home made spiral air intake
 

Hey guys

Im so thrilled with the result I have gotten with my home made intake that I had to post this up here.

Firstly, its 100mm inlet that’s twice the size of the stock 50mm. I heat shielded the inlet with ssn coupling.

I used a heater hose for the crankcase breather system. Drilled a small hole in for the vacuum line of the fuel pressure regulator.

I draped a piece of cloth folded twice over the airflow meter and the clamp of the pvc flex pipe holds it in place

Ok, so there has been much debate on the benefit of those spiral intake jobbies.

Well I know for a fact that spiral air intake works coz my previous Mercedes 190e had a spiral shaped intake tract.

Those aftermarket ones have been known to be a restriction. So I cured that by not placing it in the intake path but rather giving it a separate intake path.

So the total intake are is closer to 150mm. and the spiral effect works like a small supercharger( at highway speeds) I have also noticed that I require much less foot on the throttle to get the car up to speed and to maintain speeds. This was all great when the engine was cold and the mixture was rich.

But with the engine properly warmed up, the car was pinging like crazy from a lean mixture. 1/8 turn on the fuel distributor and still going lean at high rpm. Turned it another 1/8 turn and have yet to test it.

Parts used
- 110mm flex pipe( pvc plumbing type)
- Black duct tape
- Simota spiral intake
- Ssn coupling with 2 clamps(127mm)
- Heater hose
- Multi purpose cloth

The entire job cost me about R 300( $42)

Your benefit came from going from 50mm to 100mm. I really don't think that spiral thing on the side is helping you other than the possibility that the additional 50mm of opening is helping, in which case I would just have a 150mm opening towards the front of the engine bay drawing air from in front of the radiator, not from behind it.
Regards, Eric

what type of filtration you use.Your turbine looking thing,a Tornado?

i think u should filter that ASP trust me. as for the spiral thing IMHO it will only disrupt the flow and slow down ur air speed.

At least I use K an N with million mile warrenty.

Care to explain the scientific reasoning to this one?

my w124 4matic has some sort of fixed fan in the intake duct from factory. its there to enhance low rpm flow to give slightly better response or torque but it will hurt the topend no doubt. Merc in its 2006 v6 has a simillar vane setup that retracts on hi high rpm to retain topend flow rates. thus it sure helps low air speed but hurts high air speeds.

i have since modified it further. I bought 2 more sizes. Small and large. So its like a 3 stage thingy. I wouldnt be able 2 explain it in scientific terms but damn it sounds and feels great. Im using cloth with some oil soaked in it. Folded twice and draped over airflow meter. The clamp holds it secure. Sure its not as good as a turbo or supercharger. It probably only yielded a small gain. Maybe as much as a set of longer duration cams. Definately more than the stock intake and definately more than an aftermarket cold air intake so im happy.

I would stick the OEM intake back on. It was designed the way it was for a reason. Your dryer vent and tornado thing are not doing anything for you.

OEM intakes are modest.Remember these cars are tuned for the everyday driver.The fuel map to get good mileage and emissions.
I like his dryer vent approach,at least the guy is breaking free from the acceptance crowd.
I was just lucky to have funds to build my cold air intake.

A Velocity stack with an intake in a high-pressure and cool air location is the only real improvement for an intake.

Having a semi-smooth tract works as well...not totally smooth, as you want some air tumble.
A finish like this works best, did this on my Audi and it works great:
http://forums.audiworld.com/picture.php?albumid=87884&pictureid=101311
before (on left) & after (on right):
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data...80dscf0039.jpg
after with velocity stack:
http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data...80IMG_1137.JPG

Look at what they use in F1 racing...they user every trick that works.

PS: if you look at how much material those spiral/tornado things take up, you can see how much flow is actually being restricted.

I'm guessing a double wrapped oil soaked cloth probably isn't such a great idea seeing that the oil would attract more dust than the dry and muck on the cloth quickly, thus restricting further....at least to me this seems like it would happen.

Also, the amount of exposed "filter" area is too small. That hurts flow and it's also one more reason why it will plug up quickly.

Oldsinner, why don't you post some more photos of your set-up for Junaid to view.
Regards, Eric

Yes, funds are tight. times are hard and friends are few.

almost all cotton guaze filters are oil impregnated, this improves the filtration rate. the filter does get clogged like all filters and needs to be changed regularly. like all filters.

nice info on the velocity stack. where would you place that?

value all your input guys

NO
 

The product claims are scientifically verified as totally fraudulent.
False, fake, fraud, bad science, and worse engineering.
Products like this are sold to people who are gullible, and naive.
Bogus Fuel-Saving Device Sellers diesel/gasoline - PeachParts Mercedes ShopForum

You are simply changing the sound of your intake, which is OK if that makes you happy.
I have altered intake systems many times, (tuned them) to get a pleasant tone or eliminate an irritating frequency.

Your oil soaked rag filter is a terrible idea.
The oil particles will damage the mass airflow meter, same as the K&N filter.
K&N filter topic links thread - PeachParts Mercedes ShopForum


.

K an N
 

My experince with product is fine.I blow excess oil off filter and clean my maf or mas 2 weeks after new filter change just in case.I've been using product for years in different vehicles.Never once was anything coated with dust.

if a spiral intake was such bad science,then why would mercedes benz design their vehicles as such?

i put my stock airbox and filter on just to see if i was indeed fooling myself. Gues wat. I wasnt. Big difference in throttle response and power. U can hear and feel when that thing starts spinning. Car rumbles forward aggressively

Thats probably because the wind ur creating is adding a little bit of pressure to the Kjet air meter plate causing the engine to run rich. You're not making any more power. You're just burning more fuel. Get a WBO2 gauge setup.

Out of my own experience the m110 filter setup sucks and I did gain when I ran a similar pipe to what the op is doing. I still don't think the spiral thing helps but an m110 will breath better on the setup he has now.

The fact that you guys are actually taking this whole thing seriously is disturbing. The thing is a block to the intake, and even putting the thing on the side doesn't actually do anything, you're still blocked by the fact the 100mm tube is the most the air will flow regardless of how many little turbine outcroppings you've got. With as many turns as the air flow still has to course through to get to the intake valve, I'd be really surprised if any of the tumble induced, or remaining in the air intake charge came from the little spinny-do-dad. Let's think about this for a quick second, the air sucked into the intake tract would not normally be swirling, lest you're in the wizard of oz or some other extenuating circumstance. Thus, physics says that air that isn't spinning wont want to spin, unless energy is put into the equation. You're adding no energy. This means that energy has to come from somewhere. Since I'm assuming you drive around with the hood closed, that rules out solar energy, and since you don't mention anything of a giant fireball in the intake tract, I'll rule out chemical/thermal energy. What's that leave us? The only energy drawing air in is the vacuum created by the piston going down in the cylinder, creating a vacuum. Aside from Hemholtz resonances and pressure fronts created in a vary narrow rpm range by the sudden closing of the valves, that's all you've got to deal with. Now to spend some of the energy you're now using to draw in the air to instead spin the air way up the intake tract where the spinny air probably wont even be spinning by the time it makes it to the intake valve, how can you plan to improve power with less available force to move the air into the cylinder?

Since we've already put electric superchargers to rest, and now vortex thingys, here's a good popular mechanics link so we can put all the hair brained schemes out of the way:
Looking For A Miracle: We Test Automotive 'Fuel Savers' - Popular Mechanics

you dont make sense, can you explain that a bit better?

Hmm.What about the Chevy tricks ram air and cowl induction.

you said " a little bit of pressure" that was the objective

maybe mercedes benz should have thought about this when they routed the crankcase breather into the air intake

The German Gods were stupid about that.That why I vent my nasty blowby away from intake track.

They were far from "stupid" as they had to meet USA EPA standards to get the engine certified.

You do recall at one time ( pre EPA emissions standards ) engines used a road draft tube which was no more then a pipe from the crankcase to a lower part of the engine....

If you have "nasty" blowby on a normally aspirated engine then your engine has a problem....;)

I think the point is that a fan does not compress air.
It is not able to generate enough positive pressure to overcome the vacuum of the engine to create a measureable intake pressure increase.

A 1" thick throttle body spacer would achieve better results then the fan you install.

It's great to do "feel good" modifications, but unless you are able to prove an improvement over a baseline be it with a dyno, track results or 3 axis accelerometer, it's all in your mind....;)

Ed, don't dismiss the value of a good, accurate butt dyno! ;)
Regards, Eric

Its the wind off the pistons

German Gods.It just some people on the forum believe that because its German its great.Look at failures with the 3.5 diesel,or the v8 with single row chain.Germans do make mistakes,I do all the time.

Man oh man. THIS is much better than our usual, antifreeze, spark plugs, oil, R12-R134 kind of discussions!:D:D

http://lolwut.com/layout/lolwut.jpg

They have 3 breathers on my engine two to draw air and one to exhaust.Engines are compressors.

if the turbine thing is fitted flush with the main duct and the turbine doesnt turn as in it be fixed i suspect it will improve throttle response at low air speed ie when the throttle is first opened at low revs. since it will spin the air.
but as MAG noted swirling air means it requires energy and thus at high air flow speeds the energy lost in spinning the air over comes the actual gain in air speed and hence it will inevitably hurt flow rates. otherwise every car maker will use this device to better feed the engine.

i still say a fixed turbine will help flow at very low intake air speed since my w124 came fitted with one from factory.

An engine is not as much a compressor, as it is a vacuum pump....
It cannot "compress" air beyond atmosphere...and only draws in as much air as it's volume allows.
Don't get confused with the compression stroke in the cycle...

That is why superchargers and turbochargers, which are compressors, are able to overcome atmosphere and push in more air then the volume of the normally aspirated engine can accept.
Simplistically the additional volume of air from boost is akin to increasing the displacement of a NA motor....

As far as your "breathers", if they do not have any internal valving, they will all act the same depending on the vacuum of the engine...

Once again being simplistic, the vacuum effect of a NA engine can be noticed at times when trying to remove your oil filler cap with the engine running....

sounds right.I have not messed with oil breathers yet on the S because of location.But I did change it on my SD and Toyota,to a ground vent tube.
Of course the SD has a little blow by at high RPMs.

Hmm
 

Your lack of comprehension of basic laws of physics and science while sad, is readily curable.

In this case, you must acquire the education and knowledge to understand a clear simple answer.

We have tried valiantly to explain.
Fuel saving device - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

thank you oh valiant internet warrior for saving me from myself.

throttle body spacers
 

We know that ram Air,Cowl Induction,and now throttle body spacers work to make power.Has anyone tried a spacer?You know I will.

A throttle body spacer would do the same thing Junaid is trying to do.Or maybe I should rifle my cold air intake.

In what fashion? Power wise or in theory?

I can see how throttle body spacers work on wet manifolds, but it's less useful on a dry manifolds.
Ram air works, but even then, the sportbikes today that are the mainstay of ram air have to get up to speeds far above highway speeds to see noticeable gains (the ram air horsepower is usually quoted at 120mph). Though I want to see someone just cut a big ol' hole in their hood and put a scoop up there. Please do it.

Cowl induction also works, but at the same time, I have no idea what kinds of gains you'd see or how fast you'd have to go to get a high pressure area at the base of the windshield that would be required for a power gain.

Hum scoop.Naw it would hurt areodynamics,unless a cowl?

Although this discussion could go on for several more pages and days, if this is so scientific why not get so acceleration tests here to see if it actually does anything? You got smartphones and dyno apps. down there in South Africa I assume?? If not, just get some 0-100km tests and weigh the car. Test it with the stock airbox, then this other contraption--heck, just try and wrap an oily rag over the AFM to see what happens. ;)

I did that already,with stock airbox.However never occured to me that rifling the intake would speed the air thru it.
My cold air intake is less restrictive.Also my grille I removed triangle parts inside grille to get full airflow.
As always these cars need a lathe to make a TBS.
Oh stock aIR box was17.5 IN THE 1/4 MILE WITH COLD AIR 17.04 with added resistor 16.8

Nope..

A well designed hood scoop, properly located on the hood would have the same if not an improved Cd compared to a flat hood....

Look up "NACA"....

I'll do that on my future E 500.