I ran an experiment this afternoon. See the white piece in the last picture posted?

We had a similar piece, though a tad small in diameter stick out past the hole and parked about 2 inches or so in front of the MAF sensor.

The RX did not like this too much, and for the first time I have seen (except at the 112 mph fuel cutoff) it would attempt a cutoff approximately 5 seconds after flooring it. My cousin and I observed this several times, even when climbing up a slight incline.

My reason for doing this is that I had always wondered what would happen at this elevation compared to sea level (where I would never do this), and I got my answer.

This also answers a very important question regarding what might happen with the addition of a turbo. It seems that the piece needs to be parked at or about the position I described and tucked just a slight tad inside the air filter.

 

Tonight's fastest time was 18.183 with a 2.717 60 foot time (which is very, very good and one of my fastest 60 foot times ever...I ran a 2.711 on my 17.931 record)

I did a modification the other day involving widening out the front of my air filter to a tad over 3 inches, so that the 3 inch PVC pipe could be extended through it narrowing to about 2.5 inches before it goes into the area near the MAF. I will post pictures after Saturday night's runs as I want to see a second night of runs.

I was quite proud of running 18.3s consistently on solo runs in this kind of weather.

Times might have been faster, but we also had a huge concert (5,000 to 7,000 people) on one of the soccer fields just adjacent to the track and right near the finish line, thus sucking out some oxygen at the end. Temp was 64 F, humidity 48% and air pressure 30.44.

 

18.270 was lowest with lots of 60 foot times under 2.750 and we had a lot of track traffic and a big crowd last night. I actually ran an 18.3 that ended up with a vehicle speed of 115 km/h. What happened? Ran out of gas on the track, but luckily I was able to come back the return lane just using idle. I knew I was somewhat close by the feeling of weight. Really ticked me off as I might had my record as I had to sharp chokes near the end and still managed an 18.3.

The piece below will be, no doubt, my last air modification until the turbo (though I will do other things like headers). I had thought about making a 6 inch wide entrance on the bullhorn (6 inch diameter on the white piece on the bullhorn, but too much of a pressure loss, thus the 4.5 inch is sufficient).

This piece is twice as wide as the last piece going through the air filter and has a significantly greater diameter as we will see in the next photo. This piece give much better lower torque (under given weather conditions) along with higher RPM. Only drawback is we had to enlarge the front of the air filter out to 3 inches.

 

This was a picture I had also been alluding to earlier. Notice how the white piece (actually a little yellow) sits slightly inside the filter. Notice how the air that comes via only the filter can scoot around the sides of the white piece (which has a large diameter than the earlier piece)...that is where the greater lower end torque comes from. If that white piece sticks out pass the rubber end of the white piece...the MAF will not like it at all as we found out the other day on the highway.

 

Like I have said before on my homepage, we get all shapes and sizes of vehicles. This Smart I ran against (note two people), did 21.096 and ran a little more than 62 mph at the finish line.

 

I wanted to give a final update to this section.

First, fastest times remain in the 18.1 to 18.2 zone since I last posted. Quite acceptable given the weather. Next week, we will have a weather station at my track so I can better test the effects rather than use localized Internet weather.

Second, regarding the turbo...this project is on indefinite hold pending my work situation south of the border which is about to end and I need to make a decision whether I am going back to my home state (Florida...finally admitted it) or will continue to stay here. I would prefer to stay here and start the project tomorrow.

We did finalize the turbo piping design, selection etc, I just need to give a green light.

T25 turbo was the turbo selection with a rectangular mounted intercooler taking up 1/3 of the surface area of the radiator with placement in the middle of the radiator.

There was to be a manual boost controller and I was not going to take the RX about 5 psi in trial runs.

The turbo was to sit at a point just in front of the main catalytic converter.

With the turbo, I was also going to switch to 225-60-16 tires (looking at Bridgestones and also Sumitomos since they have the most available in that size) to find tires that were not only lightweight, but also would have more revolutions per minute. This would also have included rims weighing preferably 15 pounds or less. 225-60-16 can support the weight of the RX.

The reason for the tire/rim combo is partially due to my continued readings and a recent experience involving one of my friend's well-kept Muranos that broke its transfer case while sitting on 18 inch rims/tires after only 30K miles (see photo in next post). Nothing wrong with 18 inch rims as long as the rims are lightweight. With a stock engine RX, no problem. However, I need to be sure that whatever power my little RX with a turbo will put out can be transferred to the wheels with minimal issue.

When I have more news, I will let everyone know.

 

This was the broken gear in the transfer case on my friend's 2003 Nissan Murano. I should note that this Murano has the CVT tranny (not related to the problem). However, I was told that the CVT is quite rare in Mexico and normally sold as a special edition with others having a regular style tranny like our RXs.

 

Dude!
I think there would be a market for a turbo unit for the RX.
Doc everything. 5psi seems pretty tame for a turbo. as the Evos and the Scoobies run into the high teens.
ARC makes some dope aluminum InterCoolers as well. we be talking all shapes and sizes. free HP in a good intercooler, one of the easy gains for the factory units on the Evos and the Scoobies.

#####---> http://www.horsepowerfreaks.com/sale...tercooler_Kits

 

You are right about 5 psi being tame. Most of the aftermarket turbocharged vehicles at my track run 9 to 10 psi with T3/T4s.

A few years ago SRT was into a project involving a 120+ hp supercharger for the RX, but it was discontinued for lack of consumer demand. I am not a big fan of putting a supercharger on an RX (though I will throw a Paxton on my classic Mustang I plan to get in the U.S.)

Only reason why I would run lower is the transaxle. Some of the guys in the ES forum can run over 300 hp with a turbo (don't think these were 1MZFEs) and that is where I am going to put my limit until I can get my RX to the states to modify the tranny and torque converter to put most likely.

Here is a great example from the guys at MJM Turbos of the T25, http://www.mjmturbos.com/T25.htm

Once I get some tranny mods, then the T3/T4, http://www.mjmturbos.com/T3T4external.htm

The intercooler placement and shape was one of the tougher things we had to decide on.

A few years ago SRT was into a project involving a 120+ hp supercharger for the RX, but it was discontinued for lack of consumer demand. I am not a big fan of putting a supercharger on an RX (though I will throw a Paxton on my classic Mustang I plan to get in the U.S.).

A turbo is doable on anything, but one has to know their limitations.

 

an intercooler hanging off the front of a RX would look SICK!

ES series ? (aristo here Japan) had a turbo model. do not quote me on this but I thought it was a supra engine. 3.0L in line 6. OR it might have been a stroked model of the SC (Soarer GT-T 2,5 IL6 twin turbo). either way the thing was quick. Also made a 4x4 of the Aristo with the 4.0V8 from the celsior/LS

( i Live in toyota city, no joke. used to be in the used car export bizz.Iwas drivin skylines when nobody in the states knew wtf they were.) OG!

no kidding torque converter and the box would need some serious mods to handle the gains. interesting question for the enginers as to what the parts were TrQ tested to. who in their right mind (he he he..) would think of runnin' 1/4s in the RX? the maddness of it appeals to me..

 

Well, the one thing that is going to happen very soon is some headers. The company that does my exhaust is lacking just one machine, though they have done some smaller scale test headers for some 4 cylinder vehicles that have worked well in trial runs (no breakage).

It is possible to swap engines (such as a V8) into the the V6 Harrier, but the costs were extraordinary and I would have needed to swap trannies and some other things. Plus, you look a lot cooler if you can mod the engine you have.

Well, 1/4 mile in a Harrier is kind of strange. However, every week at the track at least on SUV seems to show up along with my Harrier. In the states, there is a big following of 4-Runners that run 1/4 mile. In fact, the head of the company that sold me my URD lightweight crankshaft pulley has such a 4-Runner that he takes to the track.

The look of the Harrier is something I have always liked, but the power was always lacking and when you are at high altitude, you feel like you are riding a cow (no joke).

 

Anyone want to guess how this intake works?

 

Lmao Lexmex you are quite the inventor. I can barely tell what that is a shot of exactly, all I recognize is the MAF sensor. Red top battery of course.

-tc

 

Well, the bottom of the tube sucks up the air fromt the engine bay though a wire mesh screen and the straight part is connected to the bullhorn air mod taking in the cooler air. The PVC is a lot cooler than the metal piece. We will see a the track just how this runs.

 

, Best of luck to you at the track. I do believe the PVC should keep the air cooler like you said, basic science... Do you ever plan on running your RX at sea level or somewhere relatively close to sea level, I'd love to see how it goes.

-tc