KB is pretty adamant about their revulsion to sucking in hot air (e.g. read
this) so it's obviously not ideal. Do what you can to avoid sucking too much hot air. You can even consider staying with the stock inlet -- right down to the snorkel -- and pulling cooler air from the fenderwell that way until you can get a proper cool air inlet setup.
I've got to laugh at that article just a bit. So 200 degree air charge + 200 degree recirculation air = 400 degrees?!? Yay! Kenne Bell has solved all of the world's energy problems!
I also don't understand why they have the air cooling when it goes through the bypass valve. It shouldn't change temperature at all.
Joking aside, there's lots of issues with their claim. #1 being that you will NEVER see 400 degree ACTs. Ever. My non-intercooled Eaton has never seen more than 230 or so.
#2 being that the "hot" air is passing through an intercooler. Yes, the final air charge temperature is proportional to the delta T (i.e. difference in coolant temp and air charge temp), and thus a lower initial air charge temperature would yield a lower final air charge temperature. But if the intercooler was worth anything at all, it'd be relatively efficient in getting the initial air charge down fairly close to the coolant temp. And once you get to a certain point, the air temps don't need to be any cooler to run more timing, at least not on a street car. In other words, 80 degree ACTs aren't going to net significant gains in timing over 100 degree ACTs. Etc.
#3, their claim of "1% horsepower per 10 degrees" is very misleading. The reason the SAE makes that claim is that a cooler AMBIENT air temperature (from an air mass up in the atmosphere) almost always is more dense and has more oxygen in it, thus increasing power. Changing the temperature of that ambient air mass after the fact (by supercharging, intercooling, etc.) does NOT affect how much oxygen it has in it. This is one of the biggest misconceptions in all of car racing/modding. The supercharger heating up the air does not
decrease the amount of oxygen in a given volume; likewise, an intercooler (or water/meth) does not
increase the amount of oxygen in a given volume. You might could make an argument that a cooler temperature would allow the blower to operate at a slightly better point on its efficiency map, but that'd be relatively insignificant, and would affect PD blowers the least. Bottom line: mass flow rate entering a system = mass flow rate exiting a system. In other words, filter intake = blower discharge, and the hot air under the hood = same oxygen as cold air in fenderwell.
This doesn't mean that air charge temps are irrelevant. A hotter temperature will be more prone to detonation. Therefore, a cooler temperature allows you to run more timing and/or a leaner fuel mixture, thus leading to more power. But it's important to make the distinction between power gains from a more dense air charge, and the gains from being able to run more timing. You eventually get to a point where you don't gain any power from adding more timing (same thing with leaning out the fuel), and once you approach / get to that point, a cooler air charge from intercooling or water/meth doesn't get you any more power.
Outside of all this theoretical talk, I don't see it making any significant difference in real applications. My car GAINED power moving from a fenderwell filter to a straight shot, likely due to the MAF being able to more accurately meter the air coming in. I also look at it this way: a straight-shot underhood filter is good enough for an OEM 660 horsepower GT500, 640 horsepower ZR1 corvette, and 580 horsepower ZL1 Camaro. I really don't understand why Kenne Bell insists it isn't enough for them. Might be the same reason those OEMs chose Eaton over Kenne Bell.
To danno, I'm thinking your stock MAF may or may not work. I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that the stock MAF runs out around 350 rwhp, and you'll certainly be above that.