Basic and understandable intake designs and theories.
For all our everyday readers that would just like to modify their stock intake on your street driven Lexus/Soarers...
Outside of all these high performance intake flow comparisons, long and short runner comparisons, , velocity charts, and tech talk dribble, etc..For our everyday Lexus/Soarer street car owners, the most restrictive part of our stock intakes is the MAF body...The MAF body is smallest area in which the intake air flow has to pass thru... The whole idea of getting good intake results is to try and draw in as much ouside cold dense air as possible and simply try and re-direct it to flow straight into the throttle body (MAP setup)or into MAF body (MAF stock setup)..
So when considering getting the best intake flow for our city driven SC4's and LS4's while keeping it legal and reliable the BFI intake design should be considered as the most effective and cheapest intake available...(Which can be found on Planetsoarer.com). It's free and is basically a re-design and alteration of our stock intake systems..The BFI intake allows more free flowing outside air to flow directly into the intake and that's about it...Now, taking it a step further, deleting the MAF altogether, Sensors, and ecu controls and switching to a MAP setup allows you to remove the MAF and body altogether allowing a more free flowing intake.... Makes things very simple..
Also, what I have seen witnessed on most of the fastest steet driven cars, and that maybe even a better design then the legendary BFI intake is to try and draw cold intake air from the front passenger side top wheel well...Cut out a good size hole on top of the wheel well and mount and redirect the intake air flow from there....It appears the tire rotation within the wheel well can create exceptional cold outside air flow into the intake rather then the BFI design which scoops the cold air from the front of the car...I have not seen tests between the two designs, but the experts say the BFI design is the best and can't be beat..I question that statement strongly...Filtration concerns again should be taken seriously when drawing intake air from a wheel well...
10hp is the most you should expect to gain from a BFI intake design..Which can't be felt on a butt dyno in most cases..I have tried that, and noticed no noticeable difference..... I went a step further and went with a larger "injen snorkel tube" as well as cut finned alluminum inserts which are mounted on the inside of the aftermarket snorkel tube..It is said the fin inserts are said to break up intake air molacules better to help create better combustion within the chambers..
Now, another concern to think about is that aftermarket snorkel tubes even though they are larger and appear to flow better do not..Apparently the stock snorkel tube creates a speedy circular air flow which while other after market snorkel tubes do not..Infact, some larger snorkel tubes have been shown to actually slow up intake flow... This mod should be carefully considered...
This is a picture of my combined custom Rod Millen, Injen, and BFI intake designs with the stock MAF still intact... I think this setup works decent on my car... I have the Rod Millen cone filter which I am not that high on, but I have directed the outside intake airflow to hit the pod directly in a box like made compartment when I shut the hood...Also I have a made a custom heat shield surrounding the pod filter...
