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L.E.M Front Air Intakes ( FAI) *OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT THREAD*
First of all we all want to say collectively: a big THANK YOU ! to all that have shown support, enthusiasm, excitement and feedback concerning our Front Air Intakes. Birthed out of an idea in late 2019 we went through many iterations of "how do you feed these turbos, fast and efficiently" with a design setup that has been proven on other platforms with a simple design".
We went through some iterations including the "XL" approach, have a OEM style air box and ductwork increasing the size of the passages/ ductwork and putting a bigger air filter in there (either conical or panel).
What we did not like is that since the OEM intake was initially designed or debuted for a truck and really not for performance, the intake passage is stupidly long (a little over 3 feet! ) before it reached the inlet see picture below.
With that said, someone on the team said "man I wish we could just strap the filters directly onto the the turbos and encase them somehow". With that said we went to tinker and noticed that if you remove the front air duct tray you can fit an appropriate sized filter that wont choke off the engine. Thus gave birth to the Front Mount Intake. From the Filter media to turbo inlet the travel distance was reduced from a little over 3 feet to a tick under 4 inches. This super short travel resulted in incredible spool up, and noticeable gains throughout the power band with reduced lag and breathability on an otherwise bone stock engine. This system is definitely not for everyone because the system is LOUD, extra louder than any intake out there due to the fact that the filters directly point toward the front grill (soundclip provided below).
Please note: THIS WILL BE A FULLY ENCLOSED SYSTEM! No if, and or butts. For those who wanted to throw some shade and say this is just an open panel design, I present to you a prototype of our heat shroud encasement. This has been a work in progress because of the many projects we have on board. We had our Monster downpipes (which are out now), our intercooler (waiting for some parts) and our evolving H-cross over dual exhaust (AMG Performance exhaust inspired).
When you close the hood, the top will seal up, shielding the filter from ambient heat as shown in the under hood picture.
We also lowered the diver side intake elbow 7mm to allow more breathability, between the hood and the cone filter. As seen here:
We hit a little issue with the MAF sensor extender supplier. You see : we get these from the same supplier that provides them for Delphi systems/Mercedes OEM in Germany. They are backed up with stock and wont get them in for another 1.5 months :-/
We were able to procure some initially back in late 2019 which is how were are able to test, and make pre-production kits. There are cheaper counterfeit/ booleg copies out there but we didn't want to use these because (we did), and it caused CEL's. so we rather stick to OEM even though it costs a bit more for us.
We have had close to 50 inquiries for purchase from Germany, Canada, Philippines, Malaysia, middle east, Poland, Russia. Initially we were going to produce the intake elbows using additive manufacturing by industrially 3D Printing these on our 2 stratasys stations. But the 15 hour manufacturing time for 1 elbow was too daunting for the amount of interest and would back us up.
we are going to bump it up a notch For the Elbow: we are now going injection molded in the same PA6GF30 material as your OEM intake using ZYTEL material (same as OEM). For the heat shields we are still using additive manufacturing, as they are quicker to produce. This will allow us to use the same elbow but a modular heat shield design for different platforms. Yes this means more of a delay, but you will be getting a more polished product. The extenders are pictured below which will be included in the kit.
We deeply apologize for the delays but its for the better we promise. Now lets not forget the science: 0-60 improvements and dynos!
The test car we are using will be doing test runs with draggys as soon as we finish the heat shields, followed by dyno results. for those who are going to purchase pre-production kits dont worry we still have you in mind.
In the meantime enjoy with Woooooooshhh below!
This looks promising and like it will be have a good performance increase. I agree the MAF extenders need to be OEM quality. Do you know a rough price range yet ?
Some of the materials have increased since we have updated the thread, including the $12k price for the 2 injection molds for the 2 elbows. Never the less, the whole kit will be guaranteed below 700$ but above 650$.
This will be for the 2 elbows, sensor extenders, all hardware,2 filters, the heatshields with weather-stripping seals. The intake sounds with the turbine sounds and the blow off valve wossh will be free.
Thanks for the transparency with the pricing and keeping us updated, that "other" intake post by another vendor had some unusual claims about how carbon fiber does not absorb more heat than plastic. I asked about backing up this claim and heard crickets and its been a week later. that other intake will be most likely $1,300 which if your cap is 700 that would mean $600 more than yours.
The fact that the intake tract has shortened up by so much is already miles ahead of what can be put out there.
Thanks for the transparency with the pricing and keeping us updated, that "other" intake post by another vendor had some unusual claims about how carbon fiber does not absorb more heat than plastic. I asked about backing up this claim and heard crickets and its been a week later. that other intake will be most likely $1,300 which if your cap is 700 that would mean $600 more than yours.
The fact that the intake tract has shortened up by so much is already miles ahead of what can be put out there.
Bringing this off topic but it is very easy to explain. The specific heat capacity of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic is ~1040 J/kg.C whereas common ABS plastic is ~1700 J/kg.C. Thus, plastic has a higher heat capacity than carbon-fiber.
our intake elbow is not ABS, its Polyamide 6 glass filled with 30%. Its also isolated from the inlet via a silicone coupler for a little extra thermal isolation. same material as OEM (PA6GF30).
our intake elbow is not ABS, its Polyamide 6 glass filled with 30%. Its also isolated from the inlet via a silicone coupler for a little extra thermal isolation. same material as OEM (PA6GF30).
For me, transparency is key. Well worth the likely cost of it, for quality.
OEM inlet (which is the biggest restriction), and the material its made out of.
Size comparison between the OEM inlet elbow and our elbow. Ours will be a tad over 3" wide at the "mouth, you can see the differences side by side here. This is extremely beneficial to hungry turbos.
and finally a picture of our intake elbow eating the OEM inlet elbow for laughs (also to show you how larger it its).
our intake elbow is not ABS, its Polyamide 6 glass filled with 30%. Its also isolated from the inlet via a silicone coupler for a little extra thermal isolation. same material as OEM (PA6GF30).
I think you might be mistaken, was just answering the other user's question regarding heat soaked materials. Gave an example of a generic aftermarket part material (ABS).
I've been following the thread and know LEM was using the PA6 material. Love the intake comparison pic!
just a small update:
Although this is old news to us, we wanted to share it while we wait for some parts to get in and walk you through some of the decisions of the design.
The OEM inlet is metal and is attached to the turbo assembly as seen in the picture. As a result, straight from the factory it heats up, and heats up real good. This is transferred (either minimal, or substantial) to whatever apparatus is attached to the inlet (metal, polymer, etc.). We initially designed the elbow with the "flange" integrated into it as seen in our super early prototype from early 2020.
Because its attached to the inlet directly, there was some heat transfer that radiated into the elbow occurring where the 2 surfaces meet. We decided to experiment and tried to thermally isolate the elbow from the inlet via a silicone coupler securing the 2 surfaces, so the material linking the metal inlet to the elbow is silicone. Without getting too much into it, silicone is excellent in not transferring heat (some oven mittens are either completely silicone or partially, for its resistance to heat). Apples for apples using a temperature gun and a borrowed FLIR camera, there was a 4 degree difference between the "hotter one" and the one using a silicone coupler. We decided to go with the coupler design, as yes it was a bit more expensive on our end because we now have to include hardware and the couplers themselves, but a little goes a long way.
We received these bad boys a couple of days, and that brings us closer to full release (or at least one more item down).
just a small update:
Although this is old news to us, we wanted to share it while we wait for some parts to get in and walk you through some of the decisions of the design.
The OEM inlet is metal and is attached to the turbo assembly as seen in the picture. As a result, straight from the factory it heats up, and heats up real good. This is transferred (either minimal, or substantial) to whatever apparatus is attached to the inlet (metal, polymer, etc.). We initially designed the elbow with the "flange" integrated into it as seen in our super early prototype from early 2020.
Because its attached to the inlet directly, there was some heat transfer that radiated into the elbow occurring where the 2 surfaces meet. We decided to experiment and tried to thermally isolate the elbow from the inlet via a silicone coupler securing the 2 surfaces, so the material linking the metal inlet to the elbow is silicone. Without getting too much into it, silicone is excellent in not transferring heat (some oven mittens are either completely silicone or partially, for its resistance to heat). Apples for apples using a temperature gun and a borrowed FLIR camera, there was a 4 degree difference between the "hotter one" and the one using a silicone coupler. We decided to go with the coupler design, as yes it was a bit more expensive on our end because we now have to include hardware and the couplers themselves, but a little goes a long way.
We received these bad boys a couple of days, and that brings us closer to full release (or at least one more item down).
really looking forward to the production version & dynos
production version looking good! shortest air travel to the inlet on the market and heat shielded. still making some tweaks but the production version will resemble this.
Notice that engine cover will not need to be removed (we tweaked the design)
everything is still on schedule. its looking like end of sept we'll open up the pre-orders with orders being pushed out 2 weeks after that. The biggest hold up is receiving the injection molded elbows and the sensor extenders.
The extenders are really the impetuous to all of this.
we will open up the pre-orders so that we know how many units we have to prepare.
these are specially procured K and N filters to fit in the tight space at the front. These have filter media at the nose of the filter to breathe more air through them (you can see how they are aimed directly at the grill opening when the hood is closed.
07-26-2021, 05:30 PM
