[paleyjim]

I’ve been working on a replacement for the factory upper intake for quite a while. I made one attempt while installing my S300 (fab starts on roughly page 5 of that thread). I wasn’t happy with how it was going and set it aside. In December I started hacking away on a different design. I MIGHT get it finished up this week, so I thought I’d start sharing some photos.
I’m making this for a couple reasons:
- I like to fabricate. This seemed like a fun/challenging project.
- I’d like to play with water or water/meth injection, and I can weld bungs into a stainless intake. I do not have aluminum welding equipment or skills.
- The 2-piece design allows repositioning of the upper section to accommodate future changes such as a charge air cooler, without starting from scratch.
- I DO NOT think this will provide any performance improvement. At 18 to 20 psi, I’m currently moving enough air to burn all the fuel my DS4 can put out. It is possible that this may clear up a little bit of my transient smoke when I stomp on it, but I don’t have high expectations. On the flip side, I’ve heard that the guys using Crazy Mater upper intakes are happy with the improvement.

I thought y'all might enjoy the photos.

 

[paleyjim]

More photos. Having some problems with upload, but I'll keep working at it.

 

[paleyjim]

Sorry for the upside down photo. Having problems with the upload, so I'm not going to try to fix it.

Welding caused some distortion of the vband flange and the bottom flange. I was able to pull the bottom flange back to very near flat with some creative use of spacers on the spare lower intake. The vband flange is also close to flat by using heat/quench techniques. I'll probably have to surface it slightly to get a good seal.

Cutting pipe threads in stainless is not fun. Just in case you wondered.

 

[paleyjim]

I had a bit of a side track. I lost the nut for the vband clamp. I didn't have any spare M8x1.25 nuts around, but I did have a tap. So I made my own temporary nut. This just allowed me to continue to fit parts while I waited for an order to arrive.
My order from Mcmaster arrived so I'm no longer using this.

 

[paleyjim]

Here's where it sits currently. Test fitting the 3.5" pipe to the turbo.

I need to do a bit more shaping here. Has to be pulled down a little bit for hood clearance. I also have to fab a bracket for the MAP sensor. and get it T'd into the fitting for the boost gauge.

A 45 degree reducing elbow and matching clamps are on the way to connect the turbo to the pipe.

 

[Tr00b]

There's more time and ambition in your Amish test fit nut than I've put into my truck in a month.

Really hope you see some gains from all your efforts.

 

[paleyjim]

I finished up a bracket to remote mount the MAP sensor on the lower intake. Here are a few photos of the fab and installation.

My bending reducer and clamps showed up today as well. Hoping to do some more test fitting and get more photos tonight.

 

[paleyjim]

MAP sensor connected

Spent a little time on the lathe to make an adapter to get the MAP sensor connected.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to do some cutting and welding on the 90 degree tube to get it to the correct shape.

Hoping for a test drive this weekend.

 

[Tr00b]

So you get all the parts and don't slap on the silicone adapter dinglberry and make us wait one more day. Those adapters are kind of hard to find cool that you just made one up like it was nothing!

 

[paleyjim]

Haha. I did a bit of test fitting. Just didn’t think there was anything worth photographing.

 

[alex1234]

You beat me on time....like the v-band option
when i measured i thought to use a 4" elbow welded to plate
...but i must convert my lower "S" intake to "F" before aptempt the upper intake.

 

[Tr00b]

This is Jim working on his traditional Amish/Japanese welding table.

The best part is he can ground just about anywhere.

The intake is looking great but me showing up to harass him about chainsaws, fuel tanks and injectors probably wrecked chances of a test drive for the weekend.

 

[paleyjim]

Yeah, made some progress yesterday, but not as much as I wanted. I let the tube stick through the vband so that it aligns everything. It took quite a bit of die grinder work to get the vband to fit reasonably on the bend of the tube. You can probably tell by the insane number of tack welds that I tried very hard to keep the heat down to prevent warp.
A couple of these are just mock up photos. The tube has to be dropped lower for hood clearance.

 

[Tr00b]

How much lower do you have to go do you think?

 

[paleyjim]

Probably 1.5 in. where it meets the turbo.

 

[alex1234]

Paleyjim....i would go with a straight reducer from turbo to tube, then a 45° elbow in the midle tube from turbo,...or end of tube, it depend from radius you can use/play to the 90° elbow from intake upper plate

 

[alex1234]

with this configuration...minimum 2 elbow are needed for alignement
more straight is possible but that is.

 

[alex1234]

i thought this winter about this work... more versatile as possible, to see what happen to air intake temperature,...free to future upgrade ...may be an intercooler upgrade also

 

[alex1234]

i like your idea of a v-band instead of a silicon elbow to the plate

 

[paleyjim]

How much lower do you have to go do you think?

Didn’t really work on it today, but I did look some more at hood clearance. Took a photo of where the hood is when it makes contact. It won’t take much.