So, I've been toying around with the intake since I had some parts laying around. The hardest part was the coupler between the throttle body and the firewall. There isn't enough room to work with. I had to shorten the 90* plastic coupler ALOT and I also modified the band clamp to get it to fit. It's all tight now and pretty rock solid. I drove all day yesterday and there were no issues at any speeds, from 0 - 130 mph. I like the way the engine looks now, sort of "Robotech-ish" with the blue powdercoat.

 

nice work, one question tho; wont there be a good amount of heat soak?

 

Heat soak is not an issue really. The air spends very little time inside the tube to absorb any radiant heat. I've already got a vented hood, so radiant heat escapes readily since I can see the heat waves coming out of the vents in the CF hood. However I do plan on wrapping my headers...

 

Got any pics of your car? I've always been curious since it's such a unique conversion.

 

gotcha, well then very nice. I second some more pictures of the car

 

old intake

 

where did you get the cf cover?

Like the new intake btw.

 

yes where you get the CF covers for the engine?

 

=o

where in Anaheim are you?

 

Dude, I was thinking about getting a CF hood and get some vents molded, but i was told by my body shop the molded vents might crack due to the v6 CR heat hows your holding up so far LOVE YOUR SWAP MOTOR and the HOOD OMG~!!!

 

The intake kinda looks like a needwings style. I like it it looks very functional.

 

Nice...

 

The stock intake and cover was wrapped by L&S Custom Products in Huntington Beach. They can do almost anything on any car. I had CF vents made and bonded into my CF hood. They've also added the same vents to a stock metal IS 300 hood and wrapped it in CF. Pretty much anything is possible. It just takes time and $. The vents look and work pretty good.

I wanted to keep the intake simple and made it similar the Needswings intake only because most SRT6 have the NW intake. I'm going to try this intake, then I'll try the LET intake that I have and compare them.

We had a lot of rain last couple weeks. When I took the stock intake off, a lot of water poured out of the baffle area of the stock intake. So I drilled a hole on the bottom of the CF heat shroud of my new intake so water can drain out.

 

pshek,

this is definitely NOT true. In a former life, I designed and constructed intake systems for BMW's and did a lot of testing specifically on heat soak and fan wash. Both can completely negate any positive (and actually make things worse) gains of an aftermarket intake if proper shielding is not being used. Shielding that encloses the filter on all sides in the engine compartment. We sealed the top of the shield with the hood to create a "box" like atmosphere for the filter. This keeps out *most* of the heat and blocks any fan wash. Fan wash is an issue most people don't account for and it is detrimental because it sends turbulent air into the intake runner(s) and can confuse the mass air flow sensor (depending on how close it is to the filter); which will send incorrect readings to the computer.

Add to that a supercharger that gets very hot, you DEFINITELY have heat soak issue in stop and go traffic.

MB engine compartments are not condusive to proper shielding which is a major pain. Trust me, I have looked at it on my C32.

Your intake and the LET intake are good designs, but would benefit greatly from a better shielding design.

 

The C32 doest have a MAF sensor, but a MAP sensor instead (not sure if that changes things).

 

true, musta been a freudian slip.

It's more of an issue when the maf or map sensor is close to filter (which on the MB it is not).

Heat soak is heat soak. Bad all around.

 

I'm thinking there was an incorrect use of terms here. I believe the first member who brought it up was referring to the hot air being ingested into the engine referred to it as "heat soak."

 

One and the same or directly relatable. Heat soak is when the engine bay cannot release the built up heat, as when the car shuts down or when you are in stop and go traffic. Basically not moving hot air out of the engine compartment.

 

I'm aware of the heat soak issue. To me it's not a big problem. I've already tried to remedy this by adding louver vents to the hood and why I will wrap the headers. The LET headers got red hot on the dyno most likely because they are thinner material than the oem exhaust manifolds and there is no heat shield covering the LET headers. I also have a larger bar and plate heat exchanger with 2 fans to cool the charge air coolant circuit.

 

dude your car is such a badass sleeper... i love it, like how it looked better with your other wheels though...

 

Thanks for the comments and constructive/informative ideas. I am not finished with the intake; I keep getting ideas to make it better. The aluminum intake tube gets quite hot. i am not that happy about that, but i will keep using the metal tube for now while i work on a plastic intake tube overlayed with CF. The composite, plastic, and rubber pieces of the intake are barely warm, whereas the metal is too hot. i am also in the process of isolating the intake air from the hot air under the hood. That way none of hot air will mix with the cool air from outside. The filter is still in the engine bay; there is no room to put it in front of the radiator, but at least it is covered by a CF shroud.

i like the wheels on the car now since they're powdercoated flat black and i don't need to clean them because the brake dust isn't visible on the black paint. if i do need to wash them, i just spray them with water.

 

I don't know if it's a "sleeper" - to me, all the CF gives away that it's a long way from stock - definitely badass though, agree wholeheartedly there.

pshek - what did you dyno? I don't recall ever seeing it posted (and am too lazy to search right now, lol).

 

This is a tidbit from AEM (Well respected in the Honda community as far as intakes go) regarding heat soak and intake material.


Q: Why does AEM use aluminum for its intake piping?
A: Our Chief Engineer John Concialdi provides an explanation of the difference between Aluminum vs. Steel vs. Plastic in inlet piping:

The issue of heat absorption with an intake system has a degree of validity, however we have found that too much emphasis is placed on material selection, instead of the real issue of tuning the system. Our systems feature a unique shape and diameter because this is what we found to make the most useable torque and horsepower for each individual application in testing. However, for the purposes of this discussion, we will limit it to why we choose to make our systems from aluminum and the effects of heat absorption on all materials. If you do not wish to review all of this information right now, a quick synopsis of this discussion is outlined in the following bullet points, with complete topic discussions below:

* We use aluminum to eliminate any chance of the system rusting, and it's lighter than steel
* We limit our use of plastic because this material absorbs some of the sound energy we work to create in the inlet duct
* Whether or not an inlet system is made from aluminum, steel or plastic, the thermal conductivity of the duct material has little effect on engine power
* The rate at which air travels through the inlet path under open throttle, when one is asking the engine for maximum power, negates the effect of material heat soak, regardless of the material

We use aluminum—or a combination of aluminum and plastic plenums for throttle-body-injected applications that require a special plenum—for every intake we produce. This eliminates any chance of rust occurring on the inside of the inlet pipe. We have seen chrome-plated steel systems whose inner diameter became rusted over time, causing flakes of rust to travel along the inlet path. We also choose aluminum because of its lightweight properties. Heavier components place higher loads on the brackets they are attached to—or even worse, to the pipes they are attached to. We combine our lightweight aluminum design with a flexible coupling device we call a soft mount that connects the intake system to the body of the vehicle. In addition to the soft mount, we use doublers at the point where the mounting bracket is welded to the pipe for additional strength.

We limit our use of plastic because this material absorbs some of the sound energy we work to create in the inlet duct. Although we use the best plastic material for our plenums, it is still not as resilient and does not retain the visual appeal of aluminum over long-term use. Because we have to use plastic on throttle body applications, we take extra precautions to ensure that the aluminum retaining ring that attaches to the throttle body is anchored securely into the plastic plenum; this is done by making an interlocking mechanical link between the plastic and aluminum.

Whether or not an inlet system is made from aluminum, steel, or plastic, the thermal conductivity of the duct material has little effect on engine power. We have found that the tuning of the pipe, in addition to providing the coolest inlet air source, are the keys to making useable power. We perform engine inlet-air-temp studies when developing each application to determine the coolest location for sourcing inlet air. In addition to this, we determine the safest location for the inlet source to protect it from highly dusty conditions and water. To this end, we provide a stainless-steel heat shield to help minimize heat soak into the inlet area, as well as to provide protection from dust, dirt and mud.

At light throttle opening, air speed and airflow at the inlet system are relatively low. The high residence time of air in the inlet while at low-throttle settings will increase inlet charge temps when materials with high thermal conductivity are used. Typically, when someone is at light throttle they are not asking the engine to make power. Most likely, fuel economy is the issue.

When the throttle is fully opened however, air speed and airflow increase considerably. Typically, the inlet air speed of a 5.7L engine with a four-inch duct at full throttle is 34 feet-per-second, based on a volumetric efficiency of 70% and an engine speed of 3,000 rpm. Most inlet systems for every intake manufacturer for this engine are 30 inches or less. This means that the air in the duct of a 30-inch inlet length on this engine at the given rpm is 1/10th of a second—hardly enough time to transfer an appreciable amount of heat into the air stream on any system.

Basically, the rate at which air travels through the inlet path under open throttle, when one is asking the engine for maximum power, negates the effect of material heat soak, regardless of the material. We hope that this helps to clear up the issues of material heat absorption in intake systems.

 

Last dynoed at 330/330 rwhp with a stock intake.

 

Thanks for this info I am thinking of a way to use special filters and keep air coming as per original design.