General Supercharger Thread

Is that right? That's a f'n steal of a deal for carbon fiber intakes!! You should see the costs for E46 M3 carbon fiber intakes. More like $2600 USD and those are aftermarket. Good luck finding the OEM cf intake, gonna be closer to $4k+

 

RE: Straight Air.
I don't have a dog in the fight but on its face seems like a gimmick. The intake fabricator that sells them recommends placing this three or so inches before the MAF; the intake they provide had it about 1.5 inches from the sensor port.

I was also surprised to find this out but I know OEMs use it on some of their stock designs (a quick google search you'll find several examples of them).

I can't say if straighter air is a thing since I added the MAF tube with honeycombs at the same time I added the Stillen. I would probably need to log MAF voltage with and without one; not a test I'm willing to mess with at the time since it's a pain in the ass to disassemble and reassemble my intake.

I doubt they make a huge difference.

 

Just catching up. I don't think it will hurt anything.

 

From what I've seen they are used on turbo/centrifugal superchargers...kind of useless with roots-style since the rotors would affect the air flow afterwards.

 

True. The "demonstration" I've seen is where it is placed before the MAF, the voltage readings fluctuate less over longer time intervals (unless you let of the throttle).

 

It was covered above but the supercharger has nothing to do with it. The air straighteners are solely about improving the laminar flow across the MAF for more accurate measurement of the air, and subsequently more accurate fueling. A straightener becomes more important when there is minimal length of straight tubing before the MAF sensor which is exactly how these OEM intake boxes are set up. Air flow through a MAF tube is very similar to air through a duct or water through a pipe. I’m not claiming to have an engineer level of understanding, but I’m familiar with the concepts from prior education. I’ve seen similar devices in my field that serve essentially the same purpose (pump suction diffusers to straighten the water flow into centrifugal pumps, perforated diffuser plates in air handlers to get even airflow across evaporator coils, etc.) This is not a made up concept by someone in their basement who likes to play with aluminum honeycomb, it is employed in real life mechanical applications.

Attached is from one of my air balance books. It shows how many different pressure readings need to be taken in a round duct with a pitot tube to get the true average pressure in the duct due to turbulence which can then be averaged to determine the CFM. Even a small duct requires at least 8 different measurements to be accurate. The same test can also be done with an alternate tool called a hot wire anemometer. A MAF sensor IS a hot wire manometer.

 

What I meant to say was it helped with boosted air before the MAF...I edited and posted before proofreading. I would be interested to see some voltage logging before and after install if nothing else was changed. It could be beneficial...I shouldn't have said useless, I know it has it's applications.

 

Here is MRP's page on the issue. I don't have a before and after, landed on them looking for a 4.5 inch intake with Toyota MAF to replace the PS intake I replaced with the Stillen:
https://performancemrp.com/c-1389190-air-intake-components-air-straightener-screen.html

 

Looks like the scale on the Y axis is different. That skews the look of the charts.

 

Not really scaled, just shifted 5v on the vertical axis to keep things centered. The values did tighten up considerably on the chart after the straightener

 

I am talking about the horizontal axis. The first chart shows about 17 units of time. The second one only shows about 1.4 units of time

 

x, y it's too early lol.

 

Yeah good eye. Not sure what to make of the charts.

Less "jitter" overall I guess. As you point out X-Axis is compressed (if that is time) on one and elongated on the other.

I could see how one could cook the books on a test.

 

Screw it, I bought one

Looks like it's just a friction-fit? I wonder if you can braze it to keep it in place?

 

Not sure mine came pinned in their 4.5 inch tube.

I think they have recommendations on how to install one on their site. If not I've seen some YT videos of how to do an install.

 

Ahh, I see...it looks like they use aluminum rivets, shouldn't be too hard to do.

 

fwiw, the original tube I ordered didn't come with a straightener. Still waiting on the 3d printed stillen adapter to order a custom tube from MRP

 

Yeah they sell two versions of it. One with the straightener and one without.

 

What are you doing with the tube you ordered lol

 

Was gonna return it lol

 

Working shiny stuff today

 

Which one did you get again?

 

It's not gold.

 

4.5" straight through

 

Ah ok. Was gonna say if its the 4" I'd take it

 

Digging through this thread wanting an S/C but someone talk me out of just getting a TRX

 

trx is nice

There are a few in my neighborhood

I like the ones without all the stickers

 

What's the resale on a dodge like compared to a Toyota? That's always kinda how I end up looking it.

 

it’s quite good on the TRX since they are low-volume, similar to the TRD Pros. I have a lead on one for $10k below MSRP, definitely don’t need it but the want is bad.

 

Turning out pretty good. Have plenty left over still