Old Rice

So as a married middle-aged family man lacking a vibrant social life, I find myself strolling the aisles of Menards and Home Depot a lot fri and sat evenings. As I found myself in the plumbing section winter dreaming of my Z I stumbled upon an idea to make a cold-air box for the popcharger. Like the innovators before me on this forum, here is my idea....

1. Bought a 7" Circular valve box (used for sprinkler systems)
2. Rubber 6"-to-4" pipe reducer

Old Rice

The valve box is made of a nice thick ABS plastic (looks like the radiator bridging in our cars) and popcharger fits just right. I trimmed about 1.5" off the nose of the housing with a jigsaw.

Old Rice

Air filter is not constricted in any way and some trimming of the rubber reducer...

Old Rice

Initial mock-up and fitment looks promising....

I also bought a plastic accordian style extention used for home gutter downspouts. One end is 4x3" rectangular and I clipped the accordian remainder off. The little rectangular box slips perfectly over the OEM snorkel extension and mates into the rubber end of the air-box.

Total cost so far $18.

What do you think? In spring I guess I will know if it works.

Cux350z

iTrader: (162)

You seriously covered your oem harness with even more of that ribbed plastic crap?

terrasmak

iTrader: (8)

Good idea, not really needed since it pulls the same temp air as a CAI when moving but.... To improve on your thoughts, you need to look on where the JWT actually pulls its air from. Just a hint, not from the front.

Old Rice

Its normally covered by a RareJDM cover that has some sharp edging. It was done to prevent any possible rubbing and is unseen under the cover. You only see it now since I have the upper\lower plenums pulled out. BTW..nothing says OEM than more corrugated crap....lol

Old Rice

My understanding is that air flow is drawn from the lower half sides (correct me there if wrong), agreed not the nose. The canister leaves space for that draw. My intent was to have an isolated area of cooler air to draw from (even at standstill) and prevent heat soaked draw since the plastic would not conduct or retain as much heat as the aluminum shield or open bottom exposure.

Found this from another forum discussing aftrmkt canister air boxes

3hree5ive0ero

iTrader: (95)

Any pics of this?
+1.. I'd maybe make that side opening a little bigger and rotate it toward the wheel well.

I feel as if the "cover" you made sits too close to the filter, though..

Old Rice

Yes I wonder about this as well. The saving grace is that only the widest edge of the filter makes contact to the canister and as the popcharger's profile tapers and narrows the "draw space" increases. At midpoint of the filter there is at least 1/4" gap...at the nose 1/2 to 3/4" gap.

Question is how much space is required so as not to be restrictive.

Old Rice

I just used the "box" portion and pushed it into the "rubber reducer". Then inserted the OEM snorkel into that box. The foam edging on the snorkel provided a secure fit similar to stock air box.

Z_enthusiast

iTrader: (16)

Looks like a great idea but when i had my cf duct with flex hose going directly to my popcharger it made my rpm's fluctuate dramatically when i was doing 70-80mph and had the car in neutral. guess it was forcing the intake to take on more air than it was asking for. My z even stalled a few times as result of the fluctuating...

Old Rice

I am no mechanic, but since you had a titek vent cutting a direct gateway into active air at speed perhaps the additional forced rush of air was sensed by the MAF somehow? I am just guessing. Theorically my canister should not have any actively flowing air since the front facia blocks the snorkel, but may act as a reserve of cooler ambient air when compared to surrounding engine bay air. Again speculating.

e30cabrio

iTrader: (30)

I have a hose sending air from the grill into the front of the JWT and run at +7-10 degrees ambient.

ewles

i like this concept, but i would make a few changes.

first, id try to find a bigger circular box, possibly a plastic plant holder or something of the like. but id make it so that the narrow base is the same dia. of the wide part of the cone so that there is a substantial volume inside the "airbox" around the filter, for increased flow to the filter. the front of the box would most likely end up being around 8-10 inches in outside dia. so i dont know how you would end up capping it, unless they make a 8-10" pvc coupler, possibly a modified plastic funnel? maybe you could cut slots in the planter and clamp it around a pvc coupler, or glue it together.

heres a drawing of the basic design changes i am talking about.

EDIT: drawing...
arrows are obviously airflow
blue is filter
black box at the bottom is the MAF housing
yellow was the funnel or pvc coupler
grey line on bottom of filter is the velocity stack
dark grey is the inside of the housing
black outlines are the outline of the planter or "box" piece
vertical black lines at top of planter are the slits cut into the planter (or other) so you can compress around funnel (or other)

ps. im not the best at drawing in paint, so go easy on my "art" :P

Old Rice

Totally see where ur going with this but there some rules that must be followed..

1. Fitment space it is fairly tight with the current cover. Don't think bigger is possible or no closing the hood.

2. Material availability as most pvc fittings stop at 4" dia. Also ease of working with it ie. Trimming,modding,drilling,tweaking.etc

3. Avoided hvac fittings since they are metal, back to square-1. Although hvac has the most variety of shapes n sizes ie. Box,funnel vents,etc

Cux350z

iTrader: (162)

^or just buy a pre-made solution and quit with the home depot/menards crap.

ewles

^ not everyone is made out of money, sorry that some arent as well of as you are.


did a little bit more research on the filter size, looks like its about 7.5" at the largest dia.
now, if you had a planter, like i suggested, they come in a whole slue of sizes and you could find one that doesnt have a large taper. also, i suggested a funnel to keep the front taper very short. you could also use a margerine lid with a custom hole cut out for the rad support duct, but it would be hard to find a fitting match

seeing this changed my idea for an airbox, though, im not sure what im going to do in the end. maybe duct reducers back to back or something, who knows? lol

Itzcashew

iTrader: (13)

Hey guys am I late to the engineering seminar going on here?

Old Rice

Found this on a Suby tuning site....

Also it is good to look for an intake that has a velocity stack. Cobb?s intake uses a velocity stack that smoothens out airflow as its being sucked in to the turbo/engine. This helps reduce the amount of turbulence flowing inside and past the Mass Air Flow Sensor. If there is too much turbulence, it will disrupt the readings and can trigger a check engine light. It can also make your car run ?lean? as the ECU is not able to accurately read the amount of air being sucked in. It can also cause your car to idle rough and in turn make your car run like crap.