ONe21

I started my BFI project the other day and I have several ways that I'm thinking of going. I have the top plate template made, and that's as far as I've gotten. I've been doing a lot of brain storming and I have a pretty good plan.

The part I need help with is deciding on what material to use for the top plate and side plates. The template is made out of like 1/32" vellum (basically, thin plexi glass), but it's sturdy enough to be used as the plate itself. The choices I have are as follows; thin polished aluminum sheet, thin titanium sheet, 3/16"-1/4" plexi glass, 1/4" graphite fiber (like carbon fiber) sheets, possibly thin carbon fiber or anything that anyone else wants to suggest.

I think that the vellum is going to be the least noticable, and the lightest. That is what I'm leaning towards. I don't know if I want to go with metal, because it might be too flashy.

I also have a question about the openning in the air box. On the intelexual website the guy cut out a big square hole in the face of the air box and that's all. For the second one, he cut 3 holes out of the face and put the bell mouth things in there.
I know that the latter is more presentable, but which one flows better?

I think I remember the guy posting pictures of it on here, but I'm not sure, maybe he can chime in.

P.S. here is a link to an old thread concerning this, for anyone considering doing this.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...&highlight=BFI

ChronoJ1

iTrader: (2)

Whatever is black. If you use the clear plexiglass, dust settling in the engine bay will be more apparent, plus it scratches easily.

verylost

I would just use whatever cheap metal you can find and spray paint it black with brarke caliper paint. I would also suggest the big square hole as opposed to the 3 smaller holes.

I am also ecstatic you aren't asking where to find those god damn egg cups nor are you importing them from the other side of the world. Thumbs up to you for being resourceful and creative.

Koma

iTrader: (3)

Airflow is negligible between the open face and the three bellmouths. I personally would go with the bellmouths because it looks better and may actually be better airflow because it is a bellmouth.
I would use a plexiglass top and anything that is heat resistant for the sides. With the clear top you can show off the bellmouths. If you're going with the open face route grained ABS plastic would look the most stock to hide the gargantuan hole.
I'm actually planning to do my own BFI fairly soon but I'm doing some massive research before I do any actual cutting.
First off the eggcup things are incredibly hard to find at a reasonable price. I have found a replacement but I don't want to say because I want to keep my idea original or at least until I'm done with my project.
The bottom scoop portion is a problem, I can't choose between the redirecting wall or just the entire bottom portion blocked off. I figure the redirecting would be best because it throws the air flow into the box.
I've heard that you might not need the three chambers because none of us have an Active or Turbo in the US. The only reason the three chambers were necessary were because the Active and Turbo have pipes in the way. But I figure all that there is a larger area to get air from.
And the thing they mention about bolting a plate on to lower something an inch, I have no idea what he's talking about and how I would go about doing it. I'd have to see it to know what he's talking about.
EDIT: Grammar...

verylost

Airflow is not negligible by going from the 3 small holes to the entire front being cut out. By cutting out the entire front as opposed to cutting out just 3 holes, you are almost doubling the cross sectional area. And from a few simple flow equations, doubling the radius you will raise the amount of air flowing through to the 4th power which is 16 times more air flow.

As for egg cups, you can use a small pet bowl found at any pet store or small metal baking bowls found at any supermarket.

Koma

iTrader: (3)

The planetsoarer actually says that the BFI3 works just as well. I trust that what they say is true because Scott invented the BFI.
The bowls are really hard to find in the right size. A baking bowl that small doesn't seem realistic and pet bowls aren't easy to find that small unless it's a bowl for a hamster. I've looked everywhere for a bowl with about 3-4 inches in diameter. I have found a substitute but I haven't picked them up and I'm not definite if it will work yet. We'll see.

jeremyp111

I built mine with a corflute plastic 'For Sale' sign I got from Home Depot. I used it for the bottom piece, top piece and side piece and 3" thick foam to fill in the gaps on the side. I painted the top piece black with SEM paint to make it look nice. By the way, I cut out a big square hole in my air box for maximum air flow instead of three smaller holes. Who cares what it looks like underneath the cover anyway? You can't see it! I have pics of it in a thread here somewhere.

Koma

iTrader: (3)

I just removed the snorkel today... that thing is awful to remove.
I haven't been able to test drive it because it's pouring out. Hopefully no water can get into the intake without the snorkel. I must remind you that I haven't done any other intake modifications besides the snorkel removal.
I removed it because I was replacing my parking lamp bulbs and I figured I might as well remove that damned snorkel while I'm down there. I ended up having to remove from the air box up to right after the corrugated tubing. And I had to yank the sucker out.

jeremyp111

Simply because the BFI intake is the best performing intake for the SC. Bar none. Proven on the dyno. Check it out at planetsoarer.com.

verylost

The pod style filters have been shown to cause a loss of power in the 1uzfe.

jeremyp111

There's no doubt that the K&N flows more air. The reason the BFI outperforms the K&N pod style filter is because the BFI takes cold air whereas the pod filter takes air that's been heated in the engine bay. You could put a K&N panel filter in place of the stock paper filter in a BFI for ultimate performance.

verylost

Not exactly, the stock intake tube seems to have been designed for best flow also. So an aftermarket intake like an injen doesn't work as well as the stock intake with bfi on a sc400.

ONe21

Go to the planet soarer website like everyone is telling you to do and just check it out. It's definately worth the 5 minutes it'll take to read about it.

You save a butt load of money and it will only take a couple of hours more than installing an after market intake (that is if you can get your head light to come off like it's suppose to--stupid head light). If you plan it out and take the time to think it through before you do it, you can make it attractive looking as well.

SCV8

The main reason the cold air helps the performance is because the intake air sensor is in the airflow meter, when this gets hot, the ignition timing gets retarded, power drops. If I didn't already have the piggyback ECU that seems to override that, I'd think about disecting the MAF and placing the sensor somewhere upstream, where it's cooler.
I've done this on other cars, and it helps the performance.
I started out with a modified airbox, went to an opened up airbox, then to a large filter with about twice the area of the original, small panel filter.
Made for a big difference over 4K rpm.

ONe21

I have some of that heat resistant paneling that they use in jet reversers and for extremely hot applications that I could use to make a box for the intake air sensor, would that make a big improvement?