MadMaxSC400

Since my ECU experiments with Weapon-R have gone bust with my 1st gen SC400, I've decided to continue modifying the car, since I can't find a better car for less than $50,000
I know Leo Now from WR personally, and we are going to custom build an intake for my car. I have talked with Chris from www.lexussc400.com and a number of people who also want one, so Leo has agreed to take the intake we make for my car and mass produce it. I really want a CAI that works well and seals well, and one that looks good also.
I already have a rigged up intake from them (pieces from here and there) that works pretty well, but the heatshield has no backing (hence it's pretty much useless) and the intake needs better mounting. A good heat shield is really necessary because of the tremendous heat that builds up in that engine bay... I burned my thumb on the metal intake pipe on Friday.
I don't know how much the intake will cost, but the materials are mostly on-hand and won't cost a bundle. Chances are the intake will sound a lot like mine, if not a little quieter with the better heat shield. This intake will likely use WR's super high flow V2 foam filter (I saw this filter make 6rwhp on a guy's GS300 at Dynospot over a K&N cone filter) and it will make your car sound mean as hell
Couple that with a cat removal or pipe mod, a set of Magnaflows or Borlas and you're pretty set. I make a good 6.3-6.4s 0-60 now, but I won't be able to get back to the track till spring (Sears Point's dragstrip is closed, and by then I'll have NOS).
Anyway, I'm gonna get moving on this one and we'll try to make it available as fast as possible.

The Ikon

Keep up the good work and keep us posted on the upcoming products. For now I'll have to make due with my on custom intake.

With the WeaponR filter how is the filtration part(the most important to the engine) compared to Apexi and K&N(which was tested as the best in a test or 2)?

Also removing of the cat is not pratical in some states for emissions, plus the loss of power in the low range is not worth the cost of removal. Make sure the test are on a "street legal" car...

As for the intake piping it will warm a finger or 2, but mine has not baked my fingers yet... You can also coat the pipe or heat shield with heat resistant paint...

MadMaxSC400

There's a few people out there that kill off the cats, I simply redid the connections to the cat and put in a high flow one. The K&N cone was what we tested against, and got a 6whp advantage on a GS300.
I like your heat resistant paint idea...

abutler696

madmax.........if I got a MAF adapter and a V2 filter now............could I convert it to a cold air intake when yall are done designing it later? Thanks, Adam

MadMaxSC400

I don't know how long it will take, but I can tell you we will start on Monday. But I dont' see any problem with getting the pipes and heat shield after we're done. Leo and I want to get this done quickly. Go ahead and give them a ring, see what's up.

MadMaxSC400

This intake is finished and works beautifully. I posted a new thread in the main forum here https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...threadid=27422

matt7184

Those are some good 0-60 times. That is with your stereo stuff and the 18"s too right?

Only thing that bothers me with the weapon R intake is the resonator removal.

The Ikon

Why? The resonator is gobbling up the extra air flow that is now going straight to the throttle body...

The sound is sweeter without it not loud at all...

The Ikon http://photos.yahoo.com/the_ikon1911

matt7184

UZZ32:
"Like yours, it was much louder - the sound was the first thing I noticed - felt better to drive but when I started measuring performance before and after it didn't get any better - it actually got a little bit worse!
The Society of Automotive Engineers have written a paper on resonator chambers - that rectangular black thing between the cam cover and the standard intake. The resonator chamber on a Naturally Aspirated car makes the intake system quieter (we both agree that removing it makes it louder!) and the engine more volumetric efficient (more air in cylinders - more power).
Tests on a dyno showed a 3-4 kW gain in power with a resonator chamber over no chamber on a 1.5 litre 4 cylinder car.
I don't know how much extra power the resonator on our V8's makes.
I did fill it with water and measure the volume though - comes out to be 1.2 litres (2 pints?).
This is pretty big ( a large bottle of Coke size).
Looking at the extra large 3.5 inch intake duct (which is much larger than the standard - especially since the standard duct is squared off in the middle at the bottom and sides) there isn't much room to fit a resonator chamber.
Perhaps having an outer 4inch intake connected to your 3.5 inch inner duct and connected together somehow would work (like a hotdog). Have you noticed that some of the fancy aftermarket intakes you can buy have a big fat bit in the middle?(a resonator chamber?) - perhaps we can look at making one like that.
Good luck with your testing - hope you have better luck. "

I remember seeing dynos of AEM intakes a while ago and something to this affect also occured, there was stored air in the longer CAI pipe, helping it at lower RPMs. At higher RPMs the resonator on our cars may hurt due to hurting airflow to the TB as you said, but it is a trade off.

I would love to see someone dyno a straight pipe intake vs the stock one so we could see for sure (I dont really like butt dynos
) .

If weapon R would send me a free intake I would be glad to put my car on a dyno to compare

matt7184

This seems to be good reading:

http://www.mecc.unipd.it/~cos/DINAMO...suonatore.html

Rick Case Acura has made a resonator like this (but it goes on the intake manifold) and they are gaining about 10fwhp+ on TLs across the whole powerband.

MadMaxSC400

Well, just for fun I'll bring my old stock upper pipe, and dyno it with the new pipe and the old one with the resonator. I understand what the resonator is supposed to do, however I would want to see the differences TOTAL vs difference between the resonator and no resonator. I'd also want to know if I'd have to have an engineering degree to make the right size resonator. I'll just take a day at DSR and make all kinds of runs, then we'll know what's up.

abutler696

madmax.....do you have a date that you're planning on dynoing all this? ..........Adam

MadMaxSC400

I might do it in a couple of weeks just for kicks, but I'd really like to do it after I chip it, a long time on the dyno isn't cheap.

MatT3T4

Maybe old news, but I e-mailed Weapon-R yesterday, and they told me that a cold air intake should be ready for the SC3 in about a month or so.