will also need 4.5” of ¾” hose, since the stock bypass hose was 1.5” too short. The stock Volant pipe had an un-drilled fitting for the hose that goes to the passenger side valve cover. You will need to drill a hole in that fitting about the size of the hole you capped on the other side. Volant included a short length of hose that goes on that fitting, but that hose was one size larger than the hose that goes into the valve cover. That necessitated another trip to Winchester Auto Parts to get a reducing adapter, which they had, thank God. I also found the metric bolts that Volant supplied to be too short, so I bought four M6x40 Pitch 1.0 bolts at Orchard Supply, which worked fine.

2. Unplug the MAF sensor and pull the IAT sensor out of the grommet in the stock pipe. I stuffed them into the hole in the fender that the wiring harness runs through to get them out of the way and protected.

3. Remove the stock air box with the filter. Remove the Volant air box cover and remove the factory oiled air filter from the air box.

4. Unplug the bypass hose and the valve cover hose from the stock pipe.

5. Loosen the hose clamp that holds the MAF sensor assembly to the intake pipe and remove the MAF sensor assembly.

6. Loosen the hose clamp that holds the intake pipe to the throttle body and remove the stock intake pipe. This is a good time to clean the whole area.

7. Test fit the air box into the hole in the side of the fender. Hold the air box bracket with the long side reaching to the bolt that holds the hood rod, and mark with a pencil the bracket slot on the air box. Drill a hole the size of the small bolt supplied by Volant into the airbox and mount the bracket with the bolt head on the inside, with a washer under it, and a washer, lock washer and nut over the bracket, and tighten.

8. On the bench, remove the four nuts that hold the MAF sensor to the back of the air box, and remove the MAF sensor.

9. You will see that the top two bolt holes in the Volant MAF adapter are so close that the washers they supply will not fit, so I used a bench grinder to grind down one side of two washers so they would fit the two holes. BTW, the instructions say to install the MAF sensor with the bolt heads on the outside and the nuts on the inside, but I found that the nuts interfered with the installation of the air filter, so I turned them around. With my setup, I have the heads on the inside and the nuts on the outside as you can see in the pictures.

10. The Volant MAF adapter goes inside of the air box, and it only fits one way. Use a washer and a bolt in each hole. Install the Volant supplied MAF sensor gasket first on the outside of the air box, followed by the MAF sensor, followed by a flat washer, a lock washer and a nut on each bolt, and tighten.

11. Put the large hose on the throttle body, along with one of the large hose clamps. Tighten the hose clamp. Put the other large hose clamp on the large hose, but don’t tighten it yet.

12. Push the plastic air pipe into the large hose on the throttle body, but don’t tighten the hose clamp yet.

13. Put one of the smaller hose clamps on each side of the MAF sensor hose and loosely fit it on the other end of the plastic pipe.

14. Push the Volant air box down into place, squeezing the MAF sensor hose over the MAF sensor fitting. Hold the MAF sensor hose up against the MAF sensor fitting stops while you tighten the hose clamp that holds the hose on the MAF sensor. Get someone to hold your hood open while you remove your hood rod bolt, and put the mounting bracket over the hood rod bracket and bolt them both down with the hood rod bolt.

15. Put the valve cover hose onto its fitting, cut the bypass hose to fit and put it on its fitting. Jiggle the plastic pipe till it fits all four hoses they way you want and then tighten the hose clamps at both ends.

16. Plug in the MAF sensor connector and install the IAT sensor into the grommet on the side of the plastic pipe.

17. Put the air filter hose clamp on the air filter and then squeeze the air filter down onto the MAF adapter. You will need to deform the fat end a bit to get the filter to go down into the box.

18. Tighten the air filter hose clamp and put the air box cover on and tighten the screws and you are done.

Analyzing the performance of the ’96-98 Cobra Volant Cool Air Intake kit:

I zip-tied a thermocouple to the strut brace right above the stock intake pipe, and ran the wire into the passenger side window to my BluePoint multimeter so I could read the engine compartment air temperature while I drove.

I decided that I wanted to run the same simple logging run twice, once with the stock pipe and once with the Volant kit. I picked a route that had some surface streets with lights and some freeway.

The ambient temperature for both runs was about 70*F, and the engine coolant temperature was at about 192*F. For both runs, I found that while driving at a decent speed on both the expressway and the freeway, the temperature in the engine compartment was only about 77*F or 78*F, but when the car was warmed up well and after I’d romped on it on the freeway, and I sat at a long stoplight, I saw under-hood temperatures get as high as 140*F. After I let it idle in the driveway for a while after I got home, the under-hood temperature got up to 155*F both times.

With the stock intake pipe and box, I found that at the stoplights, the intake air temperature would go up 8-10*F depending on how long I sat at the lights, and then back down when I was moving again. When I got home from the run, I just let the hot engine idle in the driveway, and I saw the engine compartment temperatures climb to about 155*F, and the IAT went up to a peak of 106*F.

With the Volant CAI kit, I found that the Intake Air Temperatures were consistently 8-10*F cooler that with the stock air pipe and box. It ran at about 70*C while driving with the Volant and about 78*F with the stock intake. It would heat up at the stoplights, but stayed 8*F cooler than the similar run with the stock gear. When I let it idle in the driveway after I got home, I saw the engine compartment temperature hit 155*F, but the IAT peaked at 96*F, a 10 degree difference.

Bottom line, it looks like the Volant kit gives me an 8-10*F improvement in IATs.