[striptyler]

After reading about many people removing the scoop cover in the front of the car, i decided to see if there were any real gains. First, i noticed that the left front bumper is not sealed, so there is IMHO,no possible way to increase the ram air pressure.... so, i went to the nearest A&P, and bought 2.7 feet of type 12 scat tube... (7 bucks a foot, but temp resistant to some un-godly temp.) removed the stock pick up for the airbox ( the screws don't need to be removed, the intake just snaps on them)

Next, i ran the Scat tube from the aibox to the scoop

And finally pulled it into the scoop area in the front bumper

and attached a MAP gauge to the air box, and manifold....

currently working on a way to achieve "real" results on a dyno with this... so i have to figure out the ram pressure levels that it actually generates. More on this later.

For now, i am fabricating a box for the front side, out of fiberglass, with a gril, to keep the intake from inhaling birds, leaves, baby's etc... and, also trying to work a flap or trap door into the stock airbox bottomm should it try to pick up water

as far as how does it feel? I think it def. gets colder air... being that it pipes it in from the outside... I think the ram only manages to negate drawing the air through a long tube.... and i think, if im not carefull, my car may eat something... def. noticed some debries in the airbox after 500 miles with it... (ROCKS, LEAF STUFF)

 

[wolo]

Good stuff.

 

[zoltiz]

Do you have a temp gauge of some sort to see how much difference does it make vs. stock snorkel?

Oh, and your engine bay is filthy - where do you live? I have 5K on my tC and have hardly any dust under the hood.

 

[striptyler]

Yeah.. i was sayin the same thing... but i drove it 12k in NH, then another 3 in VA... and have to go through nasty construction.

As for the temps, all i can do is measure the voltages coming off the MAF, like lo bux said... Measured voltage with the enging off, then ran it for about 20 min... and it was roughyl the same... like .1 - .2 volts diffrent... so my guess is that the temp stays close to OAT.... or, it could be a coded signal, in which case... im screwed for temps. Yesturday, it was like 17 deg, while i was driving... in first, even while rolling, stomping on the gas spun the wheels, but cold rubber doesn't grip well either. love to help ya more, but not sure

 

[zoltiz]

I need to do the same test of my home-made short ram intake vs. stock airbox - still did not find any friends with OBDII readers

 

[TLS-Store]

Throw a K&N washable filter in there (The green one) and put a pressure sensor in the stock intake box. I noticed a difference in my 3s-ge Celica by doing the same thing. I would like to recommend pulling that tube on the bumper back a bit so it is more flush, small things like that matter when trying to ram air into a tube. Maybe even a larger opening? I was using 3" hose and a 3" to 4" adapter. I smashed the 3" to 4" adapter so it was flat and sat well under my bumper. Now it was more like 2" tall by 6" wide or so. Worked great and wasn't even noticable from the outside. Also before any new power will be seen you would probably need to reset the ecu. Works even best w/o filter but I don't recommend doing this as dirt and rocks will detroy your engine. I think the stock filter may be what is holding you back.

 

[lo bux racer]

The other thing not helping at all is the transition. You have a 3" tube with nothing to smooth the airflow, so turbulence at the mouth is effectively reducing the diameter to about 2". If you put some kind of NACA duct or velocity stack on the thing you'd flow more like a 3" tube allows...

Of course this is all academic. Even a 2" tube flows enough to make more than 200 hp...

 

[striptyler]

Yeah... that is actually the K&N filter, and my fiberglass duct is curing as we speak. i'll post pics after i paint it up... noticed in the top of the air box, scion has another filter??? makes me wonder what the K&N will do if there is still a stock filter in there.... hmm oh welll off for the night... will post dyno soon

 

[Ivben Blown]

Originally posted by striptyler@Dec 23 2004, 11:35 PM
... will post dyno soon

Just curious, but how do you plan on testing the difference between the stock and the modded intakes on the dyno with the car sitting still? Wouldn't you have to provide the equivalent "real world" ram air pressure to the intake to know if there's any usable benifit on the street?

 

[lo bux racer]

Hook up a leaf blower to the intake pipe...

 

[cad455]

the secondary filter is a "charcoal" filter. just another safety measure from toyota. i removed mine and it definately opened up the box a little for a little more growl (with TRD drop-in)

i believe the toyota-option AEM CAI was delayed because toyota wanted a charcoal filter in the setup.

if you want to take it out, you'll have to gouge it out with a screwdriver. (the zoltiz method)

 

[lo bux racer]

Umm. Yeah. Don't try to pass smog in California without that charcoal filter. It is part of the evaporative emissions control system and you will likely fail the visual inspection if it is not present. Either that or save your stock pieces to re-install every time you go for a smog check.

We live in the land of smog nazis. I could rant for hours on the stupidity of it all but the only choice is to move (and I have also seriously considered that!)

 

[striptyler]

Yeah, as i said up top, had to measure the pressure levels before i could dyno it, now im just trying to work out a system.... leafblower.... lol... Also... car is registered in NH... so not much worry about emmisions. i don't think they have even opend the hood on any of my cars before. could a leafblower be a "hybred" turbo... lol

 

[lo bux racer]

Not really. If you think about what happens with a turbo and how much horsepower it has available compared to a leaf blower, even an engine powered one, it's an easy win for the turbo.

FYI, about 1/3 of the energy in your gasoline goes to the crank, 1/3 goes to the cooling system, and 1/3 goes out the exhaust. So if you are making 150 hp at the crank, there's 150 hp worth of heat escaping the exhaust. That's a LOT of power a turbo could use. I don't know of any turbo'd engine with cold exhaust, so we know it isn't using all the available heat to compress the intake, but it is using a LOT of power you would be throwing away without a turbo.

 

[cad455]

heh, no smog regulations in south carolina.

if you're careful with removing the charcoal filter, you can always pop it back in.

i guess this means that any tc with an aftermarket intake won't even pass emissions?

 

[striptyler]

Yeah, pretty bad how much heat loss we suffer... back in propulsions class at school, we got into ceramics... amazing the potential of an engine that you don't have to cool... Amazing how much power is required to drive the compressors, a dual stage comp, with an 11^(N-1/s) compression ratio requires something like 140,000 hp to drive... but then again, thats talking turin engines... so maybe doesn't apply.

How cool would my leaf blower turbo sound? could it get in FNF3?

 

[lo bux racer]

Originally posted by cad455@Dec 24 2004, 03:15 PM
heh, no smog regulations in south carolina.

if you're careful with removing the charcoal filter, you can always pop it back in.

i guess this means that any tc with an aftermarket intake won't even pass emissions?

True for any state with CA emissions standards. The hardest part of the CA test is the visual. Your engine can be in perfect tune, running clean and efficient, but if you don't have all the hoses in place or you have a mod without an ARB exemption number, you fail. Period. That's the only reason I still have the stock turbos on my Supra.

I wish I could buy smog "credits" like industry. I'd be happy to pay $300 -$400 a year for an exemption so I could run a single turbo on my Supra and make some stupid hp, but California isn't smart enough to do something like that. They could generate some serious revenue from people like me instead of having an underground industry for fake smog results...