Frank,
I think I might have seen this car in West Wales( Haverfordwest) round about the time of the centenary events.
It was in car park, so I only got a cursory look at it but what did strike me was the way the filter elements were attached to the outside surface of the bonnet

The filter boxes themselves were flat 'pan-type' and looked very much like those often found on MGBs using the twin SU set up
Like you, I had no way of seeing under the bonnet so couldn't find out what- if anything- there was bewteen the fdilter box and the actual air intake to the venturi

On a very personal note, I wasn't too keen on the aesthetics

regards,
G

Sorry again. I started our conversation by asking 'what he had under the bonnet' but he never did say. Just appologised for not being able to take off the filters. I dont think he wanted to tell me.

G, I never thought about that. I think the runner tube is at its maximum length and maybe I should take it off. It was an experiment and for my kind of driving I would probably have difficulty determining any improvement. The next thing I am going to try though is Leda shocks> I spoke with a very helpful chap there who asked questions about sprung and unsprung weight and said they would build me a bespoke set. My car has slightly more weight than when it left the works but its just the roll bar so that can.t be much and I'm as light as a feather-ish. Meabh.

Hi,

I've found your thread an interesting read, although I have an older 4/4 with carb'ed CVH, which I have replaced the restrictive standard pancake and box with a Pipercross free flow, looks good, intake roar is nearly as loud as the exhaust! But the reason for me chipping in is, the old system took air from an opening next to the rad, about 2" dia, and ducted in. Is this feasible on your newer cars?

rgds

In fact Nick, that is just the problem with my injected Zetec engine It's a silvertop and the packaging is pretty rough and ready. My inlet duct starts about 4-6" behind the rad on the passenger side inner wing and runs aip to the bulhead where it decants into an air filter box ( ex MG Maestro, would you believe!) The runner is too long an I am convinced that it is giving turbulent flow which might be losing me a bit of power

You can see it here:

http://www.talkmorgan.com/ubbthreads.php/galleries/34714/Polished_expansion_tank_bottle

regards,
G

PS I'm a cynic- I distrust intake roar as a measure of power!

The CVH model cars is a little better as it actually has an oem ~55mm duct through the inner wheel-arch from which the intake is fed.

That said there seems to be a lot of nasty abrupt bends in the Zetec inlet system.... surely a smooth radius using something like a CDA inlet system would be better even if the routing was the same.

http://www.bmcairfilters.com/infoCDA.asp

Just mount the barrel filter just in front of the heater... Duct the air round in a single smooth radius to the filter housing then onwards to the inlet manifold throttle body assembly.

Got a pic?

Andrew,
This very much mirrors my own current thoughts. I looked hard at the BMC and then switched to ITG's Maxogen. At the moment, we're still looking at the siting/routing issues . One thing for sure, I need to take out what is in effect a nasty right angled bend at the air filter body.
I'll put up a post as I go along
regards,
G

If you get the chance, use a 70mm intake through the inner wing to access the high pressure zone under the wing. The runner lenth will help smooth out any buffeting and provide a cold, positively charged feed to the engine.... just make sure it's sited well in comparison to the wheel (spray) maybe fabricate a protective shield.

I'd be very interested in a solution for the blacktop 1.8 Zetec. This has a standard Focus filter box mounted ahead of the engine, fed by a corrugated hose which extends downwards about 50cm to just below the rad. The outlet of the filter box is connected directly to the MAF, then an "elephant trunk" about 50cm long carries air to the single throttle body. There are lots of bends in this system, though the elephants trunk appears smooth.

I replaced the standard Ford panel filter in mine with a K&N filter, and it did make a small but noticeable improvement, with no change in intake noise.

Presumably an ITG Maxogen system or similar could be fitted, to replace the Focus filter box, but would still require a feed hose, and the MAF housing would have to be accommodated too. I wonder if the Pipercross universal system could be used?

http://www.pipercross.net/fastroad/products_universal.asp

Nigel