I'd probably put it on the outside of the pipe. It would actually drop the temp of the pipe to around 50c below ambient in the engine bay. The question is; will pretty much freezing the pipe have a big enough effect on the temp of the air zipping thru there at ?? volume and speed?

if you really wanted to cool it down, would horizontal strips of metal in the pipe work? They wouldnt take up much space or affect airflow, but you could cool the air more if it flowed over, say, a 4 inch long strip. Do you guys get what I mean?

The amount of air rushing through at WOT (when you would want the cold charge) would make this a negligible effect IMO. Condensation would be another factor (raising the humidity in the engine bay, lowerinng the air density. its an interesting thought but I think you would have to have some way of supercooling whatever the air was running through (like close to absoulute zero) to chill the air that quickly but that would make the parts being cooled to brittle.

A little applied chemistry reveals that you'd need one hell of a Peltier junction to cool enough air to make a difference.

The specific heat capacity of air at room temperature is about 1030J per kilogram per degree Kelvin, and some searching on GM engines reveals that at WOT, the engine uses about 100-240 grams per second of air at room temperature (72 degrees F or about 300 degrees K).

Say you wanted to decrease the temperature of the air by 20 degrees K, and at WOT your engine is using 200 grams of air per second. Then you'd need 1.030 (J per g per K) * 200 (g per *) * 20 (K) = 4120 (J per *), or about 4000W of power. This all assumes that the loss of heat in the air is instantaneous; the amount of power actually necessary to do this would be higher, since the air doesn't just hang around the Peltier waiting to get cold.

-b

well, that sorta puts a damper on things. I dont think Ty has a 4000W alternator does he?

Interesting great minds think alike. I was thinking of a use for peltiers a few weeks ago but not on the intake. I was thinking of incorporating it into a water injection system, to super cool the water for the intake charge.

you cant cool the water too much, dont want ice going in there

Oh well. All great things begin with thoughts, just not this one.
Hey Bassplayincrowe, how 'bout an alcohol injection system? A bit colder freezing temp than water.
BTW, physics usually suck, unless you like F1 where they just don't seem to apply anymore. No wonder it'* all about politics and money. Still gotta love the tech. coming out of those cars.