Palio performance enhancement. Review on Palio - Petrol

I have a palio stile 1.1 petrol which I bought around an year back. Its done 10000 kms and I have a review blog written here in mouthshut too. Was completely satisfied with the car except the heavy feel of the car due to an under powered engine. I used to get 13.5 kmpl mileage(I use Shell normal petrol and always topup with autocutoff in the same petrol pump and in the same delivery machine - To achieve this I go early in the morning, probably the first customer;). With this over 3 or 4 top ups I could arrive at this efficiency figure). This is for bangalore city drive with around 50 percent A/C on.

I did a study on cold air induction and spoke with Mr. Anil Ahuja who owns Om Sai motors in Bangalore - a Bosch authorised car workshop. He suggested to go initially with synthetic oil and irridum spark plugs. I did this after an engine flush(with a special fluid to clean the engine). Then planned to fit Green dual cone air filter [ Green Filter USA. Filter # 7070 Dual Cone ].

There are two ways to do this.

1. Short Ram Intake - SRI

   
   




2. Cold Air Intake - CAI

   
   

The short Ram intake design constitutes of a short pipe. Usually the intake tube length is less than the length of standard air intake pipe(the pipe or tube which connects the air filter box to the engine intake manifold). This design is said to be good for people who love power delivery at the top end of the engine revolution. It should be good for high speed driving. But the low end torque will be compromised.

Disadvantages

a. Hot Air from the engine compartment can be sucked in by the engine which results in degradation of power(Hot air is less dense and has lesser amount of oxygen molecules)

b. The short ram pipe length is less so high frequency vibrations caused by the clattering of intake valves at high speeds can create a suction effect and hence better power at higher engine rpm. But the opposite happens at lower rpms resulting in slightly lesser low end torque.

The CAI design constitutes of a long pipe usually longer than the pipe which connects standard air filter box and intake manifold. The air filter will be placed in a corner in the engine compartment where chances of hot air to get sucked are less. Some designs suggest to connect a tube from outside of engine bay like from above the fender or wheel arch or from the front bumper area. Which ever design is used care should be taken that water doesnt get injested.

The advantages of CAI are

1. Cold air is injested to engine and performance will be increased as denser air has more molecules of oxygen and hence better combustion.

   
   




2. The pipe length is more and hence the valve cluttering in low rpms which create low frequency sound waves causes suction easily and hence better torque at low rpms.

   
   

I went with CAI approach. I could see significant change in low rpm engine response.

I use synthetic oil and as a combination of CAI+Synthetic oil+ Iridium spark plugs I am getting a better performing palio

Update after a Bangalore - Chennai - Bangalore trip

Total distance covered= 1064 kms

Highway= 660 kms

City= 404 kms

Total fuel consumed= 66.5 litres(Top up with auto cutoff in Bangalore+ 26 litres of petrol was filled in chennai+ Top up with auto cutoff in Bangalore in the same pump)

Overall Mileage= 16 kms/litre

Note: A/C was on 100 percent time

The Golden quadrilateral route was so awesome that we could comfortably cruise at 100 kmph aided by palio stability. Car was running comfortably in A/C especially beyond 60 kmph speeds. Chennai traffic was very bad that from outskirts to city took around 2 hrs time to reach.