Racer X Fabrication air intake design and development!
 

Well after about a year of the shop owning our BRZ, we are starting to move into the engine development work. I know there are plenty air intakes on the market, and all of them have there own unique design. Here is our version of the air intake, and currently the design that we think will work very well. We are keeping the stock snorkel, and bolting on an airbox infront of it. The airbox will allow you to keep any aftermarket drop in filter you may have in place. Currently we plan to dyno our shop car with the OEM filter, and the K&N filter. Our shop car currently has NO engine modifications.

The design of our intake does a few things, it reduces the sharp 90 degree entry into the OEM intake elbow. This will reduce some flow loss, and allow for a smoother entry into the throttle body. In addition all of the tubing is formed on dies that we build in house. The tube coming out of the air box is sized to the exact diameter of the OEM MAF housing. It also places a large tapered bellmouth velocity stack in front of it. Next is our ram air tube, this tube is designed to increase air speed, and bring it back to a stablized air flow before entering the throttle body. The ram air tube again is designed for the OEM throttle body, and is formed from a die that we built specifically for the FR-S/BRZ.

We will have dynos posted in the next few weeks, and of course I will post any updates we have on the project as it moves forward. For now here are a few pics.

As always we are open to suggestions and comments.

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/c...psfea95b57.jpg

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/c...ps8f350597.jpg

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/c...psa4ec0864.jpg

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/c...ps4329b36b.jpg

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/c...pseb991fe5.jpg

why does everyone seem to avoid going to a larger maf housing? With as many tuning options as we have available now it's easy enough to make a "tuned" maf table available for download like Perrin does for their 3" intake.

The design looks like it has promise, but i'm not thrilled about keeping the stock maf housing diameter and keeping the stock snorkel. I know there are aftermarket options on the intake tube like hks etc.

Perhapse you guys can include some testing with:
* Stock intake snorkel
* Modified stock snorkel
* HKS or similar snorkel

Also, please include an option for those that want to maintain the crank case vent tube on the intake pipe.

It requires a tune to rescale the maf voltage. While it may be simple enough to provide, say an ECUtek map, there's still the licensing etc. that you must go through. Not everyone has the same engine management solution. I for instance would never buy a kit that forced me to use ECUtek - though I would consider if there were no alternative.

That is exactly why all they need to provide a a spreadsheet or csv file with updated maf scaling then you can add that to whatever platform you use for tuning. They days of $150 reflashes is almost upon us.. as soon as tactrix releases the non beta ecuflash... all you will need is a tactrix cable.....

I just don't think we are going to see any real gains from an intake until we see a radical re design of the stock setup.. this is certainly a good start but not complete imo.

Of course, pressure drop and dyno data rule over any and all speculation so... In for some results :thumbup:

this just looks expensive....

They need to sell to people who aren't getting tunes, so making the MAF tube larger is just silly...

I like the design but definitely want to see some results over the stock setup.

We are capable of making a 3" intake tube, and we could offer it as an option for those that plan to get a tune with their intake. Currently we are interested in actual gains, so the best comparison is to leave the diameter the same.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Why? There's plenty of companies with a product that fills that part of the market. If RacerX feels that is where they would make the most profit and that they can offer something different, that's fine. Of course they don't need any of our permission, but why must they? So far, everything I've seen from RacerX has seemed geared toward the sort of customer who already has a tune. I don't know of anyone filling the void in the market that mad_sb is talking about. Well, maybe Perrin, but...no thanks.

I'm looking for an intake I can upgrade fi later on. Haven't seen any cai like that... :)

I like the look of this. Sub'd for flow and dyno results.

It's not an ARC induction box, rofl. I wouldn't expect an outrageous price.

Sorry if i came off all negative... I like the design so far. My #1 priority of any performance product is how it performs. If it turns out the stock housing size makes more power than a larger housing and requires no tuning then that's a bonus. I just feel like sticking to the constraints of "no tuning required" limits the performance potential.

It seems like none of the "Big" companies (aside from AEM) are willing to touch the maf housing size, for obvious reasons, so i think it is up to the guys like you and grimspeed to produce the best performing intake, even if it requires a maf table adjustment.

But again, i understand that fluid dynamics does not follow bench racer logic and it may turn out that there is nothing to gain from a larger housing, but i would at least like to see it tested.

you're going to need to scale your maf when you install an intake regardless of whether it explicitly altered the diameter or not. hell, you should probably scale your maf even if you haven't change anything.

but it would be of little benefit for them to provide base numbers, as it's so simple to do and you'd end up fine tuning it regardless even if they do provide them. you could just as easily do the math yourself and start from there, or just start with the stock scaling and tune the thing. there will not be a case in which you just plug in numbers from a vendor and your maf is perfect.