What's in the Box (Heat Sink)??? FL5 Turbo Inlet Pipe Uncovered.

[Vincent@27WON]

WHAT’S IN THE BOX!!!

The #2023 #hondacivictyper has an interesting-looking black plate that is integrated into the turbo inlet pipe. We have had dozens of people reach out and ask us what it is. Now, while we can’t be certain until we get our hands on one but we can speculate on what it is.

Best guess, ____ It’s a heat sink! The plate is flat and relatively large. It has a large surface area for heat to flow through. Also, notice how this piece sits directly under the functional hood extractor vent. Why is that? To give an easy place for hot air to get out. We would bet that if we took those 6x screws off and flipped that plate over, it would have a bunch of vanes on it, just like a heat sink in your #pc. Remember how the EU Type R and TCR racecar had those silver slots on top of the OEM inlet pipe? Those where heat sinks too.

We can’t wait to get our hands on our car and see if we are right! What do you guys think it is?

 

[randomFL5guy]

Just curious what would be the purpose of a heat sink before the turbo? Isn’t it fresh air coming from the airbox?

 

[iLLNESS]

Put an STI hood on er and you’ve got some ram air direct to the turbo! Lol

 

[MrB]

A heatsink is only efficient if the vanes are getting the cool air, not the hot air. So it wouldn't be that.

 

[Tickle]

I asked a buddy (Technician & weekend racer) what he thought it was. He said he saw one on the MDX Type S as well. I googled photos under the hood of one and didn't see it so I'm not sure what to think but I trust him.

 

[DKwen]

just wondering if you are referring to this one, credit: carmagazine.co.uk

 

[zeroptzero]

It could be a heat sink, it might also have some directional vanes under it to smooth air flow ? I also think it will deflect water that may enter the hood in adverse conditions, controlling water to a place where they want it to dump. It looks good too.

 

[Warpspeed]

It's a Honda engineered air flow cooling system. Yes it connects to the turbo BUT on the cool side of the turbo. Imagine you install a PRL cold intake or any aftermarket cold intake system plus the "skillet" looking cooling system Honda put, then going through the intercooler and tweek the ecu......boom.....more 316 HP.

 

[Vincent@27WON]

It could be a heat sink, it might also have some directional vanes under it to smooth air flow ? I also think it will deflect water that may enter the hood in adverse conditions, controlling water to a place where they want it to dump. It looks good too.

Good theory. maybe it does something with the water.

 

[Boostlag]

 

[zeroptzero]

I keep asking myself, why does it have to be bolted in place ? What purpose does it have being a removable plate ? It could have been a solid cast piece instead of a bolt-on plate, to make it much more simpler, so the piece is more technical than what it appears to be.

I think there is something in the intake pipe that is purposeful. Perhaps a variable intake system that changes with operating conditions to maximize torque and power, something that might need servicing in the future so they used a bolt-on plate that can be opened for inspection if needed.

 

[sam3r_11]

wild thought here, what if this was some component to an e-turbo, similar to F1 technology and recently Porsche deployed in their mass produced 911s turbos. Something to help turbo lag and lower range power certainly not as sophisticated as the units in F1, but something to help with lag on a bigger turbo which we most likely expect on the FL5 and also paving the way for electrification by charging back instead of waste gate in the form of energy loss

 

[TimeRacer]

The whole thing is weird. If you look in some of the pictures the 'skillet' itself doesn't seem to seal the edges. Which means this is a beauty/protection plate of some sort and doesn't directly affect the intake air charge. Yet the plenum (for lack of a better word) is definitely flattened out beneath it changing the shape of the airflow dramatically. Some MotorTrend photos of it:

https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/dsc8755-1658335618.jpg
https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/dsc8753-1658335616.jpg

Can't imagine this much redesign went into the intake turbo manifold just to protect the turbo from rain water BUT there are definite lips around the entirety of the plate to direct water to funnel off at the bolt holes IF that's part of the purpose.

But the location, hood vent direction and lack of airflow over any kind of heat exchangers make it seem like it has nothing to do with heat extraction. The carbon looking plate is simply going to prevent airflow over the top side. The air that's hitting this thing is going through the intercooler or radiator then hitting the turbo and coming up and out through the hood vent. That's going to be pretty toasty so not ideal for trying to lower your IAT temps when you're getting the ram air box feeding your intake. It's fairly large and pretty far away from the turbo as well if it's a variable intake runner when you'd think they'd want to cast the dual runners as close as they could since it would be a butterfly valve actuation and wouldn't need such a large item. My first thought was it was some kind of vortex generator cast on the bottom of the plate that was too complicated to cast directly into the manifold but the plate doesn't look like it seals the manifold so that's out. Could this simply be to have a larger air mass after the air filter closer to the turbo for slightly better throttle response from off-throttle like a naturally aspirated car's plenum? I've just never seen it used in this way or understand why it's so large and changes the air intake shape so dramatically.

 

[MrB]

Very reasonable analysis!

I am starting to think it might just be to do with water drainage from the bonnet vent (as you say the cover looks purely cosmetic and I assume is just plastic), but agree with you that if that's what it is, then that's a dramatic redesign of the intake for it!

 

[typeR4life]

Anyone notice a hose under the left side? Again. Really hard to wrap my brain around it. I wish it's something to do with reducing turbo lag but I don't see much hardware there.

What if they're trying to cool it with water to reduce heat coming from the turbo?

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