Questions about my gutted intake (pics included)

[FlaBoy]

Hey guys,

A year or so back I snagged a deal on a gutted hotair intake from e-bay. I never got around to installing it, as I had more pressing things to fix on the car first. Now I'm about ready, but I had some questions I was hoping some of you more knowledgeable guys might be able to answer.

The intake has been pretty much completely gutted: the EGR hump has been completely ground down, the "zip-tubes" running along the sides of the intake to the front have been sealed off, the whole middle part has been opened up into pretty much one big plenum, and the front area, where the flow transitioned from the "zip-tubes" to the center plenum has also been sealed off (though I am unsure if it is still connected to the sealed zip-tubes). The quality of work looks pretty good, the welds seem of a high quality, and so I assume this was done by someone who knows that they were doing.

My questions are:
1) Does anybody by chance know who made this intake? If anyone recognizes the handiwork, it would be useful to be able to contact whoever may have made this.

2) There are several places in the intake that have had holes drilled, tapped, and plugged up with screw-in allen-wrench plugs. They are in the sealed-off zip-tubes and in the front transition area (that has also been sealed off). These plugs have been circled in the attached pictures. when I removed the plug in the front area, there was a decent amount of water inside the chamber. Is there any reason for these holes, and for their being plugged? Is there any reason why there should or should not be water inside these sealed chambers?

3) Before I install the intake, is there any way to get it leak and pressure tested? I'd hate to install it just to find out it leaks boost, or that water leaks from the coolant passage to the intake side, or have it blow apart on a boosted run from a faulty weld somewhere.

I have attached pictures of the intake in question, with some of the plugs circled/labeled. I also included a few sketches I made of how (I think) the stock intake flows, and how my modified one appears to flow, as well as a picture of a cutaway of the stock intake in case any of you guys haven't seen it yet.

If there are ANY questions you guys have, or if there is anything I have made unclear, or anything I am completely wrong on, please do not hesitate to ask me ANYTHING. Any help or suggestions you guys may have on the subject are more than welcome. Thanks in advance!!

Heres the intake:

Here's the underside... you can see some sort of sealing compoung near the rear:

Here are the little plugs into the sealed-off "zip-tubes":

Heres a shot down the inlet showing the removed EGR hump, as well as another angle on the little plugs in the zip-tubes:

Heres the front of the intake, as well as the large plug into the sealed-off transition area (this is the one that had water in it):

Heres an old magazine picture of a curtaway stok intake, for those who haven't seen the inside of these:

Here are some quick sketches I made showing the original flow of the stocker, compared to how (so far as I can tell) my modified intake would flow (grey areas are sealed-off from rest of intake):

 

[Boost231]

damn out of all the hotair intake pics i have seen i cant say that i have seen one like that. anyways if i had to guess they cut the center section out and made it one box elimaniting the zip tubes. i dont know. i would run it just to see how it works. if you dont like it take it off and put it on ebay.

 

[boostmaster]

Intake

Don't know who's intake design it is for sure, maybe Turbomotion, but the holes that are drilled are for alky or nitrous nozzles.

 

[tb3]

I would remove all the hardware and (lightly) bead blast it. Inspect it over real good. Look closely at all the welds, make sure you've got no cracks. I wonder if the plugged water was for cooling? Kind of like the sodium filled valves on air cooled engines? You can always blueprint before you seal it to the heads, right? ... to help check for any warpage? send a pm over to 6sense. I think his is similiar.

 

[FlaBoy]

Don't know who's intake design it is for sure, maybe Turbomotion, but the holes that are drilled are for alky or nitrous nozzles.

I can pretty much gaurantee they are NOT for nitrous or alky, unless the guy who put them in there is a complete idiot... they only go into the areas of the intake that have been sealed off from the rest, so if you tried injecting nitrous or alky, it would go nowhere....

I wonder if the plugged water was for cooling? Kind of like the sodium filled valves on air cooled engines?

that was my first thought too, but if those areas were filled with water, then the plugs were installed, i would think they'd start to pressurize when the intake got hot and started to boil the water... If anyone has ever seen a boiler of any sort when they blow, i certainly wouldnt want that under my hood... i dunno though. I was half thinking maybe it leaked into there from the coolant passage in the front of the intake through a faulty weld maybe? Thats a big part of why I was wondering if its possible to take/send the intake someplace to have it leak and pressure tested.

 

[Lee Thompson]

Imo

I can pretty much tell you you WILL have nothing but problems if you use that intake !!!!!

 

[FlaBoy]

I very much appreciate the input from the esteemed Mr. Thompson... I'm sure theres a lot we can all learn from you. for the sake of curiosity, would you mind giving some more info on why you think this intake is junk?

 

[Lee Thompson]

Sorry

You seem to have all the answer, I'll get off this thread. Best of luck.

 

[FlaBoy]

You seem to have all the answer, I'll get off this thread. Best of luck.

????? I have none of the answers, thats why I was hoping one of the big names in the hot air world like yourself would chime in. Unless I missed something, I dont see where someone explained why this is a bad intake??

The only thing i can think is if you read my previous post as sarcastic or something... if that is the case, please understand I was being completely sincere when i said i very much appreciated you input, and that I thought theres a lot we can all learn from you. The things you have done with the hot-air cars, when most other TR guys dismiss them as worthless, gives a young guy like me who is just starting in the hobby hope and something to aspire to.

As I said, I put this thread up with the hopes that one of the guys with real experience and knowledge (like yourself) would be able to chime in and share your thoughts, as I sure dont know what to make of this intake.

I sure hope I didn't tick off one of the guys I look up to in the TR world just because I worded a post poorly

 

[turbofish38]

I think Lee is trying to tell you that some of the cylinders will be lean, much like the IC intake. If he isn't than I am.

 

[FlaBoy]

what about the intake would make it flow unevenly, and is there anything I could do that would more evenly distribute the fuel/air charge from runner to runner? Also, even with that imbalance, would it still be better than a stocker? Or would the ill-effects of the lean cylinders negate any gains in flow from having the intake gutted and such? I know the stock IC intakes are known to not distribute flow evenly (hence the power plate and such) but it still is a better intake than the hotair (or so everyone seems to say), so would this intake, even though it may leave some cylinders lean, be a better choice than the stocker due to better flow potential?

 

[Boost231]

ok i can answer your question. Im only going to say i wouldnt put it on my car if that intake was mine. if u want to try it and see how you like it by all means try it. But what does it matter what i think or what they think its your car and maybe it will work out for you. just from the research i have done your better of putting it back on ebay. just my 2 cents

 

[boostmaster]

Don't know who's intake design it is for sure, maybe Turbomotion, but the holes that are drilled are for alky or nitrous nozzles.

I can pretty much gaurantee they are NOT for nitrous or alky, unless the guy who put them in there is a complete idiot... they only go into the areas of the intake that have been sealed off from the rest, so if you tried injecting nitrous or alky, it would go nowhere....




that was my first thought too, but if those areas were filled with water, then the plugs were installed, i would think they'd start to pressurize when the intake got hot and started to boil the water... If anyone has ever seen a boiler of any sort when they blow, i certainly wouldnt want that under my hood... i dunno though. I was half thinking maybe it leaked into there from the coolant passage in the front of the intake through a faulty weld maybe? Thats a big part of why I was wondering if its possible to take/send the intake someplace to have it leak and pressure tested.

I've seen one of Lee's early alky intakes and it was tapped in the same way for alky nozzles. A lot of people come on here for good solid advice some of us vets on the board have seen some of this stuff around when there were plenty of designs in production. Sometimes it's best to hold your tongue if your not completely sure about your answer.

 

[FlaBoy]

you know, I guess I just assumed the holes/plugs were added at the same time the gutting was done to the intake, it never really occurred to me they may have pre-dated the gutting (duh). If the intake was stock when they were drilled/tapped, then it makes perfect sense they could have been for alky/N20. I just assumed they were done during or after the gutting, in which case theres no way they could be for a power adder nozzle of some sort, for the reason mentioned above (brings to mind that old joke about when you ass-ume....)

do you think the larger single plug in the front portion of the intake is for some sort of power adder as well? If so, any particular reason It'd be off center like it is? If its likely NOT for a power adder, any ideas what it IS for? This is the one that had all the water in it when I got the intake.

Again, lemme apologize to anyone who I inadvertently pissed off on here.... I can assure that was by no means my intent. I've got a bad habit of saying/typing something real quick that sounds nice and friendly (as i intend) to me but comes off completely different to someone else's ears. I'm sure we've all had that experience at one time or another on a web forum. I respect and appreciate all opinions given here, and learning more is the whole reason I post here in the first place, so thanks for sharing what information you have already, and if you've got anymore, just bring it on. Thanks!

Oh and don't be surprised if I end up putting my foot in my mouth again. Just please be patient with me... luckily for me I've got a big enough mouth so its not tooo uncomfortable

 

[fullahotair]

The holes (plugged) COULD have been used to let the welding gas/pressure out of the intake while welding. Once the welding was done, they plugged them up....my 2 cents.


N8

 

[turbo6x2]

The intake was called a v-3 or something like that made by a place in Florida, it's junk, you should throw it in the trash and call it a day. It won't work on the car and it will lean out cylinders and cause you to back fire, your car won't get much above 4000 rpm and it will and can cause you to lose a block when it does lean out the cylinders and back fires the car. It's junk, it never worked and the one or two who said it did don't exist anymore because their motors blew up. I have one of those paper weights somewhere and it's worthless.

What's the best thing to do for porting the intake, gasket match the intake and clean and smooth. Block off the egr valve and it will give you the best bang for the buck. I know where there are a couple already done if you're interested.

 

[FlaBoy]

The intake was called a v-3 or something like that made by a place in Florida, it's junk, you should throw it in the trash and call it a day. It won't work on the car and it will lean out cylinders and cause you to back fire, your car won't get much above 4000 rpm and it will and can cause you to lose a block when it does lean out the cylinders and back fires the car. It's junk, it never worked and the one or two who said it did don't exist anymore because their motors blew up. I have one of those paper weights somewhere and it's worthless.

What's the best thing to do for porting the intake, gasket match the intake and clean and smooth. Block off the egr valve and it will give you the best bang for the buck. I know where there are a couple already done if you're interested.

I thought the turbomotion V3 (I assume thats the one you're talking about) looked like this?

So now I'm confused ?
I got that pic from this thread: Wanna see a V3?? (there are some other pics from different angles in that thread, if your monitor sucks like mine and makes it tricky to make out the shape of that black intake).
I've never seen a v3 personally, and am just going on what I've read here, so if anyone else can confirm if my intake (from original post) is a v3 or not, I'd appreciate it.

If it IS a v3, is it really as bad as turbo 6x2 says? I haven;t done much reading about these custom intakes until recently, but I always thought the turbomotion stuff was supposed to be pretty good ?

Never hurts to have more information, so if anyone has any to share, I'd be grateful. Thanks!!

 

[Boost231]

your intake is not a V3 the intake. The all black intake right above this post is a V3.

 

[turbo6x2]

No one I know of had any luck with those intakes other then the first one. (but from what I remember that was one pass then you never heard anymore about it)Lee is trying to save you some misery as I am. It's your car do what you want. My first one looked similar to the one you posted, the other one is one I ended up with, either way neither one worked. There was air flow issues, leaning out of cylinders and it just doesn't work. As far as what I was told, was because I didn't go intercooled, which could be correct, but that's your call. Not many were made and not sure anyone is still using one. (If you check my post I said v-3 or something like that, depended on the version you received, your's looks like one of the first but could be a v-2 as well, but I'll leave that to the experts) I just received an email here recently by someone who blew up his motor because of one. Like I said do what you want, just trying to let you know what experience taught me. I'll be staying off the thread after this as well, best of luck with your intake.

 

[HOTSIX]

My opinion

Here's my opinion for what it's worth.

Take it from a guy who wanted a V2 then a V3...then gasket matched and egr removed his own stock intake (good advice trubo 6x2)....and had fun with that for awhile...

Just buy yourself an 87 intake and TB, throttle cable and vac block - and buy some exhaust piping and have it bent to fit. Attach all the connections with turbo hose.

I also bought an stock 87 intercooler and now have it set up 87 style - intercooled. You can pipe it intercooled or hotair...up to you. I even bought the RJC plate to help with the leaning out / flow issues.

The roof of the doghouse has to be modified towards the rear of the engine...so that it wont interfere with your rear mounted turbo. Needs to be cut and angled steeply and welded.

It works awesome. Flows great. Throttle response is top shelf. I have now added MSD 50's, TurboTweak chip and Razor's Alky.