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The only restrictive part of the tC's intake is the big, thick paper filter-- and you know the reason for that. There's no lower resonator, the upper resonator is only for noise control, and the upper pipe section is plenty big enough to feed that TB.
After a few weeks of watching the ScanGauge monitor temps, I removed the upper resonator and capped the opening for it-- sure enough, it is a prime candidate for heatsoak. On a warm day, it acts kind of like an "interwarmer". The intake makes no difference in sound with it off, either.
I've felt, since I got the car, that the powerband had a weird dip in it about 3.5k-- like a hesitation. As I said, I removed the upper resonator, and put a pipe in behind the bumper, connecting the lower intake pipe for the airbox to the front of the bumper-- I just popped the mini-grille out. Air temps are now very low. The hesitation, after about 70 miles of driving, seems to be gone. Heatsoak is minimal. Waiting at a long light at idle will bump the temp up about 20º, but less than .5 miles of driving will have it down to within 2-3º of ambient. Without the "extension", that cooling could take as much as 10 minutes at moderate speeds.
Of course, warmer air requires less fuel to combust, so if the minor increase in power brought about by the cooler intake hits me for a few MPG, I'll go back to the "warmish" air intake. There's really no need to replace an intake tract unless it's restrictive... and ours isn't.
After a few weeks of watching the ScanGauge monitor temps, I removed the upper resonator and capped the opening for it-- sure enough, it is a prime candidate for heatsoak. On a warm day, it acts kind of like an "interwarmer". The intake makes no difference in sound with it off, either.
I've felt, since I got the car, that the powerband had a weird dip in it about 3.5k-- like a hesitation. As I said, I removed the upper resonator, and put a pipe in behind the bumper, connecting the lower intake pipe for the airbox to the front of the bumper-- I just popped the mini-grille out. Air temps are now very low. The hesitation, after about 70 miles of driving, seems to be gone. Heatsoak is minimal. Waiting at a long light at idle will bump the temp up about 20º, but less than .5 miles of driving will have it down to within 2-3º of ambient. Without the "extension", that cooling could take as much as 10 minutes at moderate speeds.
Of course, warmer air requires less fuel to combust, so if the minor increase in power brought about by the cooler intake hits me for a few MPG, I'll go back to the "warmish" air intake. There's really no need to replace an intake tract unless it's restrictive... and ours isn't.
