A week or two ago, the typical mid-winter boredom kicked in, so what to do?

A new stylin' GAB setup, of course!

which:
1. actually looks decent IMO, as opposed to just a "hacked" air box
2. can be adjusted for airflow (manually)
3. is still free, and works as well as any "intake".

NOTE: I still have my regular filter holder, and will re-install it most likely. THIS GAB SETUP IS INTENDED FOR TESTING PURPOSES ONLY, AS YOU WILL SEE BELOW:

As you can see, I didn't cut away the entire lip of the filter holder, I drilled out large "holes" in it, between the ridges. This will allow me to use rubber "plugs" to open or close "x" number of holes to play around with "how much" airflow is optimal for
a. gaining the high-rpm power the GAB is known for but
b. not losing the low-rpm power that that GAB is known for losing.

I have some rubber plugs that will fit on the way....then I will begin the experimenting:
1. no plugs, all holes open (maximum flow)
2. half plugs, half holes open (half flow)
3. all plugged, no holes open (like stock airbox)

I might do this experiment if I get some dyno time this summer, just for the hell of it - but don't hold your breath.

Also: it is unlikely to STAY painted red....I'll probably paint it black, but thought the details would show up better if it was a brighter color...

 

nice and interesting.. good job......

 

hows it sound? any way to get a clip up?

 

it sounds like any other GAB, at least when "opened"....you only hear it under load at over 4k rpms or so, but it's not as loud as a fully-cut GAB..not going to do a clip, sorry.

 

2nd gen GAB

 

Why the heck you want to pull in underhood air is beyond me. The fuel metering/delivery system is air density sensitive. In other words for any given throttle position, the cooler the air, the more fuel will be delivered and the more poop you are going to get. Plus the higher the intake air temp. the tendency for incipient pinging/detonation is increased etc.

 

GAB robs low-end? Really? People say it gives it back.

 

JC....didn't want to re-argue the merits of the CAI vs. WAI vs GAB vs. stock all over again.

The "air temperature" argument has been discounted time and time again with regard to the maxima....(non-FI, of course). The difference between, say, the air drawin in by the Place Racing CAI vs. a GAB or short-ram intake is negligible in terms of performance, especially when the car is actually in motion. Several people here have done under-hood temperature tests (real-time) of air-box area, WAI filter area, Injen filter area, and PR filter area. When moving, the temperature variances were single-digit differences - hardly enough to affect the performance of an internal-combustion engine. It's a fallacy. I have had both the stock setup, "short-ram" intakes, and a full OSCAI, which drew air in from the front of the bumper ("cold" air, haha).

Also, the "stock air scoop" air intake volume is less than the notional surface area of the throttle body - i.e. at WOT the engine is "choking" with a stock setup. The goal with any intake is NOT to get "colder air", but instead to get an equal VOLUME of air to the amount that can be taken in to the throttle body. Hence reason #1 why "intakes" provide increased high-rpm pull, but seem to bog down at lower rpms.

anyways....it's not worth arguing. Frankly, I only did this so I could do some "testing" of different air intake VOLUMES. Of all the intakes I've had, the STOCK setup (no GAb) provided the BEST all-around powerband, and that's what I use for autocross (where low end response is preferred), while an OSCAI is most preferable for open-track.

This is for testing, and will likely go away when I'm done with said testing.

 

from my experiences (power/butt-dyno);
stock: best low end, decent mid-range, chokes high end
GAB: middle low end, very good mid-range, good high end
short-ram: poor low end, good mid-range, excellent high end
OSCAI/Injen: poor low end, so-so mid-range, excellent high end.

I use stock setup for autocross. It simply provides the best throttle response and low-rpm power, in my opinion.

 

just curious what did you use to drill the holes? a dremel ?

 

just a "boring" bit that I use for woodworking....

 

Irish.....How do you know the engine is in fact "choking" with the stock intake at WOT?

 

I don't know if "know" is the right word....it's more of a general impression. Like I said though, this "ported" GAB with the removeable plugs will allow me to do some testing.....I'm certainly not suggesting that the photos above show the "best" setup by any means. I got my hands on a 2nd filter holder cheap, so I figured I'd mess around.

Painting it red was just a nod to all the ricers out there who think it's "kewl" - I think you guys know how low-key/sleeper I like to keep my car...

 

btw, PSampson...didn't mean to jump down your throat there - the theory behind the "cold air intake" is sound, but for some reason on the Maxima does not react as it "should," in my opinion, to a true CAI - the CAI on my old integra was much more effective, for example.

The effectiveness of intakes (besides a "cool sound") has been argued ad nauseum here, with little in the way of definitive results. This ported GAB is just another attempt at my part to (eventually, perhaps) bring some more answers to the game.

...and it looks really kewl

 

IMO, stock is best for daily driving through city streets at all temperature levels. The short ram/WAI is pure dookey in the low-end, at least when the engine bay warms up, but above 3k is when it starts to work it's magic. At first startup on cool mornings, the latter has the stock beat hands down. I can't personally comment on the GAB/CAI since I never used either on any of my vehicles. In slow moving traffic on city streets/highway, stock setup will give you the edge for that quick pass lane change, but once the speed increases, the short ram/WAI will really shine and sound great in the process. Just my $0.2 so there

 

irish you seriously need to go back to autocrossing instead of doing stuff like this. winter season sucks huh so you come up with mods like this when you are bored. but at least you got some creativity there.

 

More veresatility. Good idea depending on what you want it for.

I'd be in on donating some dyno time $$. Even though it's on a DEK, it's a simple enough mod where the gains should be equivalent if not very close compared to it's 3.5L counterpart.

 

Interesting design but the color is

 

good job irish. I was actually in the middle of fabricating two brackets to go across the top and bottum sides of the filter, and be bolted on from the back of the box, almost like backpack straps. Anyways, I saw this and decided to stop my idea and use this. My dad honestly suggested this idea like two days ago and I just brushed it off, but since you tried it and can vouche for it's success I will do this instead. Maybe it is better to have the air being "sucked" through smaller openings at a faster rate then to have it just "flow" through the larger original GAB design. And if the sounds still there then thats just another plus.

 

whats GAB mean also why not just get a maf adapter and a filter?

 

looks good.
stop painting things under your hood 10 diffirent shades of red!!

 

spoon feeding - bad.
doing your own reserach - good

 

Theres always compromise with intakes, this would probably be the best design for the whole power band right? a LITTLE bit worse low end but a LITTLE bit better high end. Theres always going to be tradeoffs.


P.S. On the idea of holes, has anyone just simply ported the front face of the filter box?

 

i did and didnt notice any diffirence vs the normal GAB

 

I am one of those who monitors underhood temps with my Berk set-up. As Irish states, when moving the underhood temp is always only 4-5 degrees more than the outside air.

I have noticed one thing with performance of the Berk intake. With time as the K&N filter has gotten alittle dirty, I no longer have the loud whistle and low end performance has actually improved compared to when the K&N filter was new.

Now, both low end and high RPM performance seems better than stock.

Anyone else notice this improvement with time?

 

I would agree with you there - my original idea was to have a switch that could open and close the top of the air box when going between city and highway driving, but I couldn't think of a good way to do it, and the servo motor (piston-style) was too much $$ to justify it.

I'm going to do a little testing with the "plugs" when I get them, and then i'll have a better idea of "how much" air is the best amount...

 

that's because I spent well over $2K on mods for autocrossing (wheels, tires, harness, camera mounts, etc) this winter, so I didn't have any money left over for anything else cool - so I have to do silly Home Depot mods

 

My GAB:

 

whats gab mean?

 

it's short for "Gabonian Air Bringer" - it was first developed by a guy with a maxima who lived in Gabon (the African country)....

 

Omg just cut him some slack, yall are just bein gay , its short for ghetto air box. Its sad when a 16 yo has to tell yall to stop.

 

That's the way I've done them, except I call it the PAB for "Ported Air Box".


Now glue in a 3" Desk grommet to clean it up and make it look like it's supposed to be there.




Minus the center plug.

 

those are similar to the plugs I'm going to be using in the top holes...

 

Give the poor fellow a break. He's new to the 5th gen as I am too. The mod bug is probably sucking on his a$$ really hard right now. I just saved myself the embarassment by SEARCHING. for those who can't, just do a yahoo search as follows: your topic maxima.org forums. I thought it meant Gyroscopically Amplified Bass, boy was I wrong

 

it's all in good fun.....you can ask around, and would find that I'm generally very helpful toward newbies (my PM box is constantly full)....but sometimes I just have to have some innocent fun

hey, you didn't tell him what GAB means either

 

Alright so I tried the holes like Irish and, I am pretty sure I can notice a decrease in acceleration through about 40 mph, once into the top of second and after that feels a little stronger than stock, though. The sound is a little less with this setup than the classic GAB. Again, it could just be my mind telling me this is whats supposed to happen, but maybe it could be proven with dyno like irish mentioned.

 

Hey irish, nice job!........And can't wait to see some dyno results. Can you do a writeup on the dimenions of the holes, where to get the plugs..........or some sort of a How to?

 

That is esentially a short ram... see post #9. He used to have one but sold it for reasons stated.

 

You can just drill the holes to fit within the ridges on the top lid as in the picture, not sure exact measurements or a write-up are really necessary.

 

For anyone lookin for "Superb" all around power!