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Upper Intake Project

6K views 23 replies 3 participants last post by  paleyjim 
#1 ·
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.
 

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Discussion starter · #2 ·
More photos. Having some problems with upload, but I'll keep working at it.
 

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Discussion starter · #3 ·
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.
 

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Discussion starter · #4 ·
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.
 

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Discussion starter · #5 ·
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.
 

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Discussion starter · #7 ·
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.
 

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Discussion starter · #8 ·
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.
 

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Discussion starter · #10 ·
Haha. I did a bit of test fitting. Just didn’t think there was anything worth photographing.
 
Discussion starter · #13 ·
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.
 

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Discussion starter · #15 ·
Probably 1.5 in. where it meets the turbo.
 
Discussion starter · #20 ·
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.
 

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Discussion starter · #21 ·
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
Thanks for the suggestion. I’m going to try to make this work, but I’ll keep this in mind if it doesn’t work out.
 
Discussion starter · #22 ·
I made a little more progress last night. I found that if you remove the spring from the hood, it is much easier to tell if/when the hood insulation contacts parts.
I made one slit in the tube with the chop saw and did a little additional grinding to get the slit to close back up ok. This was enough to get hood clearance.
I welded the tube up and ground it smooth. Welding was a treat, the back side of that bend is very thin PLUS that is the area of the slit that had a little gap so I had some burn through. Overall it turned out ok.
I'm still playing with the angles of the the compressor housing and the intake tube. I'm also deciding if I want to put a bead on the intake tube to retain the reducer. I'm pretty certain it will not be able to come off, so leaning toward skipping the bead. I think I will also shorten the tube a little bit. I think it will make assembly and alignment easier. I hate to cut it off before I'm certain that is the right direction.
 

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Discussion starter · #23 ·
I haven't been driving much. I took the truck out for for a quick test drive before I really sealed everything up just to make sure nothing was going to blow apart under boost. It sealed pretty well even with no gasket or sealant between the lower intake and my stainless plate. I could still hit 17 or 18 psi, but boost was slower to build and I had more smoke due to leaks. Everything held together just fine.

So I pulled it all apart and put a bead of silicone on the lower intake and just a touch on the vband as well. Today I went on a longer test drive. I didn't beat on it too hard, but hit 19 psi a few times. Stabbing the pedal left a pretty dark little cloud of smoke, but it cleared up quickly. I think the smoke clears a bit faster than it would before.

Power might be very slightly better, but I didn't get over to my standard full throttle test strip to know for sure.

Overall the project was a success. I still need to do some work to the CDR tube. It no longer routes properly now that I moved the compressor housing. But otherwise I should be ready to to start playing with water injection. That project is a ways off. I need to put brakes on a Subaru and have a couple of exhaust projects in my immediate future.
 
Discussion starter · #24 ·
I recently pulled this back apart to seal it up better. My 300k engine has enough blowby to make the poor seal of my flange to the lower intake quite evident - by covering everything in a layer of oil and grime. My update from a year ago says I was building 19 psi of boost. This was down from the 20/21 psi that I was building after the HO injection pump. After reworking the flange to flatten it out, sealing up the pipe fittings better with pipe dope, and cleaning up some welds that appeared to be less than air tight... I'm happy to say that I'm again back to 21 psi of boost pressure at WOT.
Here's the grimy mess from the boost leaks combined with blowby:
641620
 
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