Jason@Performance

iTrader: (11)

K&N Typhoon Intake.

So, we get these in at the shop. I take a look at it. Short "Ram-Air" type with cold air box and scoop.

Putting parts together visually off of the car to see how it worked we noticed;

* The intake "scoop" piping does not form a seal with the "Cold Air Box" but sits in front of it about 3 mm. This does a few things. Creates a water diversion by the intake being able to suck in air from the opining (about 2.5") of the "Cold Air Box" if the intake scoop pipe was to be filled with water or an obstruction.

* The "Cold Air Box" (box around the filter that is filled with "Cold Air" that the intake scoop scoops in) is made of METAL. In my experience in the past, these turned into heat ovens around the filters.

* The carbon fiber cover was Very cool looking for sure.

* This is mine and Jeff's favorite parts of this piece. The instal of this uses 2 pieces of piping. The short mandrel bent 2.5inch pipe from the scoop to the front of the cold air box and one 3.5" mandrel bent pipe from the filter to the plenum. But wait, isn't there a plastic tube which holds the MAF? They integrated this piece into the 3.5" piping! Very cool! This way it is a smooth pipe from the filter up and no curves or changes in piping size for the air to maneuver its way around.

Now to the install.



Taking off the OEM intake. Everything is visible rite from the get go of what you need to unscrew / loosen / disconnect. A couple of 10 mm bolts and a tube with one of those clamps around it you need pliers to squeeze. Remove the tube, put it away for safe keeping. Unscrew the MAF and I let mine sit on my stabilizer bar. There are 3 clips on top of the bumper assembly which need to be removed, pop them up with a flat head and then another one on top of the intake scoop of the stock intake. Pull that stock intake scoop forward, now get the stock air box out. Hrmm.. Feels like there is another screw.. Yes I was looking for another screw for a few, then me not really caring just lifted straight up and POP there it goes! It is just pops in and out of place. Lift straight up and it will come rite out.



Then there is a bolt behind the bumper that is a pain in the noggin to get out.



I had to stick my left arm down into the space in front of the hood latch and loosen this thing. Pulled my arm out with a nice wad of grease on it. Yay.



After you remove that little metal piece you can remove that little scoop that pointed into the stock intake box. Its time to fit the "cold air box" bottom into place. It fits rite in there but make sure all your screw holes are aligned. Attach the short 2.5" tube to the front of this.



Now the easy part. 12 10mm bolts below the car on the splash shield that needs to be removed along with one clip. (much easier with the car on jack stands or a lift). Then, remove the Tow cover from the front grill (and for people who have a zee-braket I hope you still have your locking Allen-screw key. I had to break my security pieces out to get them off with a normal Allen-wrench). Now time for insertion of the scoop. Jam it into that intake pipe and it slides into a slot on the stock grill. Then you take a BIG BOLT and put it where the TOW HITCH goes.



Bolt that into place and put your Zee-Bracket back on (not getting another front license plate ticket). Put the long mandrel bent tube into place. The hardware that comes with this kit is definitely top notch.



Time to get the filter on. Put it into place and tighten it on, it feels like it isn't on far enough but most likely it is. Get it as tight as you can.



Put your cool carbon fiber cover on. Insert the MAF.



Reconnect Negative battery. Turn it on. Pssssssp Psssssssp is what you hear when you give it gas.
Review after a 40 minute drive home.

* The sound is awesome, very full and compliments my Nismo Exhaust and High Flow Cats nicely.

* I can feel the car pull more in the High End RPM range. I am not feeling the same low end torque I felt before but it could be because I feel more power up top.

* When I got home first thing I did was pop the hood to check out the "cold air box" and just as I suspected. It was so hot I couldn't touch it. This is very coming for these types of systems. The pipe attached to the scoop was cold. The pipe going into the plenum was warm, but not hot.

In conclusion;

I still feel the NISMO Cold Air Intake is the best design for the Z if you were to put an intake on your car. The install of the K&N is a bit of a hassle. I have never liked the "Cold Air Box" design and yet again, it turns into a "Hot Air Box." If you are worried about water and cold air intakes, NISMO is the way to go with its Water Diverter. If you still worry, go with a JWT (which we are now stocking along with their other products). The sound is awesome from this intake though.

For $20 more then other vendor's are selling this for, Id take the NISMO CAI any day.

Ultimateone

Not bad, I think the GruppeM is untouchable.

Great write up Jason.

ElvishasaZ

Any dyno yet?

Jason@Performance

iTrader: (11)

Not just yet, I will go next week.

:-/ I dont exactly feel like another 3.5 hour drive home tommorow.

MY350Z.COM

iTrader: (2)

not so impressed with the hot air box.

AL350Z

the entire "box" should be carbon fiber. that would make MUCH more sense.

D'oh

Guys,

How long is the air in that box? Will it be in there long enough to get hot? I highly doubt it.

Here's some rough numbers just to get an idea of how long the air is in there.

VQ35 = 3.5 liters displacement = 3.5 liters of air sucked in every 2 revolutions (intake stroke is once every two revs)

How big is that box...maybe about 2 gallons or less.

1 gallon is 3.8 liters, so lets just say that air box is 7 liters (not quite 2 gallons).

That means that you will evacuate the air in the box every 4 revolutions.

So at idle (750 RPM) you will pull the air out every 4 revs/750 revs/min = .005 min = 0.32 seconds.

At 4800 RPM the air will be in there for about 0.05 seconds.

So even at idle the air will be in that box for less than half a second. There is no way that box will add enough heat to make a difference, especially @ high RPM.

-D'oh!

AL350Z

why even have a "box"????????????????????????? I've never understood why it has become necessary for this. Water would never submerge the end of the tube being in the engine compartment. End the tube with a filter inside the bay. Even though it gets VERY hot under the hood; the air coming in thru the original intake hole should force some cold air in. It would look like a cheap short ram intake but who cares. It would roar!

Apexi350z

iTrader: (3)

from your description, you don't sound that SATASIFIED with this setup... maybe if we can insulate the box, that might work better? wrap it with fiberglass insulation or something

Guess now the air box's faith will be decided by the DYNO numbers...

Jason@Performance

iTrader: (11)

Exactly, I am going to dyno this first, and then mess around with using some type of thermal wrapping around it like some do with headers. But who knows if it will really help.

Im going to look up how long it takes air molecules to actually heat up.

vfr350

I would think that when starting from a stop, a big gulp of hot air box air would not help much, possibly cause a little low end bog....

Jason@Performance

iTrader: (11)

Objects in motion produce heat. The amount of heat produced depends on the amount of motion. The movement of heat from a warmer object to a colder object is called heat transfer. There are three methods of heat transfer, conduction, convection and radiation. Heat transfer by convection takes place as gas molecules move in currents. These currents are caused when molecules in the heated portion of a gas speed up. In conduction heat is transferred from one substance to another by direct contact of molecules When faster moving warmer molecules collide with slower moving cooler molecules energy is transferred from the warmer molecules to the cooler molecules. The faster an object moves the more kinetic energy it has. When molecules are heated their kinetic energy increases, the higher the temperature of a substance the faster the molecules are moving. As increase in temperature indicated\s the addition of heat. One unit used to measure heat is the calorie which is defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water one degree Celsius, some substances absorb heat energy more easily than others. The ability of a specific substance to absorb heat is called its specific heat. Air has one of the lower specific heats. It is .25 calories/g-C This means it takes .25 calories to raise one gram of air one degree Celsius.

failsafe

When I had my Injen intake installed I was curious about the upper piping (attached to the throttle body) as it would get extremely hot. I bought some thermal wrap (Thermotec Cool-It) and decided to wrap the pipe. Went by Strictly Z and plugged into the OBDII port to monitor intake temps. After the car was warmed up we took intake temps with the wrap on and then took the wrap off and let the car idle for 5 min. Took intake temp readings again and the temp had risen close to 20 degrees.

350ed

iTrader: (17)

Which Thermotec product did you use? There are quite a few:
http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerc...61&cgrfnbr=636

Jeff@Performance

HUH???

Jason@Performance

iTrader: (11)

basically, the faster particals are in motion the faster and more prone to absorb heat they are.

think of a space heater. air passes through it f0r just a split second but gets warm enough to heat a room. the air does not to be stored and released to get hot, it takes a split second.

sorry cellphone post again

Apexi350z

iTrader: (3)

Jason, I studied that when I went to A/C School

Nice explanation.

DavesZ#3

iTrader: (26)

True except that it's being heated by a glowing piece of metal that probably a couple thousand degrees. The temperature of the box can't be more than 150 or so. Considering how short a time a slug of air in actually in there, it's temperature is not going to rise much. I'd be surprised if it went up a degree or two.

Sounds like a good experiment for some engineering students. Thermocouples to measure the temp at the inlet (outside air) and where it enters the tube going to the MAF.

failsafe

Or you can just hook into the OBDII port in your car to monitor intake temps with an application like Pocketlogger, PDA Dyno etc..

350ed- I used Thermo Tech Cold Air Tube Heat Shield - cost like $35 and had enough material to cut in half and use for two intakes.
http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerc...27&prmenbr=361

350ed

iTrader: (17)

Thanks failsafe!
Where did you buy for that price?
Summit and Jegs are both $43...