This is the intake I built when I removed my EGR and installed an "F" lower manifold. This is rev 2 as the first one used 90 degree silicone elbows which blew out twice after only a few thousand miles. This rev. has been running well for about 8K miles. I wanted to make sure it was reliable before I showed everyone on the forum. I built this for two reasons 1. The factory intake was too restrictive and 2. It was not shaped well for adding a decent intercooler. It consists of a 1/4in. thick aluminum plate with a short piece of straight 3" aluminum pipe to allow for intercooling options, then is connected by straight silicone to a couple of 3" 90 degree aluminum elbows I had welded together. I rotated the Turbo housing to accomidate the angle of the setup. Start to finish this project cost about $100 including the R&D. Let me know what you think.

That is what I am planning for my intercooler install, originally I wag going to use a modified upper intake, but your idea has started me thinking. What kind of differences have you noticed? I am hoping to use 3" for the intercooler pipes but am not sure if they will fit in the spaces that are there. Puting a 3" elbow on the upper intake will make it nice so I don't have to transition back to 2.5".

Where's your MAP sensor?

That looks sweet, I want one!

I tapped the 1/4 plate twice 1/4 NPT for a barb fitting that connects to a short piece of vacuum hose plugged onto the MAP, this is where I will be plugging a tee in for my boost gauge when I find one I like. The 3/8 NPT in front of it is the IAT sensor. This unit by itself offers little or no performance, but as you can see I could easily adapt this configuration using standard and easily obtainable 3" aluminum pipe and silicone for intercooling. The silicone connecting the turbo to the intake is a turbonetics 2 1/2" to 3" reducer. I do believe that I felt a boost in power from stock, but I had EGR setup before so this is much more open and free breathing than the EGR, someone who already has an "F" setup might not feel the improvement I did.

I like it. Simple yet effective.

MDT----Very nice work,look's professional.All you need to do now is to modify your air intake.

About my air intake, you can't see it in the pictures, but it's not connected to the fender any more. The turbo tube wouldn't reach after installing the 3" body lift. It breathes really well but I think in the heat of the summer it will pull in too much hot air. When my batteries die I will replace them with optimas because they don't vent toxic fumes like standard batteries, I can relocate them in the back of the truck. This will give me about 80lbs of weight transfer which I need for four wheeling, and with the battery gone I can create a cold air set up similar to QM's location, plus free up some underhood acreage for the upcomming intercooler.

I am curious , as I am planning on building my own intake ( complete upper and lower ). I look at yours and to question your idea behind it:confused: . I have the non egr intake. I am just curious what your thought of transitional airflow path is dumping straight down like that. It makes sense to me the stock intake on a NA motor, and I dont have a ton of experience with Turboed setups. But the turbo setup seems like the pressure being higher would work good with your setup. My idea is going to be similiar to what I made up for this setup a few years ago. This was for a chrysler proto type project. It was two 2.4 twins in harmony. One would run, if you gave it more throttle the other motor woudl start up and kick in. Here is a picture of the intake. My idea is that I would seperate the two intakes like pictured, with longer runners to produce more torque. Kinda like an old max wedge motor with the fender well hung manifolds, but not to that big of an extreme. Any input is glady appericated. I like your intake setup:cool2: , Its good to see people really tinker with these motors. I am sure there is alot of untapped performance improvements , if you dont crack the black first. There are more pictures of this setup on my site if you guys are interested in looking at them.

Thankshttp://www.customizedcreations.net/images/600_2.4_intake_2.jpg

http://www.customizedcreations.net/images/600_fab_intake_2.jpg

That intake btw was all hand formed , except for the flange which I cnc cut. Everything is aluminum, and I tig welded it all together. It weighed a whopping 3 lbs lol. compared to the cast alumimnum stock intake, it was like holding a 20 lbs weight vs a pack a potatoe chips LOL.

Also I liked your idea of relocated the batteries to the back of the truck bed. Now damn it, you have me thinking of more projects for my truck THANKS !!!!:lol:

The batteries shouldn't be so high and that far forward anyway. I really love these tig welded intakes, you guys are right on.

My understanding of pressurized engines is that the length and form of the intake runners is much less significant than on NA.

How about reinvisioned.

If I made a nice tig welded aluminum intake I'd put the second a/c evap. core in the "bowl" of the plenum and see what those IAT's looked like. It measures 14" x 10" x 5" and has two aluminum lines with the approiate fittings(same as the core the truck uses) Since as matt states the length of the intake runners isn't as critical, you could put the runners right off the new bowl in nearly the same configuration and be able to drop the IAT's and the upper intake down to 60*f on a seriously hot day without adding any "real" stress to the engine. I'd run it in addition to my "little" air to air.
I have the capacity, machine wise with my sa-200, to tig weld but not much experience.

Heat pump in, heat pump out. I have tried to do the math on running an A/C to act as an intercooler from inside the intake manifold. In theory this sounded great, but like some things (not all) there's a reason manufacturer's don't do this. The gains of lowering the IAT is worth between 20-30HP, but the A/C compressor uses between 15-25HP just to turn it ( this is why 4 bangers die when you turn on the A/C), then the plumbing nightmare and additional weight of the system would net a gain of 0. I was really upset when I realized this wouldn't work, but I'm glad I did before spending any cash. QM, if you find something out that I overlooked I'd love to see it.

I've held off on comments wanted to see if anyone else had this in their mind, craftsmanship looks great, cost is a good deal also. Here is the but you knew was coming.

You have reshaped the flow characteristics to a different flow, one that for me at this point I suspect but don't know for sure; may negate the benefits.

You have changed a volute style entry sweeping curve meant to fully/gradually fill the intake chamber, to a straight downdraft force, what I don't know though if your downdraft straight into the bottom of the intake plenum is a good or bad thing.

You now have a straight 2" diameter column of fluid(air) directly diverging into bottom of the intake, as opposed to swept flow of original design. GM calculated that sweep for a reason, I'm not smart enough to know if what you are doing could pose a problem, but something to consider.

After the turbo my whole system is 3"

I think it would be a 100% improvement over the EGR style upper plenim, no?
Even the non EGR plenim doesn't direct flow to the front 4 cylinders.

probably on manitude of 200% over EGR, it's the round into the flat plate, directing into back of lower intake, that causes me pause, 3" is more better, I have a stock F upper laying beside my computer which is where I came up with 2" number.

MDT your custom lower is that a S lower modded or a stock F lower modded?

Stock "F". Bought an upper and lower off of ebay but never used the upper just resold it on ebay.

That was one thing I was interested in. The straight downward shot. But I wonder since its pressurised how much difference it would make. My idea of longer runners makes me wonder since its pressurised air, if that would make the longer travel heat the air up as well. I know the more you pressurise things the quicker it will heat up.

Hows this for an idea, take the intakes similiar in design, to the 4cyl ones I shown. Cut and put the log 2-3 inches away from the inlent flange, obvious bell mouths inside for transitional curvature flow in, but have a cooler on top of that with a huge electric fan on top. The last one I had on my race car pushed 2800-3000 cfm of air.

Now one better, fabricate an older style ram air pan ( ala 68-70 GTO style ) that seals against the hood surounding the AIC. Maybe one of those cowl induction hoods. You would be running cool air from the outside, and the fan would pull air when your at low speeds.

Whatcha think, any input ideas.

Hey TD, If the manifold is under pressure why would it make any difference where the source of pressure came from? The pressurized air is going to run to where the leak is (valve opening). Would it care where the leak is? Does this make sense?

Seems to me if there isn't a smooth transition from round to square, there will be a lot of turbulence in the intake, and therefore cause a slight restriction, and/or lost boost.

That was my thought as well or GM would have chosen an easier to mfg style like MDT has made,

The design of the factory intake appears to me to be low profile for underhood clearance.

The Factory setup transitions from 2.1in ID tube to a rectangle shape about 3/4in by 5 1/2in goes around the EGR(if so equiped), pressurizes the plenum, and the engine is the bleed off of what is essentially a low pressure air tank. Because the manifold is an air tank operating above ambient pressure the flow direction of the source charge from turbo/intake is not very significant.

On a pneumatic air tank there is a small source line from the pump filling the tank and in a different location an air release for using the air. The input and output are not directly affected by each other as long as the tank has a charge whether it's - or +.

The easiest way to realize how little affect the manifold has on air charge and to blow "The factory did it for a reason" out of the water, is the fact that the Hummers and vans use a completely different turbo,intake manifold setup and even have a different angle on the heads to accomidate it, yet make the exact same power.

To look at a Hummer/Van setup it would seem like the front 4 cylinders would be starved as the manifold dumps directly over the rear cylinders, this starvation doesn't happen because the manifold (tank) is pressurized.

I don't think the manufacturers are overly conserned with turbulance in a pressurized system, when I look at an air to air intercooler and think about whats happening to air as it passes through it.

I can't wait to put an intercooler on my setup, "Ebay, I need you"

That was my thought as well or GM would have chosen an easier to mfg style like MDT has made,
I think you are putting much more into GM's intentions than there really is. I have a picture somewhere of a factory mockup engine, using a totally different upper intake than stock, in fact I'm looking for that intake all over the place, since it would be perfect for an intercooler setup.
Will post that pic shortly.

That looks sweet, I want one!yeah i want one too. MDT, you should make a bunch of them up and sell them to us. (and give us the diesel place discount of course). nice work, i'll bet it runs like a champ too!

I ran some air through the upper intake and it looks like it trys to swirl into the intake.

i'm about to start making myself a new intake and wanted to know if an overall HARD BACKED conclusion has been made as to wether or not changing the shape of the intake matters? but gut feeling tells me no on a pressurized system ... especially since i'm making about 15 - 18 psi constant on decent accel. i can't imagine there air wouldn't go where it needed to go.. i understand that on a NA setup the flow charectaristics are very important..

so before i start hacking and welding away just wondering if anyone has made their mind up about this.. if not.. oh well trial and error has worked for centuries..

-brian
:blahblah:

The 06 Ford F150 with the 5.4 has a A/C cold air intake system. They call it "power boost" on the dash. It suppose to give you a quick 30 hp for a short time. That's why the new 5.4 is rated at 330 hp (I believe this rating.. maybe wrong by a few hp)



Heat pump in, heat pump out. I have tried to do the math on running an A/C to act as an intercooler from inside the intake manifold. In theory this sounded great, but like some things (not all) there's a reason manufacturer's don't do this. The gains of lowering the IAT is worth between 20-30HP, but the A/C compressor uses between 15-25HP just to turn it ( this is why 4 bangers die when you turn on the A/C), then the plumbing nightmare and additional weight of the system would net a gain of 0. I was really upset when I realized this wouldn't work, but I'm glad I did before spending any cash. QM, if you find something out that I overlooked I'd love to see it.

I knew I couldn't be the only one trying that. Worst thing I saw was water going into the intake that the evap had condensated out of the intake air.

This is the intake I built when I removed my EGR and installed an "F" lower manifold. This is rev 2 as the first one used 90 degree silicone elbows which blew out twice after only a few thousand miles. This rev. has been running well for about 8K miles. I wanted to make sure it was reliable before I showed everyone on the forum. I built this for two reasons 1. The factory intake was too restrictive and 2. It was not shaped well for adding a decent intercooler. It consists of a 1/4in. thick aluminum plate with a short piece of straight 3" aluminum pipe to allow for intercooling options, then is connected by straight silicone to a couple of 3" 90 degree aluminum elbows I had welded together. I rotated the Turbo housing to accomidate the angle of the setup. Start to finish this project cost about $100 including the R&D. Let me know what you think.

MDT,

Would you please share where you were able to locate an "F" lower manifold? Also, where did you buy all the various aluminum pipes and plates? I'd like to see about duplicating your setup.

Sincerely,

Rob :)

Everything except the plate came from ebay. The plate came from a local scrap yard. If you want to save some green weld the egr port in the lower intake closed either in the middle or on the sides where the exhaust comes in and reuse it. In my experience blocked off gaskets are not enough and the exhaust has burned through.