Homemade intake system

BigTom · Post by **BigTom** » Thu 16 Jun, 2011 21:46

Now this may just be a 'me' thing as ive tried searching and cant find it but i remember reading a superb piece about how to build your own intake system to replace the standard.Can anyone remember this and poss link it in?I ask as im looking for a diagram of the standard intake system routing as i have an idea for making my own from stainless with a heat reflectant lining.Would be grateful for any help and i hope i can come up with something that may benefit us all.If not mankind.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu 16 Jun, 2011 22:03

Hi Tom,

Link - http://mz3.net/1-9-fogged-airbox-modification.html

I have done this to mine and it does make a difference as you get even acceleration straight up to red line in all gears without that holding back you get with the standard flow.

Brian H · Post by **Brian H** » Thu 16 Jun, 2011 22:05

Does this help?
Clicky

pingu · Post by **pingu** » Sat 18 Jun, 2011 10:59

Looks like a good mod for any variant.

A winter job for the M, I think.

It's a shame I've only got OBD1 as I'll only have a stopwatch to test it

. Although I could try a voltmeter and the revcounter, but that wouldn't be under load.

One problem with these cars is that the air is assumed to be evenly distributed between the 4/6 cylinders.

A really good modification would be something that balances the airflow into each of the cylinders (along with equal fuel). Now, we are talking mega-money (which, to me, is more than £10

).

BigTom · Post by **BigTom** » Sat 18 Jun, 2011 15:35

Thanks for that link. Its not the one im looking for but usefull nonetheless. The link im after is about re-routing the air ducts involving front bumper removal.

BigTom · Post by **BigTom** » Sat 18 Jun, 2011 15:56

Well after an hour of ignoring the female i have trawled my net history and found the page im after - http://www.zroadster.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8918

Interesting!

Brian H · Post by **Brian H** » Sat 18 Jun, 2011 16:02

I am sure that is the link I put above in the clicky?

Justin Time · Post by **Justin Time** » Sat 18 Jun, 2011 17:38

BigTom wrote:Well after an hour of ignoring the female i have trawled my net history and found the page im after - http://www.zroadster.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8918 Interesting!

Ardchyle wrote:I am sure that is the link I put above in the clicky?

BWAHAHAHA! Open mouth insert foot huh Tom?

Sorry, couldn't resist........

BigTom · Post by **BigTom** » Sun 19 Jun, 2011 21:54

Foot duely inserted!

BigTom · Post by **BigTom** » Thu 23 Jun, 2011 14:35

Now that my foot has een surgicaloy removed from my molars, i have a question. Well a comment/thought.
Instead of installing all this pipe, which is an exceloent idea and installation, would it be possible to house a cone in this space piped up to the maf? Its well away from any heat source, its easily ventilated with cold air from the front lower mouth and is sealed by the inner arch from all but torrential monsoons. Should be easier too. Any ideas?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu 23 Jun, 2011 21:42

I agree with you BT. I did the fogged air box mod. in doing so i re routed the air pipe (flexi, down the right hand side of the radiator. this meant two things:

1) turning the elbow on the air box 180 degrees (used clear silicone to complete the joint)
2) removing the blanking plate from the lower aperture.

This gave great benefits in forcing the air in and up into the box, it talk the mid rev range stall / stutter away and made the whole cycle through the rev range smooth.

I still felt however that the airbox is restrictive, so I have installed a K&N Induction kit tonight, again fed the cold air pipe by the rad and to the front of the bumper, where i have attached it to a £15 air scoop from Demon tweeks.

Now i know there is a lot of anti K&N on here, but i have to admit there is certainly a noticeable performance difference in the car, and this most probably due to getting the cold air pipe correct and the fact the 1.9 is very responsive to tuning.

I am sure time will tell if i will have MAF issue later on, but i never had an issue on my other car.

Only the Wiechers strut brace left to come now to complete my Birthday mods.

msassoon · Post by **msassoon** » Fri 24 Jun, 2011 10:13

I've had K&N style filters for years on many cars with different MAFs and never had a problem. With a hot wire MAF I would never use a foam style filter though. Had one GTO customer with a poorly running engine, and found parts of the degrading filter stuck on the hot wire! If oiled filters are maintained properly they are fine.

I will try something for the airbox at some stage, but the cone filter I have has been great so far.

BigTom · Post by **BigTom** » Fri 24 Jun, 2011 15:52

Ive been thinking more about this and remembered a mod i did to my old Honda CRX.I installed the ubiquitous 57i but cot a hole in the front bumper to feed air directly to the filter.I angled a piece of pipe upwards to stop any rain being sucked in and surrounded the hole with a chrome ring.Looked fine+i cant see why doing the same to the front Z3 would look too out of place.If i housed the cone in space discussed+put this in place its surely the best solution?Direct cold air and no heat soak.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri 24 Jun, 2011 17:07

BigTom wrote:Ive been thinking more about this and remembered a mod i did to my old Honda CRX.I installed the ubiquitous 57i but cot a hole in the front bumper to feed air directly to the filter.I angled a piece of pipe upwards to stop any rain being sucked in and surrounded the hole with a chrome ring.Looked fine+i cant see why doing the same to the front Z3 would look too out of place.If i housed the cone in space discussed+put this in place its surely the best solution?Direct cold air and no heat soak.

Tom, do not drill / cut a hole in your car, you do not need too. I will put pictures up later but all you need to do is run the cold air pipe past the radiator to the lower air intake on the front bumper and fit an air scoop to the aperture, I have just fitted this mod 10 minutes ago but it has started raining, all you will need to do is remove the lower blanking plate, and once mod completed fit a stainless mesh grille from zunsport.

For those who are worried about air temp, i took the car for a 30 minute run when i came back i checked the temperature, as per standard car, the pipe behind the MAF was warm, no hotter than normal, maybe slightly cooler, the induction filter was cold. which does not surprise me as the MAF and pipe are connected to an alloy plenum chamber which in turn is attached to the engine, so unless the air coming through the filter is hotter than the plenum (which i doubt), i cannot forsee a problem.

Justin Time · Post by **Justin Time** » Fri 24 Jun, 2011 17:56

You can also just buy a kitchen fan extractor pipe and some duct tape, nothing else is needed from my experience, and no cutting is required. Make sure to remove the inlet cone attached to the front of the airfilter box.

Wedge the opening of the pipe next to the fog light (remove the plastic cover in front of it to improve air flow) and route the pipe up to the airbox. It will be compressed slightly as the headlight wiring will be in the way. Connect the piping to the hole in the front of the airfilter box and seal with liberal use of duct tape.

This is how I rigged it up 3 years ago, it is still in place and working perfectly.

BigTom · Post by **BigTom** » Sat 25 Jun, 2011 19:26

Justin thats exactly what i was going to say!But i still think opening that panel up in the lower mouth as well will improve things further.The cone housed behind the bumper is still my fav option and this sounds perfect.