I decided to shorten up my 3.5 intake, and then listened to NmexMax's advice about using the stock airbox, and also needed to make a place for a couple of NX Shark nozzles, so....











We had two entire days with sunshine and 60's temps, I could work outside on the car for the first time for months. I hate winter.

It does run a lot stronger with the short ram - and Z350's SSIM-. I also installed new tubing so that the entire intake path is the same diameter inside.That last photo shows the two NX Shark adapters covered with Gorilla tape. Spray is on the way...

Power did increase, measured by how long it takes for the automatic tranny to shift 1-2 and 2-3 while in the normal mode ( I use Shift_Fast mods for racing). Top end pull is freaky, but A/F drops to 10.8 in third over 100 MPH. (stock ECU and fuel pressure dropped to 42 psi).

The third and fourth photo shows a partial box built onto the cut-off airbox filter thingie. I'm going to either build a front air-intake under the front lip of the hood, kinda like the OEM intake, or a top mounted intake scoop on the driver's side. I need to map the air flow over the hood first, with tape and yarn and a video camera - yes, I do have a spare hood to hack on. I'm still thinking on this part...

Daymn, this car pulls hard. Almost ready for a local DD dyno.

 

do you mean you are using a 350z intake manifold?

pretty sweet btw!

 

Not exactly - look here for KRRZ350's work:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=551401

( thanks - it's been fun so far)

 

I've been wondering what you have been up too

 

Dyno the sumbich, get the nitrous on, and get some freaking timeslips!

 

The freakin' weather has kept me down most all winter..

 

lookin good man. with that front position you could add something like this http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/JDM-S...spagenameZWD1V and still cut down on a serving of rice from a bigger scoop lol

 

A naca duct is a good idea. Good flow and not too ricey looking. Not that one, too small, but I'm sure you meant the idea in general.

 

hmm a naca duct? any pics? never heard of it

 

looks good man. ive been thinking about getting rid of my short ram and putting back in my stock air box(if i can find it)

 

Are you serious? A naca duct is what you posted Although the one you posted isn't a "true" naca duct (the shape isn't quite right) and probably wouldn't function that great because it's so small. Naca ducts are meant for air to go beneath a body panel without hurting aerodynamics.

 

Personally, I don't think that kind of duct would work, depending on the air flow over the hood and location of the duct. There is a good chance that the air pressure under the hood is higher than the pressure on top the hood, so you would vent hot air instead of pull in outside air.

I'm gonna map the air flow over the hood, with tape and yarn. The only reliable place to get a flow of outside air is at the leading edge of the hood, I think, at least for an intake located where mine is. Some type of scoop at the leading edge of the hood is what I'm thinking - and if someone calls me a ricer, they can read my license plate.

 

never heard of the naca lol. u might be able to toy around with the stock snorkel and route it to suck from under like greymax stated. pretty much imagine the snorkel from the factory just flipped. i gotta see if the rad support would be in the way. i aint got too much to do today so ill play around with diff ideas

EDIT- with the airbox lid on, the hood doesnt close correct greymax??

 

grey, you may be right about the air flowing in under the hood being better. A naca duct would only VENT air if it was flipped around facing the back of the car, though. It would always suck air in facing the front, and maybe just create pressure to make air flow out the back of the hood and up the windshield.

So, I still say your idea with a stock-ish snorkel under the hood is likely best, but I guess we'll see after you do your tests.

 

There is indeed more pressure under the hood (much more) as measured with my self-built manometer.

 

No .... the hood closes just fine -about one inch of clearance left.

I had thought about the stock snorkel, but I don't think it's big enough. Something like that should work, and I built a prototype Sunday, but there isn't enough clearance between the hood and radiator support.

I think that if I cut out the lower panel on the front of the hood , underneath the top metal sheet, that there might be enough room for a good-sized intake. I have this spare hood to play with....



EDIT - a revelation! use 6 inch flexible duct from the existing air box over the K&N filter and run up and under the hood. Shut the hood, open the hood, and measure just how much air space is available in the duct. Cut out parts of the hood if needed...

 

sick. keep us updated

 

In for the dynos.

 

After the snows/rain/windstorms have come and gone, I finished up my true CAI intake system. It tested out good - a temperature sensor just before the TB, where one of the NX Shark nozzles will go, showed that the air temp there is only 2-4 * F warmer than outside air - and the car pulls even harder at high speeds.

I'm attaching all the photos I took this PM - make of them what you will.




http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...8/DSCN0189.jpg


http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...8/DSCN0190.jpg

hood surgery
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...8/DSCN0192.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...8/DSCN0193.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...8/DSCN0194.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...8/DSCN0195.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...8/DSCN0196.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...8/DSCN0197.jpg

Construction is aluminum 6" flex-duct, hot glue, and a metal brace around the intake area - it collapses without the brace. I put black RTV silicone around the area I cut out of the hood - don't want to slice off a finger when opening the hood - and no, there's not much room there.

If possible, the car pulls even harder towards the top end. I just exceeded the exit speed by 10MPH on my favorite on-ramp!

 

Looks good. I would consider trying to seal up where the duct meets the box a little more (since there are like corners due to a square-meets-circle area). Know what I mean?

 

u might be better off using sheet metal and bending it to make a sturdier intake. also is there that much air that can get sucked from that tiny slit under the hood?

 

Of course. Look how Nissan designed the factory intake for almost all their modern cars. Try not to think of the height of the opening as a factor, take the entire area of it. It's about as big as the rest of the tubing in the intake.

 

Yup - my prototype is 1" x 12" - app 12 sq in. of area, and the 3" intake tract is 7 sq. in, so my intake is 1.7 times as big as the intake tract.

Actually I am planning on having a stainless steel duct made that will replace my experimental aluminum flex duct. There is not much room under the hood at the front, but this design works - and there is only 2-4 degrees increase in temperature from outside air to the temperature of the air going across the TB.

If I want to remove the intake duct, I unsnap the four OEM filter clips and it comes out as one piece.

.

 

grey, if you get a stainless version made, I would seriously consider handing off some money to have 2 made This design is great, and I'd love to try it out for myself on a 3.0 car. I'd be able to use all the same pieces as you, too, since my throttlebody sits in the same spot yours does.

 

Interesting - the design is more complicated than it appears - the air duct is formed around the radiator hose on the underneath, and I wrapped the hose with Gorilla tape to protect the hose while I play with the idea. I'm pretty sure that a stainless nozzle 1" x 12" can be built and then connect the aluminum air duct to it and route to the black ABS plastic air box, so I can form the duct around the hose. Building the whole thing from stainless would be - difficult - because of the radiator hose.

BUt I'm not done yet. I'm encouraged because of the air flow I get from under the hood and the very low change in temperature I measured. My previous setup with a long intake tube going forward and down so the filter was below the radiator still would be 25*F higher under the same conditions I tested with yesterday. Too much turbulence, I think.

I'll post what I do and measure....

 

Sounds good. It makes sense that at higher speeds it feels like it pulls harder, I mean at higher speeds the air is entering faster and in effect your setup is almost ram air.

 

I put the intake where I did because the airflow against the front of the car applies pressure through the grill opening (what grill?) into the new intake. There's nothing between the great outdoors and the new intake opening.... At least there will be some positive pressure against the N&N flat panel filter. Filling in the remaining gaps might raise the pressure slightly, but not much.

I'm going to have to measure the air temperature deep inside the SSIM during WOT - maybe there is no reason for phenolic spacers now. ??

And there is no visible sign of this intake from the outside of the car... no ricer scoop. The "Stealth Scoop" ?

.

 

I was thinking about a setup involving the driver's side headlight at one point, but there is no good way to have an effective setup there without relocating the battery, which I have no desire to do. This setup is honestly the best of both aftermarket (in terms of length and "directness") and stock (in that it truly draws cold air). I worry about my torque with this setup because there would be no room for the stock midpipe, but that also might be a choking point at high RPMs, so it's a tradeoff. This is probably still better than stock, though, simply due to the colder air it's getting. I may not even notice a loss of torque, and I'm sure it provides for a nice midrange and a much better high RPM power number.

It may be a bit difficult for me to locate that curved piece of pipe by itself (it's just one of the pieces from the Injen intake, right?) so if I do decide to go this route I will probably do EVERYTHING in black plastic (minus the scoop). How's that for not soaking up heat?

 

Now I understand your avatar "LeMons" - funny... Very good eye - yes, the curved section is off the old Ingen, but you can get curved 3" pipe from Summit and Jegs, I know. I have an accumulation of pipes around the garage, and a digital micrometer to check them with ($16 at Harbor Freight), but I also picked up some 45* rubber 3" pieces from one of the tubing suppliers. One of those and you would have a metal-less intake - at least up to the filter box.

I did a lot of thinking before starting on the Stealth Scoop - goals: 1. totally sneaky, 2- true CAI , 3- short air path. The way it pulls at the top end, I think I found a working combination.

.

 

LeMons? Of course, I'm driving in it this year

All I'm hoping for with this is to not lose too much torque (due to not having a stock midpipe), but honestly I think with this I'll probably break even torque-wise and probably make a few more HP up top.

 

I just threw up in my mouth. Good concept, I just hope you make a better working piece. 6 years ago I made a ram air set up with AC duct sheet metel and a scoop from a 84 300zx turbo. It worked like a champ.

 

Hah! Good visuals - yeah, the way I figure it, it just has to pass tech inspection, then I shut the hood and go on my way. Now that I have a working model, I'll improve as I have the time. Any pix of your design?

 

I relocated the battery to the trunk because I knew the turbo was in the works.
This is the only pic I have of the air box, and the second pic is the only one I have of the scoop. It was raining this morn, so I left the max at home this morn. I'll take one of the hood this evening.
What kind of tech are you talking about? Auto-x or drag?

 

Ha! Found one!
The dryer hose is kind of ghetto, improve on it a tinch, and it will be str8!

 

Well - I was referring to drag racing - tech guys keep getting pickier. To keep our local track's NHRA guys happy, I had to first take off the front wheels, wire-brush the lug studs and axle nut and hub, spray and wipe with PB Blaster, put on a fresh cotter pin, and re-mount the front wheels with no hub cover. This way they could check the depth of lug nut thread engagement and were convinced that I had new front axles installed!

I got the shape and air flow I think I'll need. I did think about a hood-mounted scoop like yours, but air flow over the hood can be tricky, until you map it with yarn and tape and a video camera. I went for the front intake plan, so nothing shows and air supply is guaranteed.

I need to shoot a photo of the underside of the semirigid aluminum air duct (not dryer hose) to show the interference issues with the radiator hose - it's tight.

I can see you've been busy with your car - the interior is packed with goodies! Impressive.

 

nice camera!

 

Nice job on the intake ideas....I did something a little different on my old '93 Altima some years back. I ran 3" intake tubing from the fenderwell (where most CAIs draw from anyway) to the stock airbox, then using a redrilled aluminum MAF adaptor, mounted the largest conical K&N cone filter inside the airbox that I could (5" in my case)....

It gave me the piece of mind that I wouldn't hydrolock, gave me much more power than stock (11whp) and the stock airbox kept the intake temps cooler than a regular aluminum pipe or just having a cone filter unprotected in the engine bay....BTW, it made only 2whp less than the excellent Place Racing CAI that made a dyno proven 13whp on the KA....

Keep up the creativity!

Jeremy

 

Is this what Nmexmax is running? An how come he hasnt come in here an put his .02 in?

 

Racing at the drag strip is a little different - the ground temps are very high in the summer (135-150* F) and when you are spinning the front tires, you will be pulling in that very hot air from the track through the fenderwell. The only place you can guarantee the coolest air is at the front of the car, pulled from the outside - at least if you are moving forward.

 

Oh man I can't wait to read this thread when I get a chance, I see some crazy nice pics. Me likey, like...alot! Up until now I liked the 5.5 gen set-up of a local (morpheus max, but not the one with 2k posts) using dryer tube and sheilding from the bottom.

WTF is up with that IACV plate set-up? Why does it confuse me so much? Is that a '99 iacv with the au housing welded to a conventional adaptor? Or is it an entire adaptor made for a '99 iacv? I'm lost.