I finally picked it back up tonight and did a little more work to gain some time in ST2 while there is a three week break in the Sacramento Cup. It's coming together really well. Comments. Suggestions?
old thread https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/cutsom-intake-work-w-pics-s-532893/
New pictures from tonight after a primer coat and mounting. Perfectly level afm and perfectly inline with the composite elbow save an incline

 

that is pretty good. how thick did you make it? I hope it keeps the heat out maybe you could line the outside with aluminum foil and lay another layer of fiberglass over it, leaving the edge exposed 1" for the fiberglass to bond to itself. this way you would have an extra layer of heat deflection.

but great job on aesthetics and design and covering up that evil bottom gap.

I have a 3" aluminium duct hose coiled around the air filter which runs next to the radiator, up from the front bumper, drawing in cold air...it helps a bit, much better than the headlight vent.

 

The fiberglass piece is 3/16" in some parts and 1/8" where the mounting holes and low heat area's are. It will insulate plenty well. I've played around with the idea of using that super sticky aluminum foil tape for ducting but I'm concerned about the adhesion longevity due to the heat. Sandwiching it between the fiberglass won't work because you then lose the reflective properties of the foil that bounce the infared wavelengths away. I plan to utilize the stock intake duct as well as the duct on the front passenger side of the bumper to draw in air so flow restriction won't be a problem. Those headlight ducts are useless anyway. If you look at the aerodynamic profile of the car(and almost every other car) you'll see that the area where the healights are positioned is the largest low pressure zone on the car so no air would enter from that location anyway.

 

that's pretty much what i was inferring about the headlight duct, that's why drawing it up from the bottom is a good idea. you should hook up some type of temp guage and go heat up the motor, drive on the highway, pull over and quickly check the diff. in temps between the bay and your separated section.

 

Gave the car a little turn around the block after hacking apart my stock intake elbow. The butt dyno which accounts for approximately jack **** shows modest gains. I did not run a filter so that may account for most of the gains. Here is how far I've made it. Notice the intake elbow is still used at the last section so I can use the stock tubing for the BAC. I still need to make the last elbow for the connection to the filter and do some final grinding on the edge that interfaces with the hood. Other than that I'm very pleased with how it came out.
Sorry for the pic size but the view window on my camera is busted so I cant scroll though menus.

 

looks pretty clean.

 

Stoked!

 

if anyone is interested i have made a semi-custom intake on my vert, instead of hacking apart the stock intake elbow i used a 3.5-3 inch coupler off the tb and cut two holes in my intake piping and used two 90 degree AN fittings positioned to accept the BAC hoses that connect up


i can post some pictures, oh and im not trying to thread hack or anything im just trying to add to your topic, the heat shield looks awesome and i cant wait for you to make me one , but seriously, if you make these im the first on the list

1. tournapart

 

No fear about the threadjack I'd like to see pics of your setup. I only got the idea of using the stock piping when the contractor working at my house suggested trying to use it to save a step. It wasn't his intention to suggest I use it that way but it lit up the light bulb in my head and saved me a lot of work. I still have the foamboard plug I made to mold the shield but I'm all about the one-off so I don't think I'll be doing any sales. Though it's been suggested before hehe... I've been stewing over my design tonight. I just don't like rigidity of the piping between the engine and the box. I can only imagine the block torquing as I apply power at low rpm or quick engagement. I think it will pop off the piping or even worse cracking the air box. I might have to invest in a ribbed coupler or even two to the current setup. good thing that dryer tubing was only 5 dollars at home depot.

 

Updates:
Intake elbow is finally fabricated. This is made of aluminized steel and stainless filler rod. I only need to get to the inside with a die grinder to get any burrs or slag that came through durring the welding. I'm gonna smooth all the beads out since I have no good looking beads to show off. I am however surprised with the work. This was good practice with a tig welder and I really honed my skill with using two hands. I still have to practice more and get a steadier hand so I don't have to brace on the table and move one inch at a time on my work between picking up. This is one major hurdle.
Still to go:
Fit fiberglass box so hood can go down
Grind and bondo the inside of the pipe for smoother flow
Cut holes for various sensors
Fab up duct connecting to lower passenger side air duct (last big job)

 

wish someone would manufacture one for a decent price, hope it works out well, looks decent.

 

That's some good work there. The airbox is HUGE!

 

does look good but something i may suggest is to add in some flex to the pipe, after taking out the original rubber line and using the new steel one it may put too much tension on the box when the engine torques and crack it. i would hate to see it crack after so much effort put into it.

 

I had considered the flext of the engine. Has anyone quantified the amount of travel the engine experiences on soft mounts vs. hard mounts. I came to the conclusion that the countermeasures I took to counteract this would be sufficient. They included the following:
1. gaps of at least 1/4" between tubes
2. hose clamps separated as much as possible
3. floating mounting points on the box ie rubber grommets and steel flanges on stock box will be integrated into the box mounting points
4. stiffer motor mounts(these are allowed by scca st2 rules)
5. possibly using flex couplers for example

picture of the charge tube post filing and grinding. this whole time I've wondered why there isn't a quality intake kit for the fc and realized while filing that race parts are just plain expensive and the man hours already put into this project have exceded over 500.00. And what rx7 owner would shell out that kind of money for an intake

 

not sure, i would say the engine can torque an inch at least so you maybe should take off a little extra material.