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I am in the middle of replacing the front lower facia on my 2010 GT (with the GT/CS/Boss facia with splitter and fog light holes for brake cooling ducts) which involves removing the front bumper cover. With the bumper cover and grill off, I can see the intake duct for the "cold air intake" is directly behind the driver's side fog light. If I remove the fog light, the air will have a direct path into the intake duct. See picture.
So I was thinking that might provide a little "ram air" affect, especially on the road track at fairly high speed. However I guess this is already a high pressure area, even with the fog light installed; so I don't know if it would really make any difference. Also if it is raining, that gives the rain a direct path into that duct; the duct makes a turn upward to the filter housing but I don't know if rain would blow through and get the filter wet, and what bad affect that might have.
All what you say is pretty much going on anyway. Rain's gonna get in. Air's gonna flow in there. The removal of the fog lamp might help ram some more air in there, but the intake's gonna take what it's gonna take, so if you have too much flow, it might actually not do as good unless you otherwise upgrade/change the breathing of the system to allow that extra flow of air.
Regarding the rain, the bottom side of the air box has drains to let the water out, so any that gets in there is not an issue. Further, the filter can handle some rain, and a little water going through is going to be misted and actually sorta help the engine. It's actually a thing, although not done as much these days for various reasons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_injection_(engine)
Only problem you'd be having with the water is if it's so much of a deluge it floods the motor. Which if it's doing that? Yeah, you might need a bigger boat... 'Cause you're probably floating that car around at that point. Of course, more water on that filter is going to absolutely cause a problem. Easy answer: Don't drive in a heavy downpour. But the shape of the whole system is kind of designed to let the water not get on the filter in the first place, and the volume under that filter is pretty much going to not let the water directly get on the filter. It's going to pool at the bottom and drain out. I'm thinkin' if it's a problem, you got other issues of weather to deal with first. Where this would be more of an issue is those under fender cold airs for the superchargers that get put in. THOSE might be more susceptible to the problem because they're not in an airbox and water's closer to them directly... not sure, at that point it's gonna be testing and/or computer hydrodynamic/aerodynamic simulations...
TL;DR: Don't worry about it, unless the water's 3 foot or so, or you can't see from all the rain...
That is what the 302 Boss grille is for, there are screens in the Fog light holes to prevent the big stuff going in. So I am guessing someone at Ford had the same Idea as you Bert
6/9/20 | 06:56 AM
Of course, more water on that filter is going to absolutely cause a problem. Easy answer: Don't drive in a heavy downpour. But the shape of the whole system is kind of designed to let the water not get on the filter in the first place, and the volume under that filter is pretty much going to not let the water directly get on the filter. It's going to pool at the bottom and drain out. I'm thinkin' if it's a problem, you got other issues of weather to deal with first. Where this would be more of an issue is those under fender cold airs for the superchargers that get put in. THOSE might be more susceptible to the problem because they're not in an airbox and water's closer to them directly... not sure, at that point it's gonna be testing and/or computer hydrodynamic/aerodynamic simulations...
