Custom 3.5" Ractive carbon fiber style intake

[Bernanke]

Hey guys,

You know me, as usual i love to customize :devillook . i really liked the Ractive design for their head sheilded carbon fiber look intake. I liked how it was a true cone shaped filter and that the opening was 4" but i have Euro HFM kit so i wanted to do a 3.5" intake kit obviously. Therefore i ended up buying two filters, one was the ractive filter and another was a donor generic 3.5" blue mustang filter off ebay. Luckily enough the actual filter peice itself had an opening of 4.5" but it was the "stock" rubber coupling and metal base that were limited to 3". I took off the rubber coupling off the 3.5 mustang filter and transplanted it over to the ractive metal base but in order to do that i had to widen the opening to 4"-4 1/8" so it was time to ring out the ol' dremel. After about an hour of cutting and grinding it was finally done. Finally, I have ordered a 4" flexible bendable air duct that i will take from the opening of the ractive headshield down to the fogliht area and since its flexible i will be able to bend it to pass through the hole by the Euro Ellipsoids with no problem.

without further delay... i present the Ractive 3.5" CF filter :)

[Bernanke]

3.5" opening pic

[Bernanke]

inlet opening

[Bernanke]

and finally the scrap parts, you can see the left over air filter piece with the stock 3.0" rubber adapter and the extra material i took out of the base of the Ractive metal base.

[bigmansM]

If you like this blig, wait till you see our ram air kit that we are going to have come out. It will remove the fog light to bring the air directly to the air filter. there is also a brake cooling version as well. And of course, there is a metal finish or a carbon fiber option.

[Bernanke]

sweet, i can't wait to see it. i'll do my little custom one for now until that comes out. U know me, god forbid i have anything stock or "off the shelf". custom bore throttle bodies and custom intakes are the only way to go, ehh Todd ;)

[BMWg84]

If you like this blig, wait till you see our ram air kit that we are going to have come out. It will remove the fog light to bring the air directly to the air filter. there is also a brake cooling version as well. And of course, there is a metal finish or a carbon fiber option.

that sounds sick! keep us updated on that ram air kit!

[Nimble]

Ractive :rofl
Those are the biggest waste of money. I had one on my old rice rocket, what a piece of crap intake. :rolleyes

[Bernanke]

how is $10 a waste of money lol, somebody is alittle confused :confused , :lol :lol

[Bernanke]

here is a picture of the intake installed. As you can see from the two different views i have two choices, either going straight forward into the grille or going down toward foglight area. Now that i think about it there is a third choice if creating a custom molded Y pipe of some kind but that would be tough.

[Bernanke]

other angle

[badmonkey]

Well, at least your radiator looks a quality piece..




.......

[Bernanke]

thanks

[sendittoryan]

Is that a Zionsville radiator? I have the same one.

I personally am doubting that intake is creating any gains.

[Bernanke]

well the intake is not done, thats just part of it, i haven't finished the front part that will attach to the 4" inlet. right now its just another fancy hot air intake, i have to finish the front peice. once i do that it will be a true cold air intake WITHOUT a bend before the HFM therby allowing more accurate readings.

[tEckniks]

lol cf ractive intake... my friend had one.. biggest pos ever

but its only 10 bucks.. so not bad

[Bernanke]

ya i mean its a generic air filter, its not real CF, its not real K&N, but it is $10 and it looks better than all of the other $10 ebay filters and it won't ruin your HFM like real K&N (b/c of K&N oils) so it will do the job for now. It eliminates one of the big design problems that most intakes still have and thats the bend right before the HFM (intake bends on HFM cars can drastically alter readings), so at least design flaw is taken care of. I still need to address the cold air issue and once i do that i should be golden and it should be on par with most of the good intakes out there.

[e-famous]

ya i mean its a generic air filter, its not real CF, its not real K&N, but it is $10 and it looks better than all of the other $10 ebay filters and it won't ruin your HFM like real K&N (b/c of K&N oils) so it will do the job for now. It eliminates one of the big design problems that most intakes still have and thats the bend right before the HFM (intake bends on HFM cars can drastically alter readings), so at least design flaw is taken care of. I still need to address the cold air issue and once i do that i should be golden and it should be on par with most of the good intakes out there.

I'd worry about the quality of the filter... K&N gums up the HFMs, but it also keeps stuff out of your engine... cheaper filters do this less well. Have you looked into ITG filters at all? I think thats what Dinan uses on their filters.

edit: Umnitza sells ECIS heat shields (or they used to at least), that would solve your hot air problem.

[96technoM3]

So what is so different about the oil they use on a generic filter opposed to a K&N and how does a bend before the HFM alter readings? I wouldn't think that a smooth bend in the intake track would cause the air flow to be turbulent enough to cause poor volume readings from the HFM, if it did, wouldn't this be reflected in all the A/F readings from those with CAI's?

[fgraziano]

I'd be worried that the filter was actually too small for you engine.I know you said it's a "mustang" filter but are you sure that's not a 4cylinder 2.0l filter? Or is it actually a ford mustang filter? Just looks short to me.

[vjlax18]

Looks like a ROAR intake... that guy was laughed out of business IIRC.

[scottycs]

My intake has a bend, its flawed :help

do you have any proof to this? I am sure Conforti, AA, ECIS would all love to hear they made a major design flaw.


It eliminates one of the big design problems that most intakes still have and thats the bend right before the HFM (intake bends on HFM cars can drastically alter readings), so at least design flaw is taken care of.

[vjlax18]

Don't forget Dinan. :D

[badmonkey]

My intake has a bend, its flawed :help

do you have any proof to this? I am sure Conforti, AA, ECIS would all love to hear they made a major design flaw.


Not to mention BMW, the elbow inside the airbox *gasp* right in front of the HFM!

..

[vjlax18]

:rofl

[96technoM3]

:rofl

:D
I'm still curious about the K&N oils?

[vjlax18]

If you over oil your filter then, yes, some oil can pass through and get onto the HFM. But it's pretty hard to over oil it... I guess you'd have to dip it in bucket. :dunno

[scottycs]

exactly, when done properly there is NO problem.

[96technoM3]

exactly, when done properly there is NO problem.

I know. I was kidding around. Any gauze filter that uses an oil to help filter air is going to have a small amount of oil pass through. I think the oil gets caught by the bend in my intake though, so I should be alright. :stickoutt

[Bernanke]

Looks like a ROAR intake... that guy was laughed out of business IIRC.


ya their customer service was horrible, they got into legal troubles thats why, kept getting payments and not sending stuff out for months. bad bad guys :nono

[Bernanke]

hey guys,

today i took the car out and it definatey sounds alot better than the open air filter, alittle deeper roar, i like it alot. obviously its still not done but for $10 plus $10 for mustang filter i think it was well worth it.

[scottycs]

Tighten the small radiator hose, you have a small leak :D

[techno550]

It eliminates one of the big design problems that most intakes still have and thats the bend right before the HFM (intake bends on HFM cars can drastically alter readings), so at least design flaw is taken care of.

A bend is a problem before a HFM? As long as you get the air flow even before it gets to the sensor it shouldn't matter if the tube in front of it is bent or not. The grate is there to take care of some of that (mostly just the turbulence bit though). The drastic difference inreadings is from turbulence or differences in airflow velicities from one side of the tube to the other.

I'd be more concerned with the turbulent air that will be coming from the crappy air filter on the end of the MAF than a bent tube in front of it. I'd actually consider moving the air filter further away and putting a trumpet or at least straight piece of tube between the filter and the MAF. (damn, that sounds a lot like what BMW did inside that magical box...)


I'm not so keen on people randomly bolting stuff on their cars. I'm not saying that I'm against experimentation, just against blind tampering.

If you think "I should try to make the intake better" and then your execution involves Ebay, PVC, and Duct Tape, but not any semblance of math, then you are probably on the wrong track.

[Mad Dog 20/20]

:hotflash

Nothin' quite like faux fiber to spruce up the engine bay of an M3 . . .

[Bernanke]

heheh, where did u get that graphic?? i like!

[techno550]

Dammit mad dog, stop giving him ideas. now we're gonna see a thread in about a week saying "look what I painted on my valve cover". :stickoutt

[Bernanke]

A bend is a problem before a HFM? As long as you get the air flow even before it gets to the sensor it shouldn't matter if the tube in front of it is bent or not. The grate is there to take care of some of that (mostly just the turbulence bit though). The drastic difference inreadings is from turbulence or differences in airflow velicities from one side of the tube to the other.

I'd be more concerned with the turbulent air that will be coming from the crappy air filter on the end of the MAF than a bent tube in front of it. I'd actually consider moving the air filter further away and putting a trumpet or at least straight piece of tube between the filter and the MAF. (damn, that sounds a lot like what BMW did inside that magical box...)


I'm not so keen on people randomly bolting stuff on their cars. I'm not saying that I'm against experimentation, just against blind tampering.

If you think "I should try to make the intake better" and then your execution involves Ebay, PVC, and Duct Tape, but not any semblance of math, then you are probably on the wrong track.


bends in the intake cause turbulence too. thats why if you alter the position of the HFM it can change results WHEN there is a bend just before the intake, but if you dont have a bend you could put it at any position and readings would be the same either way. also the HFM screen smoothens out the air anyways so i'd rather have straight air passing over the HFM screen instead of air going around a bend. you can disagree if you like.

[techno550]

bends in the intake cause turbulence too. thats why if you alter the position of the HFM it can change results WHEN there is a bend just before the intake, but if you dont have a bend you could put it at any position and readings would be the same either way. also the HFM screen smoothens out the air anyways so i'd rather have straight air passing over the HFM screen instead of air going around a bend. you can disagree if you like.

Heh, I'm always allowed to disagree if I want. Its others that shouldn't be given the option to disagree with me. ;)

Laminar flow inside a bent piece of tube can lead to a vortex being formed. The result is then turbulent flow. Air in a bent pipe likes to swirl though, which is good. If the swirl is sufficient to have each bit of air make at least one full lap of the pipe in the bend section, then all the flow paths should be fairly close to equal. Swirl in a pipe though is good. (which is where the tornado got all its engineery-sounding marketing BS.) Especially in a bent pipe. then we straighten the flow for the MAF and it can be metered properly.

The flow out of a big elbow for the intake pipe before the MAF will likely be *laminar with a twist*. Air flow just behind an air filter will not be so pretty though. You don't have any well defined flow paths like you would on a panel filter. Its air not going the same way that creates turbulence. That cone inside the cone of that filter will just make things worse in that regard. (Though I bet its also low on the filter area front too.)

[Bernanke]

ya i need to finish it off and make it cold air to see what the results will be. It sounds better than just a open K&N but still hot air so no performance gain.