Very Nice Very Nice Indeed

I got all my intake tubing cut and welded this weekend. I was able to keep all bends relatively gentle, but man I am really getting sick of having to use this hack saw. Cutting a 4" cast aluminum elbow in half by hand (and all the other pieces) was a major PITA.

I was able to get the fitment between sections within about 1/8" which should make couplers blowing off almost impossible. To minimize number of couplers, I also cut off the end of the cast Rotary-Works elbow and had pipe welded to that. I'm tempted to use Wiggins clamps on the intercooler piping, but don't really dig the purple anodizing.

Next I'm going to grind the welds down, find somebody to put a bead on the ends and get the pieces powder coated wrinkle-black. BOV mount is going on the intercooler hot side.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/u...f/IMG_1608.jpg

Tried to position the air filter perfectly for a cold air/ram air intake. This pic is from the front looking into the V of the V-mount with the bumper off.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/u...f/IMG_1610.jpg

I do like the more gentle angle of the Rotary-works TB elbow as compared to the >90degree Greddy ones, but I don't think I'll be able to reuse the stock strut bar now without some custom mounts-- it sits pretty high. RCCAZ and dregg100 gave me a heads up Saturday that cutting off the air pump mount on the water pump housing would clean up some of the fuel rail plumbing later so I cut that piece off too with the hacksaw.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/u...f/IMG_1614.jpg

Damn, that powdercoating looks fantastic. It really does. Gives me more motivation to redo mine.

The fitment on the intercooler piping is top notch, well done. I would suggest NOT grinding the beads down though. I did this with a few pipes that I had ceramic coated, and they cracked.... so now they need to be re-coated... damnit.

As for fitting the strut bar on, how much higher is all that sitting? I put washers under my strut bar mounts but I'm about to get some spacers made by waterjet to put on each side. Let me know how thick you need them and I'll have some made for you too. I personally wouldn't go so thick that you can't fit the nut fully onto the threads, but that's just my preference. I want at least 1 thread to show on the top side of the nut.

I agree with Brian, that wrinkle powdercoat finish is awesome! I might have to copy that if you don't mind HAHA.

My IC piping is set up the same way too, basically touching each other with the coupler there just to make a seal, but mine is more ghetto than yours haha.

I like your cold air intake too, makes me think I need to get a smaller IC so I can have room to fit my filter like that too, and possibly get less of a pressure drop at the same time.

I didn't know Rotary Works made a TB elbow, that's awesome!

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/u...f/IMG_1610.jpg

Your setup looks great, but I don't see many vmounts where the intake is in the same compartment as the radiator and intercooler. Now this is my simple minded theory, but wont the turbo at full boost be taking away much of the cfm airflow that would be forced throught the intercooler and radiator?

No. Think about the surface area moving through the front bumper at a speed more than 10mph or 880ft/min.....

Heh, I never thought of that, but I hope so! That means it would also be reducing the extra aero drag I'm incurring by running the vmount. I'd prefer then to think about it as the turbo inlet sucking the car forward!

Thinking about the math though, I think its unrealistic. I think I remember reading once it takes around 2CFM of air at sealevel to make 1HP. If I go for 400HP, I need 800CFM of air. My bumper duct is probably (conservatively) about 3ft^2 area so at 30mph I'm "scooping up" up to about 8000 CFM of air.

where in the intake box you fab'd?

Jesse... are you planning to shroud that filter and the other open areas around the IC to force more air through the IC and radiator?

The intake box goes over the top of the air filter assembly to provide a better seal to the engine bay but has a open bottom for the air filter. The pics I sent previous were mockups I made out of foamboard. I'm using the foamboard mockup to layup some red kevlar/carbon fiber for the visible portions of the top of the airbox that will be riveted to the mostly invisible aluminum bottom/rear end of the airbox where I will have the 4" turbo-inlet pipe welded to it. The rear/bottom aluminum portion of the box will also be attached to a piano hinge and another piece of sheet aluminum to act as a air splitter and also to seal up the small gap between the IC and radiator.

Its kind of hard to explain, but I hope to get a lot of that done this next weekend.

Wow, thanks! But I don't think spacers will be enough here. I think I'm going to have a different mount built:

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/u...f/IMG_1617.jpg

Getting a good wrinkle black seems very much dependent on the prep work and process. A friend did his engine bay in the same wrinkle black powder and it turned out with a lot different texture. I used a local powder coater, Glendale Powder Coating and they did some sort of industrial chemical wash that just turned out awesome.

Yes, definitely. I don't want any gaps. Here's a couple shots of the airbox in CAD to explain a bit more re: my previous post. I'd like to make a small duct to direct a bit of air from the V right to the turbo CHRA, but I'm not sure it would do enough to make wortwhile yet.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/u...f/untitled.jpg

Soooo like I said, No :rofl:

With a plasma cutter, a welder, and a some steel stock you could mod that mount to work just great. Had to do that with my greedy strut brace.... before I said eff it and built my own

Aint that the truth. For the do-it-yourself guys, clean it, bake it, sand it, clean it, and that usually does it for me.

Bad ass man, really bad ass. I wish I was passing through Phoenix not at 6am and had some time to swing by and check this bad ride out. Epic trip ver 2.0

You'll also want to watch your hood clearance closely. That strut bar comes pretty close to the underside of the hood. Not sure how much wiggle room there is for modifying the height significantly. If it were me I'd consider increasing the downward bend angle just out of the TB elbow (if possible). Just an FYI.

^Good point, hadn't thought of that. That is getting pretty high. I don't have a stock hood so I forget how low they sit. They do sit pretty low right? lol

"Massage" the supports? Can probably gain an easy 1/2"