Making sure nothing's wrong...

[Zhan]

The previous owner of my Mazdaspeed had an uninstalled (removed) half-of-an-SRI (going from the MAF sensor out to the filter) he bought from Ebay, and it looked pretty normal so I decided to install it on Thursday. Some things are different, but I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

Basically, what alerted me most was that the vacuum seemed to be at 18 rather than 20, which it had been before, although sometimes I see it fluctuate back to 20. Secondly that I can hear the turbo spooling a couple digits before the boost gauge went to 0, sometimes even at about 10 vac. Previously I could only hear the turbo spool right at 0 psi (I had the stock air box & the K&N panel filter).

Anyways, I thought this might be a vacuum leak, as the intake also came with a silicon hose that replaced the hard rubber stock one that went from the intake tubing to the valve cover; however, the instructions only told me to reuse the clamp on the valve cover end, so the intake tubing end is just stuck onto the protrusion. So, I did some searching/reading on the forums, and read that an indicator of a vacuum leak would be higher boost because of the wastegate's timing being screwed up. I drove around a bit, then, and noticed that boost was normal.

Is anything wrong or am I just being paranoid?


I did some more re/search and found that this guy has the same setup as mine. Actually, this was the 1st owner (I'm the third) of my car who, I guess, uninstalled the "intake." Anyways, some of the older posts say that this actually results in lost whp? I'm not sure, because I know the argument for lost whp from JUST a cone filter was because of its position right behind the radiator/intercooler, but in this setup the filter seems to be directed away from it. Secondly, I don't have the Callaway elbow, so the fan was blowing hot air into the stock air box in my stock setup, anyways.

Should I go back to stock? (boom02)

 

[ZenProtege]

from the top:

I doubt your gaining much from that intake, I think sombody put a cone filter on the maf sensor and lost hp. The stock airbox flows pretty well. one guy one the forums was running 13's with the stock box so it can't be too bad

the silicone hose your worried about sends air from your PCV valve back into the intake to burned up, its there for emissions, it won't cause a vac leak. a lot of people put little air filters where the hose attaches to the valve cover

Only a leak in the wastegate vac. line would cause higher boost. A random vac leak in say, your brake booster vac line wouldn't, you would loose boost from it.

I bet your intake is making a restriction in airflow causing a lower vac reading. A million things can kill engine vac., but since your vac changed after putting it on, that probably caused it.
I personally would go back to stock or get a real SRI or CAI. You can make that intake into a short ram. I did it, it was easy.

 

[Zhan]

from the top:

I doubt your gaining much from that intake, I think sombody put a cone filter on the maf sensor and lost hp. The stock airbox flows pretty well. one guy one the forums was running 13's with the stock box so it can't be too bad

the silicone hose your worried about sends air from your PCV valve back into the intake to burned up, its there for emissions, it won't cause a vac leak. a lot of people put little air filters where the hose attaches to the valve cover

Only a leak in the wastegate vac. line would cause higher boost. A random vac leak in say, your brake booster vac line wouldn't, you would loose boost from it.

I bet your intake is making a restriction in airflow causing a lower vac reading. A million things can kill engine vac., but since your vac changed after putting it on, that probably caused it.
I personally would go back to stock or get a real SRI or CAI. You can make that intake into a short ram. I did it, it was easy.

Hm, that might be it. I don't really want to go back to stock though, heh, I don't really feel any drop in power and I like the sound. Actually, today, I found the boost gauge fluctuating even more, like from 18 vac to about 22 vac or more. That was kind of weird. But if the vac "problem" is just because of a little restricted air flow then I'm not worried. (thumb)

How did you go about making the intake into a short ram? I saw a few DIY guides, but I'm not really confident in my cutting/welding skill and then I'm not sure about how to create the other stuff that belong on the piping there such as the BPV nipple and what-else.

 

[ZenProtege]

no car will pull consistent vac., but if your having weird idle as well you might have another leak. you should be pulling 20-21 inches of vac.

If you can tell me how to get my pictures out of the "my images" thing for a post I will show you. It tells me there is some kind of error when I try to put them in a post

 

[Zhan]

No, my idle's fine.

What do you mean by "my images"? If you mean your uploaded files just right click the link and click "Copy Shortcut" and paste it between some IMG tags.

 

[ZenProtege]

Maybe this will help explain it, I don't have the old pictures of it anymore . The transition coupler I bought was 2.25-2.75 that went from the intake to turbo. I bought a little threaded copper plumbing fitting, drilled a hole in the piping and screwd it in there. I put a little expoxy around the threads to seal it up. the hardware store had some kind of clear vinyl tubing that worked great in place of the stock BPV line.

 

[Nightmare]

hmm..

 

[Nightmare]

 

[Zhan]

www.msprotege.com/members/ZenProtege/shortramintake.JPG[IMG][/QUOTE]
Yeah, like that, except you just have to put the second IMG as "/IMG" instead.

Anyways, in that picture, is the MAF hidden behind the filter or something? And what are the other openings there and how would I form them, like the BPV nipple?

 

[ZenProtege]

I used paint to draw how it used to be. look at post 6

 

[Zhan]

Ah, okay, thanks.

Did you do the same thing you did with the BPV for the PCV connection as well?

 

[ZenProtege]

yup

 

[Zhan]

Awesome. Oh yeah, how long is the transition coupler?

 

[ZenProtege]

http://www.hightempsilicone.com/product/HTS225275T43BL

 

[Zhan]

One more thing: What's your intake piping like, as in length, bend, etc.? Is it different from mine?

Edit: Also, doesn't the filter end up right in front of the radiator fan? Are there any detrimental effects because of this and if so does the shortened tubing make up for it?

Thanks, ZenProtege, you've been a lot of help to me. (thumb)

 

[ZenProtege]

Your piping looks very similar to mine, thats why I thought you should make it a SRI.

When I initially made the intake I had the maf on there and I was able to angle the intake down under the tranny to where the tip of the filter was resting on a air vent for the underguard. when I moved my maf to the pressure side it made the intake 6 or 7 inches shorter and so I couldn't do that. If I try to make it point down like it used to the air filter hits on some sort of shift cable for the transmission.
I wish it was like it used to be but I'm keeping my maf on the pressure side so long as I open vent.

 

[ZenProtege]

The fan on your intercooler side is the A/C condensor fan. It only kicks on w/ the A/C

 

[Zhan]

Downwards? Wow, very ingenious. So it was like a pseudo-SRI-slash-CAI? (boom05)

Anyways, I'm gonna try to do this tomorrow, if I can find all the materials at Home Depot or some store like that. Otherwise, it may have to be a while because of Hurricane Wilma and school projects and homecoming, etc. I can't wait, though. (cheers)

 

[Zhan]

I ordered the silicone reducer on Sunday (and a breather filter as well), and when that arrives I'll head to Lowes and do the intake that afternoon.

Just wondering, though, did you have any problems with hydrolock? I looked at how the intake would be placed if turned downwards the other day when I was changing tranny fluid, and I noticed that if the filter were to rest on the plate under the tranny then it would be about level with the centers of the wheels... Which looks VERY low to me.

 

[ZenProtege]

Yeah, It scared me
only the tip of the airfilter would see much if any of a puddle unless I was in some deep standing water. If I ever got into water deep enough to totally submerge the cone filter i probably would have fried the maf before the water got far, so I assumed that as being a safeguard as well. I also doubted an intake would suck up water if only a small portion of it was in standing water.