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Homemade intake

Mavericks Choice

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Holden spent $1billion on R&D for the VE commodore, that includes developing that intake pipe.

You spent $6 at Bunnings on some PVC pipe and it works better?

Discuss.

Your correct but I reckon credit due to the Op making the DIY intake & if that's what He wants well so be it!

Cheers
MC
 

Grennan

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Holden spent $1billion on R&D for the VE commodore, that includes developing that intake pipe.

You spent $6 at Bunnings on some PVC pipe and it works better?

Discuss.

"Better" depends on where you look at it from.

Quieter and more flexible, Holden's ribbed piece of **** wins.

A free...er flowing intake, Bunnings might win. However, the gains will be minimal if anything and the angles on some of those bends in the DIY one look fairly bad.
 

radrat085

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Looks good, thinking of making a custom intake pipe for mine.

Just a quick question, What did you do with the breather hose from the original plenum?
 

Sabbath'

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Now you just need a leafcatcher for under the front bar
 

Jesterarts

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"Better" depends on where you look at it from.

Quieter and more flexible, Holden's ribbed piece of **** wins.

A free...er flowing intake, Bunnings might win. However, the gains will be minimal if anything and the angles on some of those bends in the DIY one look fairly bad.

Beat me to it!

Exactly what Grennan said. Holden had objectives that are not the same as the OP therefore the OP's system may be better for his application.

That plus if someone walked into a Holden showroom and found the OP's plumbing (literally) under the bonnet, it would be frowned upon. So end finish and mass production capability comes into it too :p
 

thestig

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Your kidding right?

Maybe you guys can go explain to the tafe teachers your theory.
Done my trade and have been a tradesman for 10 years now.

This theory is valid on N/A

Ask your self this question why are golf balls not all smoothed they have all little holes all over them.
A golf ball that will be smooth all over wont travel as far a as the turbulent ball.
Thats all i have to say.

The dimples on the golf ball provide two effects, they increase Magnus Lift, and they increase Induced Drag. In practical terms this means:

1. They make the ball travel further due to an increase in Magnus Lift. A driven golf ball has backspin. Backspin causes lift. A back spinning smooth ball experiences less lift than a back spinning dimpled ball. This makes the ball increase in height during the initial part of its trajectory, extra height means more air time, which means a longer drive. As the ball travels further its spin slows due to the friction of the air and the lift decreases accordingly, as does the drag, meaning the dimples have less effect in the later part of the trajectory.

2. This is the same reason you have to drive very precisely as any side spin has an amplified effect and this is what makes the game of golf such a futile pursuit.

I cannot see how any of this relates to a very spurious comment about turbulent flow in an intake. Any turbulence is caused by parasite drag (ie form drag and interference drag). These are caused by any disruption to smooth laminar flow and a breakdown of a boundary layer against a solid surface. Any disruption to flow would decrease volumetric efficiency and hence power and fuel efficiency.

The reason intake tubing connectors are ribbed is because they need to be flexible to stop transmission of engine vibrations and noise to the shell of the vehicle. If they are flexible they will deform under vacuum, if the ribs are perpendicular to the flow it ensures no deformation takes place, whilst maintaining flexibility in the plains needed.

In short they are cheap effective solution with minimal relative drawback.

L8r
 

thestig

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The best tool for a tool

So if we were to beat your head in with a baseball bat, and then cut it off and lob it over a fence....you're saying it would go further than if we just cut it off and threw it without beating it in?

I really like the dimpled head / baseball bat idea... but don't you think golf is more than enough "sport" in a forum about cars? It would be more efficient to dimple and hack off the head with a 9 iron.

You could then drive away over the fence to test your theory without changing "tools", in either sense :) No need to mention anything American either.

L8r
 

monkeyboy

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Looks good, thinking of making a custom intake pipe for mine.
Just a quick question, What did you do with the breather hose from the original plenum?

I cut of the 90 degree connector and fitted an extra length of hose to the original breather hose. I then drilled a hole in the new intake and fitted the extended breather hose into the hole. If done right, it's airtight.

A free...er flowing intake, Bunnings might win. However, the gains will be minimal if anything and the angles on some of those bends in the DIY one look fairly bad.

Not sure where those pretty bad bends are...the rubber rings can make it look more crooked than it actually is at certain angles though. The original intake has a 90 degree bend like the one I made...and the only other angles are a 15 degree connector and a 22.5 degree connector (with a short length of straight pipe in between). So my intake is practically identical in shape to the factory one...with an addition bend of a 15 degree bend...which is bugger all really. When you hold the new one next to the old one they are practically the same shape. The main thing I wanted to achieve was to get away from the noise suppressing chambers and turbulent airflow characteristics of the factory version.
As far as minimal gains, only a dyno result will prove or disprove that. It should gain as much as any aftermarket, free flowing intake pipe.

Holden spent $1billion on R&D for the VE commodore, that includes developing that intake pipe.
You spent $6 at Bunnings on some PVC pipe and it works better?
Discuss.

That's a fair call. Holden designed an intake that was the cheapest to mass produce, has the lowest intake noise and is designed for a relatively sedate and controlled throttle response. I'm NOT interested in any of those things :) What I want from an intake is quite different from what Holden want to provide the masses...and that's fine because I'm not a car company trying to mass produce a product for the lowest overheads but a dude trying to get as much air into his engine as possible.


Looks good champ. Did you change the filter aswell or left the stock one ?

It's connected to the Growler which has a big pod in it. The car also has pacemaker headers and a full X-Force 2.5" exhaust. So it should be sucking in and expelling gases as effectively as possible.

Cheers for all the compliments and positive feedback fellas. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I got a kick out of making it and I'm very happy with the results so far. The intake sound alone is worth it :)
 
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