CAI for triple Mikunis

[madkaw]

So after looking around for while for an air filter system for my Mikunis I have decided to make a cold air intake set-up instead. There seems to be very little choices for CAI for triples-make your own or pay 400$+ for a TMW fiberglass box. Being a cheapskate and a father with bills I have decided to take my time and make my own-with a twist;)--I'll elaborate later.

For now, I have been lurking around and seeing what else has been made by my fellow Z'ers. It seems that SS is the material of choice for a heat shield, I guess because it doesn't transmit heat as much as aluminum. For now I have made mine from aluminum, but plan on using a some kind of heat barrier material on top of the aluminum. I have been suprised to see a lot of set-ups that do NOT use any additional material-just the SS shield. IS that enough? For those of you that have used a heat barrier material-did any of you find some double foil sided stuff. Almost everything I have found has a sticky sided and a foil side. The way I understand it the foil side needs to be on the heat side-which doesn't work for my set up. So I have been looking for double sided that I can fasten down.

I have also noticed that a lot of heat shields are installed flat against the carbs-no air gap. Am I just too anal, but it seems to me that you would want a air gap to help with heat reduction.

I did find out that Mikuni's have a particular situation issue that you have to work around----Accelerator pumps. They have quite the throw on the linkage. I decided to punch holes thru my shield to allow the rods to go thru. I might put material over the holes with room for the linkage afterwards.

Anyway, here are some picks of what I have started with. The great part about this project is that most of material was given to me!! The backing plate your looking at is made from a railroad crossing sign that my motherlaw gave me. As a locomotive engineer my motherlaw thought it would be a cool gift to hang in the garage-all I thought was WOW-that's some nice aluminum, what can I make out of that. Well you can see what I decided on. Hell I have enough to make a couple more. That stuff is thick enough to make a pressurized box:cool:

[chachacourt]

<a href="http://s347.photobucket.com/albums/p450/chachacourt1/?action=view&current=024.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p450/chachacourt1/024.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Hey Madman, I had to settle for those after a guy could not produce one for me.

[madkaw]

I really wanted a CAI for my Mikuni's, but the choices are slim or costly. I like improvising and was trying to come up with a CAI that I wouldn't have to fabricate from scratch. Looking at the valve cover I realized that the size was right for an airbox, and as far as cosmetics, I think it fits. Some might think its hokey, but I like it and it should work well enough. I still have a lot of clean up and polishing to do, but it has been one of those enjoyable projects.

I just need to get my 3" piping to finish my mock up. I should be able to come off with some 45 elbows to get the pipe out in front of the radiator. The most expensive part of this project was paying a welder. I don't have the means to weld aluminum, or this project would have been next to nothing as far as costs. Between paying the welder and piping I will have 250$+ in this. The TMW box is 400$ plus then you would also be buying your piping.

[doradox]

I like it. Definitely unique.

Steve

[beermanpete]

Nicely done. I like it.

[Zedyone_kenobi]

I think its brilliant!

Very good thinking and using what you got. Here is the question, are there any performance gains from this?

[madkaw]

Cold air intakes have been proven to gain power by getting that denser air to the engine. It should be a better arrangement than a standard air filter sucking hot engine compartment air. I plan to try and prove this at the dyno with two separate runs -one with and one without the CAI. My goal is to isolate the induction system from heat as much as I can. Heat sheild on the triples, fuel lines away from the engine, cold air to the carbs, all should pay small dividends towards power.

[madkaw]

I just realized that I never updated any pics of my Mikuni CAI

[MKI4EVA]

Hi would you mind sharing how the induction sounds is like now?.......

[gnosez]

Style and concept points - 100!! Imagination - 100!! Workmanship 100!!

Airflow design - not so good. The reason the TM box is slanted towards the back is so the back carbs have the same air velocity as the one in front. An internal baffle would allow you to get this effect without having to change your design. I would also consider shorter velocity stacks/horns.

[LeonV]

Style and concept points - 100!! Imagination - 100!! Workmanship 100!!

Airflow design - not so good. The reason the TM box is slanted towards the back is so the back carbs have the same air velocity as the one in front. An internal baffle would allow you to get this effect without having to change your design. I would also consider shorter velocity stacks/horns.

I see no good reason to go to shorter air horns.

[madkaw]

I appreciate the compliments and if I make it to Zcon- hope you are judging;)

As far as airflow, I think we might be splitting hairs. There is an abundance of volume in that CAI and I have seen no signs of lack of air. Whenever I get around to dynoing this set up, I plan on removing the CAI on one of the runs to see if I am restricting airflow in anyway.

As far as induction noise, I believe this set up actually quiets the intake noise. My exhaust is pretty loud to begin with. The only way to know would be to do a direct comparison to another triple set-up with just air filters.

Style and concept points - 100!! Imagination - 100!! Workmanship 100!!

Airflow design - not so good. The reason the TM box is slanted towards the back is so the back carbs have the same air velocity as the one in front. An internal baffle would allow you to get this effect without having to change your design. I would also consider shorter velocity stacks/horns.