Ram-Air Intake

[blackout]

I'm fabricating a ram-air intake this winter.  Here is the ram-air intake plenum.  It bolts to the Hordpower velocity stack plate.  More details to follow.

[mossrider]

Schwing.

 

[norcal616]

Grabs some popcorn... I'm interested in how it turns out... 

[Evill_Ed]

Cool!

[fzar]

This is going to be the Bee's Knees. pass the popcorn FFS.

[godoy.rafa]

@blackout what about that fairing? Did you do it or is it aftermarket?

[blackout]

1 hour ago, godoy.rafa said:

@blackout what about that fairing? Did you do it or is it aftermarket?

It's 2017 R6 bodywork that I modded and installed myself last winter.  There is a build thread on here.  Now that the 2019 R3 bodywork looks cool and has the ram-air opening as well, that could be a better fit for the FZ-07.  I almost used 2017 R3 bodywork, but did not like the look much and I new I was going to do ram-air down the road. 

 

Side note, the 2019 R3 does not have ram-air.  The front inlet supposedly directs more cooling air to the radiator.  Well that is what I heard on You-Tube anyways.  

[blackout]

1 hour ago, godoy.rafa said:

@blackout what about that fairing? Did you do it or is it aftermarket?

Here is the build thead on installing the R6 bodywork.  The biggest issue was that I had to add height to the side fairings or I would be forced to run a clip-on setup too low for street and track.  The 2019 R3 bodywork may be taller.  If I ever wreck this bodywork and have to buy new, it will most likely try 2019 R3 bodywork.  

 

 

[mossrider]

Mad respect for a guy with tener cojones to jump in the deep end!

An idea and the will to see it through despite what others thought. I watched the exhaust build, the fairings and now this, SICK.

 

Imagine this attached to a set of freshly bored throttle bodies and a ported head with cams, covered in a set of race fairings, going up the front straight at Road America, hmmm...sorry for the daydreaming.

 

[sansnombre]

Hmm . . .  sorry to be the naysayer here, but methinks the increased coverage over the filter, limiting ambient freeflow, will significantly limit throughput at all but the highest speeds. Also, the design of the sole intake to a single side will be a negative as well - can you do it bilateral? This is a very small plenum/airbox volume . . . .

 

I believe that only at very high speeds will you see an increased plenum pressure enough to offset the reduction in free flow, and I'm concerned that having it single-sided might cause an issue with balancing of the two cylinders as well.

 

But, as others have said, I love your work, and more power to you. Would LOVE to see a before and after on a dyno run, but then you'd need a wind tunnel to simulate real-world stuff and the ram-air.

 

Anyway, good luck to you. We'll be watching. Cheers

 

[blackout]

11 minutes ago, sansnombre said:

Hmm . . .  sorry to be the naysayer here, but methinks the increased coverage over the filter, limiting ambient freeflow, will significantly limit throughput at all but the highest speeds. Also, the design of the sole intake to a single side will be a negative as well - can you do it bilateral? This is a very small plenum/airbox volume . . . .

 

I believe that only at very high speeds will you see an increased plenum pressure enough to offset the reduction in free flow, and I'm concerned that having it single-sided might cause an issue with balancing of the two cylinders as well.

 

But, as others have said, I love your work, and more power to you. Would LOVE to see a before and after on a dyno run, but then you'd need a wind tunnel to simulate real-world stuff and the ram-air.

 

Anyway, good luck to you. We'll be watching. Cheers

 

There will be no filter in the plenum.  My filter will be up in the front fairing.  The race setup will run no filter.  My calculations show a single inlet will feed 125HP easy.  Single inlets are done all day long on race car setups.  But then you had thought the filter was still in there, so I see where you are going, but no filter in the plenum. 

[mossrider]

If everything goes according to plan (never does) we should have some before/after numbers on this by the end of the month. Then onto the track for some extensive testing.

 

Woot!

[blackout]

Some technical details.

 

The box is made from .090" thick 5086-H32 sheet aluminum.  The strongest of the 5xxx series and more importantly, it's chemistry allows me to TIG weld it autogenously, with no filler rod.  This keeps the part lighter and just easier to weld.   I am new to TIG welding and the .090" was chosen over .063" to make my life easier.  Blow through is very easy when welding aluminum, so thicker is easier to learn on.  Once @mossrider does his testing, a lighter version might be attempted.  But with that being said, with the stock plastic air box being .187" thick in spots, it should be lighter than stock, but I have not weighed the two.  I did have to use filler rod when welding the 2.5" diameter 6063-T52 aluminum inlet tube to the box.  All 6xxx series aluminum needs filler rod to mix with the chemistry of the base material or you will get hot cracking.  And you can not get 5086 in tubes as it does not extrude well.  I did use 5356 filler rod, not 4043, so the box can be anodized black if I so choose to.  For what ever reason, 4043 filler does not take to anodizing.

[mossrider]

I modified my leaf blower to simulate high speed air when we put it on the dyno,

 

What could possibly go wrong...

 

 

To add, we've tried double runners in the past. We found that if you didn't keep them in identical airflows, which is almost impossible moving in 3 dimensions on track, you could almost pull a vacuum on the box. It's better to go with either ram air (high speed) or normal air (lower speeds) situation like this system.  

.02 engineering

Edited February 6, 2019 by mossrider

[blackout]

1 hour ago, mossrider said:

I modified my leaf blower to simulate high speed air when we put it on the dyno,

 

What could possibly go wrong...

I want video of that.    Put a block of ice in front of the intake end of the leaf blower.

[mossrider]

This should get it from back to front,

Rubberised, light, shapable wire loom, looks like nice stuff.

[blackout]

33 minutes ago, mossrider said:

This should get it from back to front,

Rubberised, light, shapable wire loom, looks like nice stuff.

Yes that will.  I'm welding up a simple aluminum front piece for you for that to attach to.  I'll share a picture when done.  But it'll be something rigid to secure the front of the hose to.

[norcal616]

Before using the aluminum bits that are welded up, leak test em by getting them into a water tank if you can temporary seal em up and put about 30psi of air into em, I see alot of stop/go in the weld beads, with aluminum you really don't wanna stop laying a bead from my experience... Leak testing em in a water tank will allow you to see the really fine like champagne bubbles..

[blackout]

33 minutes ago, norcal616 said:

Before using the aluminum bits that are welded up, leak test em by getting them into a water tank if you can temporary seal em up and put about 30psi of air into em, I see alot of stop/go in the weld beads, with aluminum you really don't wanna stop laying a bead from my experience... Leak testing em in a water tank will allow you to see the really fine like champagne bubbles..

There will be a few pin holes I'm sure.  Nothing that you can see day light through.  Not sure how a very small pin hole leak will affect performance in this application.  But thanks for the info.  I stopped at some of the tacks when I should have just welded straight over them, but it's the corners that were tricky.   You have to pull amps off with the foot pedal as you approach each corner or you start getting blow through.  And welding a round tube is not an easy task to do in one step.  

[fzar]

11 hours ago, blackout said:

It's 2017 R6 bodywork that I modded and installed myself last winter.  There is a build thread on here.  Now that the 2019 R3 bodywork looks cool and has the ram-air opening as well, that could be a better fit for the FZ-07.  I almost used 2017 R3 bodywork, but did not like the look much and I new I was going to do ram-air down the road. 

 

Side note, the 2019 R3 does not have ram-air.  The front inlet supposedly directs more cooling air to the radiator.  Well that is what I heard on You-Tube anyways.  

 

[blackout]

5 hours ago, mossrider said:

This should get it from back to front,

Rubberised, light, shapable wire loom, looks like nice stuff.

With a bracket you can hang this from your fairing stay to secure the ducting.

 

[sorkyah]

are you going to be worrying about heat soak on the tube/plenum as it runs over the engine and into the throttle bodies? 
i'm imagining that will only end up robbing torque until you hit the straights and can get cooler air into the motor. 

also, from my experience intake plenums generally work better as an elliptical/oval cross section to introduce a sworl into the cylinder when over 1bar(not sure how much you guys will be seeing that with this setup though.)

[blackout]

O-ring cord for sealing the plenum to the Hordpower velocity stack plate.

[blackout]

5 hours ago, sorkyah said:

are you going to be worrying about heat soak on the tube/plenum as it runs over the engine and into the throttle bodies? 
i'm imagining that will only end up robbing torque until you hit the straights and can get cooler air into the motor. 

also, from my experience intake plenums generally work better as an elliptical/oval cross section to introduce a sworl into the cylinder when over 1bar(not sure how much you guys will be seeing that with this setup though.)

No, I'm not worried about it, but if I was, I could have the plenum ceramic coated to reduce the rate of heat transfer.  The plenum is insulated from direct engine heat with the stock rubber throttle body runners.  And the air surrounding the plenum will only get slightly warm since it is an open area.  Not like an aluminum plenum on a race car where the hood and surrounding bodywork traps a massive amount of engine heat.

 

What I am wondering about with regard to heat transfer is the rear shock.  It is attached directly to the engine with direct heat conduction.  What happens as the shock oil gets warmer from engine heat?  Maybe nothing.  Maybe a change in damping toward the end of the race.  It's a design compromise.  With that being said, I love how Yamaha packaged the rear linked system.  It's a compromise that I would have taken as well.

 

The plenum shape is what packaged well and was easier to fabricate.  Shape is not my personal concern, but volume is.   Maybe add volume on the left side as there is a little more room, but there is no room on the right side to add volume.  With that being said, my plenum has more volume than the Hordpower filter.  Performance should be better than the Hordpower filter setup.  He did the time consuming dyno work to figure velocity stack design and length.  I'm just adding some positive pressure cold air.    Performace can only increase.  

 

Back to packaging, it's a tight fit in there.  You don't realize it until you start trying to make things fit.  I spent last winter trying to design a complete ram-air box with filter and there just is not enough room.  That's why my filter will be up front like the car guys do.

[sansnombre]

Of course, relocated filter . . . .

 

Problem solved.

 

Love the thread.