Last week in Part 4 (see
Negative Boost Revisited, Part 4) we showed you exactly where negative boosts (ie flow
restrictions) existed in the EF Falcon’s intake system. And now it’s time to get
rid of as many pesky negative boost critters as possible.
But first a brief recap.
We found that the chief flow restriction is the
airbox exit – over the few centimetres between the inside of the airbox and the
outlet duct, there’s a pressure drop of 6 inches of water - that’s nearly 38 per
cent of the total intake restriction! Next up on the smelly list is the flow
restriction to the airbox intake snorkel. The air reaches the intake snorkel
through the gap between the bonnet locking platform and the leading edge of the
bonnet and this intake has a pressure drop of 3.2 inches of water. Not far
behind in terms of restriction are the dual ducts that connect the airbox to the
throttle.
In fact, just about the only things that can stay
unchanged are the airbox and filter. The above graph shows that swapping the
standard air filter element for another better flowing one would achieve almost
nothing in terms of improvement. After all, of the total 16 inches of water
pressure drop caused by the intake system, just 1 inch was being caused by the
filter...
The Modifications
So where to begin? We started by working backwards
from the throttle body.
Gone was this dual duct, replaced with....
...the intake duct from a BA Falcon. The BA intake
uses a single, much larger diameter tube, with a resonant chamber tee’d off it.
The connection to the throttle body is normally maintained by a spiral spring
that slips around the ruber trunking, but to improve this seal we used one of
the original hose-clamps from the EF plumbing. The BA Falcon duct cost $35 from
a wrecker.
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Time:
5 minutes Cost: $35
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The BA intake stopped about 75mm short of the
original airbox, but that was no problem because the original inside airbox
pick-up was replaced with...
...this much larger duct. The original was unbolted
and a new duct made from 75mm plastic stormwater pipe. The end was heated over a
hot plate and then forced down over a small upturned bowl, flaring it into a
good looking bellmouth. Using a sanding roll held in an electric drill, the hole
through the airbox was enlarged slightly until the new pipe was a tight
push-fit. The pipe was cut to length to provide a good match with the BA Falcon
intake duct and then the PVC pipe was sanded smooth with wet-and-dry and painted
black with a spray can. Cheap and easy!
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Time:
60 minutes Cost: $8 (for the paint – already had the pipe)
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This standard intake snorkel to the airbox was
replaced with...
... another factory Ford part, this snorkel being
from a Tickford EL GT (Ford part number EFTVE 9A624A). We bought this part on
eBay for $45 plus freight. The intake mouth is much bigger than stock and the
body of the snorkel also is a little larger. The factory rubber bonnet seal fits
nicely around the new snorkel which screws straight into place.
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Time:
5 minutes Cost: $55
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But what about this small bonnet gap that feeds
the airbox intake snorkel – one that we figure is located in an aerodynamically
low pressure area? Well, the easiest way of overcoming that is to connect the
airbox intake snorkel to a high pressure area – like the one existing in front
of the radiator.
This new flow path was easily achieved by
installing a new 75mm diameter plastic pipe from adjacent the mouth of the
intake snorkel down through two plastic panels to the area in front of the
radiator. Heating and bending the plastic pipe gave a nice finish – easily
achieved with a heat gun or electric stove and some simple hand tools. To clear
some of the obstructions on the way, the pipe was also dented slightly – again
by using a heat gun and a tool to form the correct shape.
A forward-facing elbow was placed at the base of
this duct, with the mouth flared with the heat-and-bend technique. The elbow is
optional – just connecting the pipe to the area in front of the radiator will
allow it to pick-up high pressure air (see
Eliminating Negative Boost - Part 5
for how this approach was
followed on an Audi S4.)
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Time:
90 minutes Cost: $8
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Results
Previously, we’d recorded an intake system
pressure drop of 16 inches of water – that included the snorkel, airbox, air
filter and filter-to-throttle duct. As was stated earlier in this series, 16
inches of water pressure drop at full power is a pretty good result for a
standard intake system, in turn making it harder to create improvements.
But with the modified intake system, that full
power pressure drop was reduced to 9 inches of water – an improvement of 44 per
cent!
And we’re talking only about $100 and under 3
hours for all the intake mods. We also haven’t diminished the factory
quality of air filtration and the intake air temp has not been increased – in
fact, it’s now almost certainly cooler than previously. For those who don't know Falcon engine bays, the underbonnet view is
also close to stock.
Because the reduced intake restriction depends to
some extent on the fact that the car is moving through air, we were uncertain as
to whether to bother doing a dyno run. But since we needed a baseline for the
later mods, we put the Falcon on ChipTorque’s dyno anyway. And even in the dyno room
(which no way has the characteristics of on-road airflow) we still saw a
distinctive and repeatable gain of 3kW at the rear wheels.
On the road the engine now revs out more freely
above 4000 rpm and the throttle response at all revs is clearly sharper.
For under 3 hours of time and $110, success!
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The
dyno run was performed courtesy of ChipTorque.
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