Jordo!'s Intake Project
 

Here are some teaser shots of my intake project, currently in progress.

The goals are:

1. Better breathing, more airflow!

2. Correct metering of air mass so happy ECU and no off-idle lag.

3. Maintain OEM heatshielding and (nigh) OEM look.

4. Should sound a bit meaner too.

And all on a budget...

The details: I am using the OEM MAF sensor holder to maintain stock diameter for proper air mass readings, keeping (for now) the OEM intake tubes, and even making use of the OEM airboxes to block heat.

The filters are K&N RX3820 which has a nice open top and built in velocity stack. Note that the open top will be positioned perfectly for the OEM cool air duct (or at least it should once installed...)

I need to do something about the back to perfectly seal it against underhood heat tho...

I think some sort of reducer couper or rubber boot that is 6.5" to 4.5" would be perfect --anyone know where I can find something like that with those dimensions? (see example below)

Interesting project. You might find heating/ventilation duct adapters in the size you are looking for.

Thanks :tiphat:

Good idea -- I'll have to get creative. If I can't hack up a nice rubber reducer to fit and bolt on, I'll have to try chopping up a coffee can.

Either way, so long as it's black and sealed, it should still look pretty stock to the casual eye (won't really be visibile from the top) and keep all the ambient heat out.

I have baseline dynos posted, so once I get the fine details sorted out, I'll install these and see what the dyno says in comparison to bone stock and to the K&N filters.

There may be a test tipe dyno that happens first, tho'...

Really cool Jordo, this should be extremely interesting to see the final results. Do you think the bottle neck of the OEM intake is from the section from the box to the MAP then? From a practicality perspective, how would this be any better than throwing in a K&N panel filter?

No, I think the major "bottleneck" are the panel filters themselves. Cone filters just tend to flow air better than panel filters.

It's possible that some smooth intake tubes would help flow a bit too (and there is a mysterious resonator box that may or may not affect flow), but really, the goal here was just to have some better filters mounted, while maintaining proper metering of fuel and maintaining protection from heat.

As soon as you start monkeying with the location of the MAF snesor, bends in the tubing, diameter of the tubing, etc. you can run into problems with meauring air mass and thus affect the proper metering of fuel.

Modshack took this into account, and made a very slight variation (which apparently didn't adversely affect driveability) but it is unclear as to whether this improved power as he hasn't dynoed, at least to the best of my knowledge.

Of course, if you have tuning capability, you can recalibrate things or make corrections, but I can't do that yet, so I want to keep the general set-up as OEM as possible while improving flow as much as I can ;)

Now whether or not this makes a positive difference all remains to be seen... dynos in due course.

In for updates and results

You make some good points, I was going to mention tuning correctability but it would definately be easier and more cost efficient to improve what is already there. Good luck, this should be interesting!

Sooner or later Uprev Osirus end-user friendly software will be brought into play, but probably not until the end of the year.

I'll keep ya guys posted -- should have this (or the test pipes) installed and a new dyno within the next few weeks :tiphat:

Gonna do one at a time to evaluate the effects independently.

Updates on the intake assembly will be posted here; dynos in my "proven power" thread, probably with a link to it here.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96...D/DSCF0171.jpg
http://mediacdn.shopatron.com/media/...jpg?1258044061
http://mediacdn.shopatron.com/media/...jpg?1258044061

I'd like to see the dyno sheet on that carpet 96bigbody!

Found some cool plastic black boxes that I can modify and bolt to the rear of the OEM airbox housing (perhaps with a few L brackets?) in order to close it off. Then I just need a circular hole for the intake tube - done!

I'll share pics when it's completed :tup:

Just to give you some ideas...

This is the intake that Nismo designed for the 380RS-C. The engine is a 400bhp VQ35HR stroked to 3.8L. Looking at the plenum it looks like it has ITB's. Anyhow, you can see how they used cone filters (which appear to be the short JWT-style ones), along with fully covered heat shields that seal all the way around and all the way to the air ducts. Thus any air entering the engine is fresh from the ducts only. Also note that the stock ribbed intake pipes are replaced with smooth aluminum piping that gets rid of the resonator boxes. You can get the Cobb intake pipes to replace the stock units.

http://www.nismo.co.jp/en/products/c...sc_img05_b.jpg

http://www.notre350z.com/forum/files...sc_img05_b.jpg

^^^ Thanks for that :tiphat:

Yeah, eventually the OEM intake hoses will have to go.

As to the intakes on the 3.8 stroker themselves, they appear to be those "mushroom" style filters with the foam elements; they flow well, but provide terrible filtration.

K&N also offers a universal sealed element set-up, but it's a bit pricey. I wanted to try and make use of the OEM airboxes, which already duct cool air in from the bumper, and already fit under the hood perfectly (although I will have to modify the back a bit).

I'd really like to get those nice Apexi filters under there, but it was too difficult to get them to fit where I wanted.

These K&N's I selected should have more surface area than the ones Stillen are using for their SC set up (and a nice open top!) -- therefore should be more than sufficient for N/A.

That said, an alternate idea would be to build airboxes out of heatshielded coffee cans (painted black, or maybe wrapped in that 3M cf stuff) with duct work going to the fangs. But then I need to make some sort of bracketry to hold it all in place as well as build ducting from the bumper... I'll try the OEM airboxes first and see how it goes...

Still in progress, but here is an update.

http://www.the370z.com/members/jordo...take-proj5.jpg

Essentially, I am rebuilding the back of the airbox to allow more room for the K&N filters. Still looks a bit rough, but it's coming together...

Will probably have to cut about 1" of material off of the top part of airbox back I've built for the passenger side intake to make room for the power steering fluid reservoir, but this gives you an idea of what I'm attempting to accomplish...

So far, so good -- with a bit of insulation material to make up for imperfect sealing between plastic components, should maintain OEM heat shielding and cool air ducting, while addding a better flowing set-up that would be achieved with just a panel filter.

Moreover, after I clean it up a bit, to a casual oberver it should look pretty stock once installed.

More updates soon with dynos to determine whether it was worth all the trouble...

I highly recommend the HPS intake pipes, i got these to smooth out airflow over the corrogurated stock tubes. 110Shipped! also you said these k&n come with a velocity stack? is there anyway you can snap a pic?? thanks man, no wories if your to busy

I'd say your best bet for finding something like this would be in the plumbing section of most hardware stores... They will either have it, or know who you could talk to to get one...

I already rebuilt the back of the airbox using small plastic boxes (although one or both may need to be cut down to fit...).

Notwithstanding the possiblity of having to modify the backs a bit, I'm hoping to have these installed for testing this weekend, with dynos sometime next week.

The velocity stacks are molded into the inside of the filter flange, so it's kind of hard to get a clear picture... bascially, it's just a nice smooth transition from the inside of the flange to the inside of the filter.

Between that and the open top (note it isn't sealed, but has a section of filter), these X-flow filters are pretty awesome!

Should pick up some power over the panel filters, but I'll let the dyno decide if this was worth all the trouble or not...

You might be looking at some turbulent air by using a cone filter inside a square box. It looks like air will come in and flow around the cone filter too and cause some turbulance going into the filter. I dont know if that will matter much but maybe using a square filter is still best. What I would like to see see is how much air does the engine require at WOT? And how much air does said filter flow. Using my Cobb tuner deivice I got a reading of 400+G/S on my K&N drop ins. They flow more than that so Im thinking the engine is getting all it asks for.

Hmm. I hadn't thought of that.

Well, it all remains to seen whether or not this makes more power... however, if the stillen short rams made decent gains (over K&N panel filters?) then so should this -- it's essentially the same design.

Whatever the results, I'll share all the details.

sounds good, maybe you can think of a way to funnel the air to the intakes and not let it flow around the back end of them.

Is that the problem? I suppose I can just cut it down or build something that is more funnel shaped to form the back.

Hmmm. maybe will not install these just yet -- dang. :p

Okay -- the rear box idea did not fit... :icon14:

So I went with cannister type shileding. Still managed to get the OEM airbox to fit, providing additional shielding, use of the OEM cool air ducting, and the OEM mounting points.

http://www.the370z.com/members/jordo...complete-1.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/jordo...-complete2.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/jordo...complete-3.jpg

Looks pretty stock without careful scrutiny. Will be dyno testing either today or early next week to see if this was all for naught...

in for dyno numbers

Failure! Lost power everywhere! :icon14:

Oh well... back to factory airboxes for now. Might try replacing the post MAF hoses and/or different ducting instead of reusing the factory airboxes.

Sigh.

EDIT: Yeah, just ordered HPS hoses. I'll try that next. Dynos to follow...

in for dyno results of the tubes, im damn near pressing the order button on a set!

If you never try you will never know. Good to see someone thinking outside the box!

Ironically, I probably lost power for thinking inside the box (so to speak) :icon17:

I'll try this set up again with larger filters and some modshack-style ducting. I think the major flow killer was trying to reuse the factory airboxes. Suppose I should have tested it with out the airboxes before dismantling, but was so annoyed, I just wanted my 10 whp back :icon14:

Oh well... back to the drawing board.

:tup::tup:

I was thinking the same thing. I'd go with square K&N's. Things are looking good, Jordo! Have you contacted Modshack, he might be able to give you some good ideas.

Also, Cobb no longer makes the intake tubes.

You can get the HPS post MAF tubes from Corsport.

AZ

I originally wanted to just buy a set from him, but I don't think he was selling... might try asking again rather than re-inventing the wheel.

Yep -- Zsteve was clearly 100% correct, as confirmed by the dyno.

I ordered the HPS intake tubes from evasive motorsports -- $117 shipped :tup:

but hey, atleast you are trying different things and posting for all of us to see, props.

Thanks -- yeah, succeses and failures will be shared... :D

Definitely interested to see what the HPS intake tubes do or don't do...

They smoothed out acceleration for me and it seems to pull a little better in the upper RPMS! Good luck Jordo

hey man, clear your pm box.

Jordo, you keep going! And when you solve this problem, please find a way to add more torque to my mazda3.

You are a walking testamonial to the scientific method (or seated, depending on your posture when you read this)

Hey jordo, how did you like the pipes?