New plenum and intercooler. (contains pics)

[JimX]

This is a message I typed up on Overclockers. Thought some people here might be interested too

Well, I managed to scrape some money together and pick up my car a day early. It ran rather late because the plenum is far from a perfect fit, and the guys at Hills had to do a lot of fiddling around getting it just right. When I got there they were playing around with the intercooler piping and the idling. But it's all back in one piece now.

Didn't have time to do a dyno run, but I'll try to get them to squeeze me in when I take it back tomorrow for 2 new front tyres and a wheel alignment. Oh, warning kids: Don't be stupid like me and forget to do a wheel alignment after you lower the car. Less than 10000km later I'm down to the metal belts on the inside of the front right.

*sigh* It's not the sort of thing you notice if you can't see the inside of the tyre easily at a glance. I check the tyres fairly regularly but I never really got a good look at the inside edges. A hard lesson well learned.

Thanks very much to the guys at Hills Motorsport, I don't think you'll ever meet a more bunch of dedicated mechanics that REALLY know what they're doing. This plenum was such an unknown and problematic factor that I think most other workshops would have thrown it out and told me to never come back

Oh, and how's the power now? Well, accelerating in a perfectly straight line, hit about 5500rpm in 2nd gear and the rear stepped out. I got scared :eek: Edit: hmm where's the eek icon?

Here's some pics. Yes I know the rocker covers look shite, thanks to the previous owner. I'll try cleaning them up on the weekend. The rest of the pics can be found here.

[Lunatic Dancer]

nice work jimx...thats a pretty unique shape of a plenum how well does it work compared to other a/m ones? sweet partition also dude....did u make that urself or bought?

[JimX]

It's a homemade job, I bought it off GR8NES for $500. I don't imagine it works quite as well as the one made by Hills Motorsport, but it was cheap and it does the job

[DAMQIK GTS-T]

Looks Sweet,

Only one problem that I can see, the pipe that used to go to the tappet cover breathers to the turbo inlets has been removed and blocked at the turbo enterance thats fine but ensure that the bung blocking inside the flex rubber tube is NOT plastic as my car had this, well some months after fitting it melted and the turbo ate it dinging up the impeller. took me ages to get the melted & screaded plastic bung out of the i/c.

Regards Damqik

[Lunatic Dancer]

ehhe.....lookin at a bit more looks like a muffler off a bike

[B-Man]

Looks good Jim - I thought you got a Hills plenum, but then I re read the post . he he. I was thinking...that doesn't look like mine.....Nice Aluminum welding there - Hills are tops at that !!

Cheers.

[JimX]

Nah I just got them to do the work and they were absolute magicians with it. When I bought my home made one 2nd hand I found out a couple of days later that Hills made their own Actually from one of your posts I think

Oh well, it'll give me something to upgrade in the future. Mine was intended as a cheap upgrade and I already went way over budget with the new intercooler. I don't regret doing that at all though.

[sik32]

do you feel you have lost power down low ?

thanks

[JimX]

Hard to say. The throttle is a lot more responsive down low and because of this it's hard to tell if the power is any less. But I'd say it's not very noticable either way and I'd rather have the better throttle response.

[sik32]

so would you say there is a big differance up top or a just bit???

Thanks mate

[GTS-t VSPEC]

I have the Greddy plenum and I get a fair bit more up top than I did before, it keeps pulling past 7000rpm, where most R33's have run out of puff:D

See'ya:burnout:

[JimX]

Sik32, there's more all through the entire rev range. So there is a lot more up top, but don't forget I also had a new intercooler put in to replace my old restrictive one. It was a combination of the 2 that gave me a hell of a lot more power.

Also, the more I think about it the more I think there's gotta be more power down low. The bog-down effect I had previously was partially because of throttle lag, but now I'm sure mostly it was because it had less power. You could feel the engine sort of almost stall before, and I'm sure that has to be due to less power rather than a delay in the throttle response.

If you have a front-mount intercooler and have the spare funds, I can't see any reason not to get a forward-facing plenum. It will definitely improve your throttle response, and alomst certainly add 10-20kw to your power.

I still haven't dyno'd it, the guys were too busy on Saturday I'll get it done when I get the new fuel pump put in and the S-AFC re-tuned.

[JimX]

Oh, here's a couple more pics that I took today after I cleaned up the cam covers.

Edit: Note the new position of the crankcase breather with the zip tie around it. It fell off! I looked under the bonnet last night and thought I had lost it forever, then I noticed it wedged down the side between the guard and heat shield or something. God knows how long it was there, I went for a very long drive on the weekend!

[Ronin 09]

GTS-t VSPEC, a couple of qns as i'm looking at doing the same on my R33 (Greddy intake plenum, FMIC with custom piping).

1. are you using the original throttle body, or an aftermarket one?

2. where have you plumbed your BOV? I plan to use the existing plumb-back factory valve

3. With the Greddy plenum can you use the existing fuel rail and injectors?

4. does the washer bottle need to be relocated?

Cheers in advance.

PS JimX, any dyno comparison yet?

[GTS-t VSPEC]

Ronin,

I am using a custom 90mm throttle body, but it is possible to use the original one with an adapter plate. I'd recommend going the Infinity throttle body, as it is designed to fit the plenum:D

I have an after market BOV mounted prior to the throttle body.

I'm still using the existing rail and injectors, but now there is heaps of room for a top feed:

I have relocated my washer bottle, due to my intercooler piping.

[Ronin 09]

Thanks for the help, GTS-t VSPEC

[GTS-t VSPEC]

That's alright, I'll send you the bill:p

[MrMayhem]

Nice one Jim

[JimX]

Ronin, no. There's currently a BIG delay on even mild mods for my car now, probably won't get anything done until after winter. I've gotta upgrade my computer a bit for tax purposes, and then I've got my insurance policy renewal coming up in July. I'm scraping every penny that I can together.

After that the fuel pump will go in (possibly with a regulator as well) and the S-AFC will be tuned and the dyno results posted. I'll do a new post about it when it's done.

Gee, I hope this 044 fuel pump works! Or that I get it installed before the warranty expires

Oh, and thanks MrMayhem

[Steve]

JimX, another reason you probably found better response is you have cut down the lenght of the pipework by heaps (50%ish) = alot less volume of air to be moved before the fun begins:)

Engine bays look so much neater with a front facing plenum too:D

nice work