This is how it looked after we did the
first lot of work for Ray. He was impressed with our quality & thought,
so he brought it back for more. Allot more.
Each day that he came in, he had thought of something new he would like
done on the car.As can be seen, the Datrally kit places the engine
too high in the engine bay for Rays plans & in hindsight we should've
lowered the engine-gearbox at the start. The trumpets & filters hit on
the carbon fibre bonnet. The trumpets were also a little short for the
intended use of this engine - road rally applications needing a broad
torque curve, as it's definitely staying naturally aspirated.
The engine bay is the highlight of our work on this car. Room
for everything was extremely limited by the height of the engine coupled
with the use of the twin EFI dual throttle body assemblies on the better
flowing S13 'down draught port' head that John from JHH Engines deemed
mandatory. Ray told everybody that did work on this car, he wanted the
best!
Too duplicate this air box assembly as shown here is $3000. It's all
handformed & takes near a weeks hard work, & my week is at least 60 hrs.
I love doing this sort of work (when it's finished anyway) but it is so
time consuming. During the job, at least 5 hours are spent looking &
planning to try & make everything fit AND perform the best possible.
This is the throttle bodies side of the assy. It is fully sealed with
6mm foam tape so no dust can enter the engine. The three recessed tubes
along the top are for the retaining bolts.
The four inlet trumpets are curved for the extra tuned length to fit
under the bonnet & staggered for the best equal flow possible. The two
depressions in the flat base are for mounting bolt heads.
These are the main components in the air box. Not shown are the K&N
panel filter, sealing tape & bolts.
Time spent welding in the tubes for the 3 bolts to retain the top of
the air box & seal outside air from entering
Top part of the back plate had to be boxed in to seal the top flange
of the air box.
Shows the tubes that were welded in to seal the top 3 retaining
bolts.
Construction of the air box lid. Working with this alloy dictates
that there can't be any gaps before welding or it will pull out of shape
like crazy - more so flat panels. Welding itself causes distortion due
to the high expansion rate of heated aluminium, but gaps will buckle it
much worse. It also needs to be double welded for full strength if the
external weld is being linished off.
This is the -08 to -06 "Y" Speed flow fitting we welded an L shaped
mount bracket to so it can be securely mounted to the firewall where the
fuel line splits to go to the fuel rail
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